Subminiature Cameras - 16mm Gallery

Why carry a subminiature? Well, to take photographs when you otherwise would never had had a camera with you and to get the shot that otherwise would be missed.

The scans have been done 200 dpi and are as they came from the prints, but converted from TIFF to JPEG. 
I used a Minolta 16 Ps extensively for 4 years (1971-75) - until I got a MG-s. I mostly used slides, and so I can only find only two negative films. The test film, which isn't particularly interesting and I believe a black and white film, because I needed an extra camera at the time for someone to take photographs for me.


Taken from a 10x14 slide - printed by a chemistry student at Chelsea University of  London,
this was the enlargement at the settings he was using to make posters from 35mm, but the colour contrast correct.

He then projected onto the wall, but couldn't get the correct balance and it was the only one he would try.
ps_harita_notts_71.jpg 

This one was taken  5 years later.

ps_harita_760818.jpg 

When I got the Minolta MG-s, and shortly after a QT, I used slide film in the MG-s and colour negatives in the QT. So I am guessing which camera took which photograph. Some years later I also used a Rollei 16s and that confuses the issue. If the film has no perforations I know it can not be the Rollei 16s and so where used in the MG-s or QT. Of the 100 or so films taken with the Rollei I can only be sure of those taken in December 1989 as I had no other 16mm camera on my 6 week trip in India.

This one is a 12x17 and is I believe using an MG-s taken at the front of Westminster Cathedral, London

mgs_harita_london_7609.jpg 

This I believe is with a Rollei 16s - Harita is holding the case of the Rollei, but I was carrying the MG-s (mostly likely had slide film in it). Taken at Manor Park, East London

12x17_harita_81.jpg 

My test film with an MG, an interesting camera, but not enough to take me away from the MG-s/QT pair. 

mg_newyear_79.jpg 

Not the best choice of cameras taken from a light aircraft but the 12x17 format isn't too bad - the Minox C ones are not as good. This is over King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

12x17_kingscolleage_82.jpg 

The black and white film shows less grain than colour negative, but I mostly use slides.

12x17_davinder_81_1.jpg 

mgs_davinder_81_2.jpg 

As I carried a camera with me at all times I was asked to take some end of term photographs. 1930s building, Dagenham, Essex. 1st Year (aged 11), top class of 15 students for mathematics.

mgs_1styrmathstopgroup_7807.jpg 

Bicycles and subminiature seem to go well together - this is the touring bicycle that I built up and the man who owned the shop (E.G. Bates, Newham, London) that  made the frame to my specifications for me. 

qt_egbates_81.jpg 

More with an MG-s; out and about in Cambridge

mgs_nian_rou_9503.jpg 

This is an MG-s taken in Milton, Cambridge. 

mgs_gbmcmullon_9504.jpg 

Ruins at Bury St Edmonds, England

mgs_burystedmunds_9508.jpg 

Holiday in Germany (MG-s/Minox C slides, QT/Minox BL negative)

qt_hamburg_7808_0.jpg 

qt_hamburg_7808_1.jpg 

qt_hanoverzoo_7808.jpg 

My first car. The car is called a 'Kitten', 850cc, hated hills and if tuned ran 60 miles to the Imperial Gallon.

qt_kitten_81.jpg 
 
and of kittens ...

qt_navneet_bhabuta_81.jpg

Taken from the front row - Nottingham Playhouse, England, without flash, of singer Najma Akhtar, 


qt_najma_90.jpg 

The 12x17 format is capable of a lot of detail and the grain (my pet hate) is lower than on other, smaller formats. Wedding, Bath England, 1981


qt_wedding_81_0.jpg 


qt_wedding_81_1.jpg 

By the time I used up the Rollei film it was already 6 or 7 years out of date. the black and white negatives are 'okay', not as good as the camera should show. The colour negatives lacked contrast and are dark. The slides I couldn't get processed and no one knew what developer they needed. I got nothing - a risk on out of date film. So here is at least one that I know is from using the Rollei 16s. Puna, India Dec 1989.

rollei_puna_8912.jpg 


Photographs donated by Gerald McMullon Copyright © 1971-1995

Last updated 24th June 2003