Subminiature camera

Subminiature photography is photographic technologies and techniques working with film material smaller in size than 35mm film, such as 16mm, 9.5mm, 17mm, or 17.5mm films. It is distinct from photomicrography, photographing microscopic subjects with a camera which is not particularly small.

"Definition of Subminiature—very much reduced in size", Oxford English Dictionary. Subminiature camera is a class of camera very much smaller than "miniature camera". The term "miniature camera" was originally used to describe camera using the 35 mm cine film as negative material for still photography; so cameras that used film smaller than 35mm were referred to as "sub-miniature". The smallest of these are often referred to as "ultra-miniature". Lipstick cameras and other small digital cameras are not included, because they don't use film. The smaller subminiature or ultraminiature cameras, particularly Minox, are associated with spying. Half-frame cameras belong to the miniature camera category, as these use 35mm film. Some half-frame cameras, such as Olympus Pen F which is approximately 611 grams massive, are even heavier than classical full-frame miniature cameras, taking for example the Leica IIIf which is 428g.

There are many subminiature cameras. Minox, followed by Tessina, GaMi, Rollei, Yashica, Mamiya, Gemflex and Minolta are the best-known manufacturers. All made small, precision cameras and a few were still in production in 2006 but by 2011, only the Minox TLX model was still in production. Getting film and processing for most smaller cameras is a challenge as they are no longer manufactured or supported. Most require cutting your own film and home-processing.

The best known subminiature formats are—in increasing size—Minox (8×11 mm), Kodak disc (8×11 mm), 16 mm (10×14 mm), Super 16 mm (12×17 mm), 110 film (13×17 mm), 17.5mm for HIT camera( for example TONE camera),and the Advanced Photo System (APS) with different aspect ratios on 24 mm film. While many subminiature cameras were inexpensive and poorly manufactured (thus giving the format a bad name), Minox, Gami, Edixa, Rollei, Pentax and Minolta made quality cameras capable of producing fine results—even when enlarged. Some of these formats, or non-standard cartridges loaded with an otherwise standard ciné format, are best described as specialised (e.g., Minox); half-frame 35 mm uses standard 35 mm film; cameras such as 110 and disc were aimed at the mass market.

...
Wikipedia