The top of the camera has the aperture and exposure compensation dial, the hot shoe, the exposure mode dial, the shutter release and the battery check/self-timer dial. The lens has the focusing ring, the zoom ring and the macro mode switch.
The bottom of the camera has the battery compartment, the tripod socket and the film advance lever.
The front of the camera has the battery check/self-timer LED.
The back of the camera has the eyepiece cover lever, the eyepiece diopter adjustment slider, the film door and its latch.
The left side is pretty plain, with only a strap lug.
A hand grip and strap lug are on the right side.
The lens is an f/3.5-f/16 25-67 mm zoom (equivalent to 50-135 mm on a 35 mm camera). The zoom ring is marked at 25, 30, 40, 50 and 67 mm. Apertures are set by a knob on the top of the camera. Apertures are marked at f/3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 and 16. Click stops are at 1/2 stop intervals. The mormal close focusing distance is 1.1 meters (3 ft. 7 in.). With the macro function engaged the lens will focus from 200 mm to 890 mm (8 to 35 inches) to give 0.19x to 0.07x magnification. The lens has 12 elements in 10 groups, plus a macro focusing element that swings in when the macro function is engaged by moving the slider on the top of the lens.
The exposure mode is set by the dial on the top right of the camera. Functions are lock ("L"), auto ("A"), flash ("X"), and bulb ("B"). The lock setting turns off the camera and locks the shutter release. The auto setting lets the camera automatically set the shutter speed from 1/1000 second to 1/4 second according to the light level and film speed. The film speed is sensed by a feeler that reads a tab on the film cartridge and can be either "slow" (about 100) or "fast" (about 400). Flash mode sets the shutter to 1/125 second to sync with electronic flash. Bulb mode holds the shutter open for as long as the shutter button is depressed. The shutter button is threaded for a cable release. Pushing the BC-ST switch to the right starts the self timer. The LED flashes while the self timer is running. Pushing the switch to the left checks the battery. The LED lights to show that the battery has enough power.
The viewfinder has a split image focusing aid. Shutter speeds are displayed on the left for 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125 and 1/60-1/4 second. Small triangles light at the top or bottom to show over exposure or too low a shutter speed. An eyepiece blind is provided to block stray light from coming through the eyepiece when using the self timer. The eyepiece can be focused for -1.1 to +0.8 diopter correction by a slider above the eyepiece. Stronger clip-in correction lenses were available in the range -4 to +3 diopters.
110 film comes in plastic drop-in cartridges. The cartridge only fits one way. The film advance is by the lever on the bottom left of the camera. The film advance stops automatically at the next picture. When the roll in finished you wind the film all the way onto the take up spool and send the cartridge the lab.
Minolta made the Auto 118X flash to go with the 110 Zoom Mk II. The flash had one automatic range for 100 speed film and another for 400 speed film. There also was a manual, full power, setting. On manual the flash had a guide number of 18 meters (59 feet) with 100 speed film. When the flash was turned on and ready to fire, an extra contact in the hot shoe received the flash ready signal to automatically switch the shutter speed to the 1/125 X-sync setting and light a flash ready LED in the viewfinder.. The manual X-sync setting on the camera was for use with flashes that did not have the dedicated flash ready signal.
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