116 -> 120

[connealy]

I put another roll of film through my No. 1-A Folding Pocket Kodak Special after making some modifications to make it easier to use 120 rollfilm.



My inspiration came from a fine series of articles by Greyhoundman, who converted his Kodak box camera.



The easiest part of the conversion is the modification of the 116 take-up spool.  I made a couple washers from the rubber backing material off a mouse pad, cut them in half and glued them to the inside faces of the spool end disks.  The 1/8-inch thickness is just right to shield the edges of the 120 film against the light.  

For the supply-side, I made a film holder from a plastic Adox film can.  A hole in the bottom and another in the rubber disk holds everything in place securely, and the film comes out through the slit down the side.  Besides being simple to implement, this solution didn't require any irreversible modification to the camera.

The film rails need to be just an eighth-inch wider on each side to properly mask and support the 120 width film.  I used some black mounting board.  The first strip was made a bit wider so it would slide under the existing frame rails and help support the new ones.  On top of that, I glued two more 1/8-inch-wide strips, and these were also glued on the outer sides to the metal frame using hide glue.  The mounting board is tough stuff to cut, but using my mat cutter enabled me to make the strips thin and straight.

Greyhoundman hit on a nice solution to frame spacing with the discovery that relocating the red window to the center of the camera back enabled him to use the center row of numbers on the 120 backing paper; using every other number yields six non-overlapping frames per roll.  

I was reluctant to drill a hole in my nice old Kodak folder to get the proper frame spacing.  However, I found that the existing red window in the lower right corner of the back let me make use of the 6x4.5 framing numerals to get five evenly spaced frames using every third number, starting with number 3.

I'm not sure that I made any real improvement in image quality through the conversion, but the camera is quite a bit easier to use.  One problem that cropped up was that the film edge is closer to the red window, and I am presently getting quite a bit of light leakage onto that side.  I'll try painting out half of the window, and I'll also see if some well-placed foam light seal helps.

So, still a bit of work to be done, but I only have an hour or two into the project, and it turned out to be quite a bit easier than I had anticipated.

[Gene M]

Inspiring stuff as usual. Consider converting a DSLR to accept 828 film sometime. OK ?

[Don Day]

That's a nice job, Mike. I think your solutions for the takeup and feed holders are terrific, particularly since there are no mods to the camera itself. Your photos are lovely, really showing off the potential of the Rapid Rectilinear lens when well focused and stopped down enough.

The only solution I can think of for numbering the new roll would be to lay it out on a clean table in a darkroom and run a pencil along a notched yardstick, leaving little marks to see in the film counter window. But you are doing fine with  your present system because it does not involve touching a new roll at all, reducuing scratches and dust. I'd say to put up with the imprecise counting, given the other good things you've got going for you.  More NM panorams!

[josphy]

Mike, if you want to squeeze 6 shots out of a roll instead of 5, you can count by starting at 2+two "dots", and then wind to 5, 7+two dots, 10, 12+two dots, and 15.  If I remember correctly, the spacing is not perfectly even by doing that, but it works without any overlap.

[connealy]

It is useful to me to write up these little accounts of my experiences with the old cameras.  When I go back to look at them in six months or a year, I find that I've learned a few things along the way and I am encouraged to persevere.  I hope the articles are also encouraging to others like me who were born lacking the craftsman gene.  In fact, I'm thinking of pitching my web site as a TV show on the Red Green model.  Of course, I don't yet have his skills with duct tape, but I think it is something I can learn.  I'm wavering between two show titles: The Clumsy Craftsman, or The Crappy Camera Craftsman.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Let me know if you need a journeyman duct tape operator for your show. I also have years of experience with all other types of sticky glop.
When nothing else works, I can weld it. I gots talent, I tells ya. I been on de TV before, too.

[TravisM]

Wow looks like that tinkering paid off.  You should change your ID to Mcguyver........

[sandeha]

Good grief, that's excellent.

[Dean Williams]

Makes for a great landscape format, Mike, and it's a beautiful shot too.  Thanks for the info!

[P C Headland]

That's pretty damn good!

[edthened]

Och grate stuff

[Gene M]

Red Green kills me !

[ImageMaker]

I've got a 616 that's been partly converted to use 120 (I'm working on a field loadable conversion for the takeup side -- coming on two years working on this, so far, it's a pinhole camera and I don't have much call to shoot it).  I found it worked very well to put a strip of black tape over the outer half of the red window, on the inside (i.e. against the backing); this leaves enough to read the 6x4.5 numbers but keeps light from going around the edge.  I can vouch for the 2.5 frame winding; I've just used the first warning mark for the "half" frame position, this worked well with APX 400 and Classic 400, the only films I've tried in that camera.  There's plenty of space between frames, enough that this should work with any brand, and six frames is better than five (though they don't fit in horizontal negative pages no matter what you do -- they will work in the vertical, three-strip 120 pages, however).

I should start watching for a quality 116/616 camera; those are generally cheapish because of the film situation...

[connealy]

...I found it worked very well to put a strip of black tape over the outer half of the red window, on the inside (i.e. against the backing); this leaves enough to read the 6x4.5 numbers but keeps light from going around the edge...

That is pretty much what I have in mind for the next round with this camera.  Regarding the number of shots per roll, I'm willing to trade off a bit of film for the convenience of not having to deal with counting knob turns or spots on the backing.  Any way, I think these big old cameras are a real bargain, however you use them, and a lot easier and more practical to use than might be apparent at first glance.