4x4 Superslides -- Which film and camera

MichaelM7

MichaelM7

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Hi everybody,

I recently browsed through the manual of my slide projectors (things you do when you are on holidays :) ) and found, that most of them are able to project "4x4 superslides" in addition to the normal 35mm slides. I have never come across one of those slides and wonder, which film and camera are (or where?) used to produce those kind of slides. Any ideas?

Greetings,

Michael
 
You can use any medium format camera with any 120 slide film. After the film is processed, you then have to manually cut/crop the film to fit into super slide mounts, which have the same outside dimensions as normal 35mm slides, but a larger window.
 
I believe 127 is still available as a specialty item from such places as Freestyle and some others. Same for 126. I didn't go to their site to confirm that so I could be wrong.
 
oftheherd said:
I believe 127 is still available as a specialty item from such places as Freestyle and some others. Same for 126. I didn't go to their site to confirm that so I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

The 127 still left, I believe is in BW, which won't normally be good for making colour slides. :) 126 (the first 'instamatic' format cartridge film from Kodak, aka 'rapid pack' from others) on the other hand, would produce a picture area of approx 25X25 mm, much smaller than the 40X40cm which the Super Slides were.

Some 1950s references would instruct using conventional 120 film, either shot as 6X6 or better still, 6X4.5cm (less wastage), in their usual cameras, but with the viewfinder masked to define what the Super Slide will take in. After processing, the film was trimmed to fit Super Slide mounts.

One book, Aaron Sussman's "Amateur Photographer's Handbook" touted the Super Slide format as the 'wave of the future'. The 4X4cm picture gave bigger pictures with better quality (bigger meant less enlargement), even when projected with 'ordinary' 35mm projectors. The 127 'baby' reflexes were made for that purpose, but the format never quite made it.

Hasselblad made 16-frame magazines which made 6X4.5cm frames. I think they also made a square 4X4 cm masked exposures on 120 film. A corresponding mask to put in the viewfinder was also made.

Today, an ordinary TLR or SLR MF camera can be used. Mask the focusing screen to show the reduced field of 4X4 cm. The film can then be trimmed after to fit the mounts. It would be the mounts which is probably hard to get now.
 
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127 film is now a lot more expensive than 120. See if you can locate a Rolleiflex T and with some luck you might find the 16 exposure adapter. You can either get 16 shots per roll cropped to 4X4cm or shoot 16 frames of 4X6cm. I used to have a Sawyers (the slide projector manufacturer) 127 TLR made by Topcon. It was a great camera with a 60mm f/2.8 Topcor lens. Some collector offered WAY to much money for the thing (over $400) and I couldn't resist selling.
 
This brings back memories... My first camera, a Kodak Super 27, used 127 film. Somewhere I still have some superslides made with this camera, as well as a baby Rollei 4x4 in the 60's...
 
Mamiya once made a superslide cutter - a punch-like device - for cutting 4x4 out of 6x6 or 645. I have one in my junk drawer somewhere. It worked OK, but best if used in conjunction with a light table to veiw the slide through the cutter. Gepe still makes/sells frames IIRC.
 
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