70mm Films, Holders and Cameras

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Diorman

Diorman
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I have several rolls of 70mm film in my freezer for bulk loading that I purchased on clearance. These are TMX and outdated but also have a bulk roll of E100 slide film in 70mm. The 2 backs that I have are Graflex 50 exp and a Beattie Coleman 4x5 70mm back for 6x9 format. Would it be better to get a Horseman 2x3 to 4x5 converter back to use with the Beattie Colman back with my Horseman VHR or use the Graflex back on a Graflex XL. The Graflex back has wider spacing between frames and wastes more film than the Coleman. The Coleman back on the other hand has 80x63 mm frame size and the Horseman back may vignette the film. The Beattie Coleman back does not use cassettes but has large spools that snap into place and are housed in a very solid aluminum housing. What 70mm should I use? What developing tank for 70mm is the best for the amateur photographer? (Who makes it and where can I get one for 15 ft. rolls)
 
I have a Kindermann 70mm Developing tank that holds 15 feet. Stainless steel reel and grey plastic tank, works just great. Also had a 70mm Kindermann Loading Stand, but I sold that. Won't sell the tank, as I have about twenty 70mm rolls in my freezer. Vue-All still makes 70mm pages, but you have to make 8.5x11 contact sheets, due to the wider 70mm film frames. 70mm is a kick, almost like shooting digital without chimping. You seldom run out of frames, or need to look at the frame counter. I have four Hasselblad 70mm backs, a Linhof 70mm back that fits 4x5 Graflock, and an old Beattie Coleman 6x9 back (also Graflock) that holds 100 feet of 70mm film.
 
How do you hang up 15 feet of film to dry? 🙂 Seriously! 🙂

I'd love to see some pictures of this gear - I suspect many of us have never had the opportunity to see 70mm equipment, but have heard about NASA using it on the Moon missions.
 
This thread has perfect timing!

I need help finding some film. I'm trying to find film for a Hasselblad 70 Back. I'm in Germany, and of all places I would think I could find it here, but no.

So where can we find 6x6 film for one of these Backs??

Sorry I don't know any answers to the original questions, I havn't gotten into large format yet.
 
I cut the 15 foot freshly-washed roll, as it comes off the Kindermann Reel, into strips of 12 frames, and hang them just like regular 120 film. I use springy wooden clothespins stretched on a wire line in my basement darkroom. Weight the other end with another wooden clothespin.

For Linhof and Hasselblad backs, you need --Kodak Type II perforated-- 70mm film. Here is a roll for sale right now, which will work. I have a couple of cans of Aerographic Plus-X 2402 myself. The date on this stuff look pretty good, and it's 150 feet, not 100. I have found you can get about 8 1/2 70mm cartridges from this can, each of which gives 70 exposures, in the Hasselblad A70 Back. Reloadable 70mm Cartridges to fit these backs were made by Kodak, and can be found on Ebay. You load the cartridges by hand, when the spool is full, put it all back together (in the dark, of course). That's roughly 70 6x6 exposures. Plus-X 2402 is good film for pictorial stuff in my experience.

http://cgi.ebay.com/KODAK-B-W-PLUS-...in_0?hash=item1e581f0033&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
 
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ChrisN said:
I'd love to see some pictures of this gear -
Click to expand...

Here is some of my 70mm Stuff. The Kindermann 70mm Developing Tank (I'd show you the giant 70mm stainless steel reel, but it has undeveloped film loaded on it at the moment!). Also the Hasselblad 70mm A70 Film Backs (these are incredibly cheap sometimes; I have six good ones). Kodak 70mm Film Cartridges, I have about fifty of these. And.......70mm Film. A few flavours from my Deep Freeze. Kodak Infared Aerographic 2424, Agfa Aviphot Color N400 PE1 (400 EI Color Negative C-41), Agfa Aviphot Pan 200 PE1 (EI 200 B&W). And, my favorite 70mm B&W film of all time, Kodak WL Surveillance Film, which seems almost -identical- to the old Kodak Tri-X 70mm film, even better IMO. I have about twenty 70mm 100' cans of that emulsion, along with lots of Plus-X 70mm, in all kinds of flavours.
 
Here is an inexpensive plastic 70mm developing reel, intended for the Medical X-Ray Industry. At $8.00US it's a good buy, and works well. I have one, and use it for short film runs, in the Kindermann Daylight Tank. You could also use a bucket (or buckets) in the dark. The reel holds about 13 feet of 70mm film, I can confirm that from experience. I've also wrapped the extra film around the fully loaded reel, it will work, in a pinch. 70mm is COOL.

http://www.sullinsndt.com/reels.htm
 
Nokton48 said:
Here is some of my 70mm Stuff. The Kindermann 70mm Developing Tank (I'd show you the giant 70mm stainless steel reel, but it has undeveloped film loaded on it at the moment!). Also the Hasselblad 70mm A70 Film Backs (these are incredibly cheap sometimes; I have six good ones). Kodak 70mm Film Cartridges, I have about fifty of these. And.......70mm Film. A few flavours from my Deep Freeze. Kodak Infared Aerographic 2424, Agfa Aviphot Color N400 PE1 (400 EI Color Negative C-41), Agfa Aviphot Pan 200 PE1 (EI 200 B&W). And, my favorite 70mm B&W film of all time, Kodak WL Surveillance Film, which seems almost -identical- to the old Kodak Tri-X 70mm film, even better IMO. I have about twenty 70mm 100' cans of that emulsion, along with lots of Plus-X 70mm, in all kinds of flavours.
Click to expand...

Thank you! The film cartridges - does the Hassy 70mm back take one, or two of these? Is the film exposed and rewound into the cartridge like a 35mm, or fully wound into a second cartridge like with 120 film?
 
Chris,

70mm is -very- different from 120 or 220. You load the 70mm film into the cartridge in the dark, of course (it loads just fine by hand, when the the spool is full, that's roughly 70 exposures), it has a silver "clip" to hold the film tightly on the spool, yet it comes off easily, at the end of the roll, so it dosen't damage the back and camera! I use masking tape to secure the film to the takeup spool inside the second 70mm cartridge, and that works really well.

Google Hasselblad Historical and print out the instruction book for the A70, without that, you will never figure out how to use it properly. Make a short practice "dummy' roll and practice loading the A70, it's different, but not difficult. I bought a junk roll of old color negative for $5 to "play" with my backs. Also the backs can have problems from age, etc so loading a test roll is the only way to be sure it's working OK. Six of my eight backs still work AOK, if that tells you anything.

Here is another shot of the 70mm Kindermann Daylight Tank, now you can see the SS reel. Big, isn't it? To the left of that, is the plastic Medical X-Ray Reel you can buy from the above link for 8 US Bucks. BTW the roll in the tank had about forty exposures on it, I processed it in ADOX Borax MQ, which is a D-76 derivitive, for twelve minutes at 20C. Agitated 15 seconds a minute, by inverting the tank. The negatives look -really- good and are drying right now, in strips of twelve. Later I will cut them into strips of four, to go into the 70mm Vue-All pages. 😀
 
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Thanks again - I was going to ask about negative sleeves, and you have pointed me to 70mm View-All. I see from the pdf files that the magazine can probably hold 25 feet of the Kodak Aerographic film, but the real limit is the capacity of the processing equipment. I'll have to do some sums - I'm always tempted by things like this but I do have a good stock of 120 roll film at the moment, and I'd have to invest in film, magazine(s) and a developing tank to go this route. It would be very tempting for my annual holiday trips when we travel by 4wd to remote areas - reducing film handling in dusty conditions.
 
Yes you are right about the thickness of the Aerial films being the key to how many exposures you can hold in the A70. I have a 500' roll of 70mm Type II Plus-X Aerorecon Film 3404 that is on a super-thin base; I think about 250-300 exposures are possible with that film in the A70. BTW they also made the A70/500, I guess it has a film counter that goes past 80 exposures?? Don't know about that one. Anyway you would have to process the 3404 15 feet at a time, and I haven't done that one yet.

Just processed another 15 feet of 70mm Kodak Surveillance Film, this time in the ADOX Borax MQ for fifteen minutes at 20C. Negs are washing right now, what I can see so far looks nice and beefy, from the extended development. That is what I like 🙂
 
It sounds like you are having too much fun! I've got several rolls of Kodak 2485 Traffic Surveillance film in 35mm - enough to keep me going for a few years.
 
Reviving an old thread...................

I just got a Beattie Coleman 70mm Back for my Plaubel Makiflexes. It is a Beattie Coleman Transet, and fits a 4x5" Graflock Back, which I also have for the above cameras. Does anybody here an instruction book for this back? I do know that this back will work with perforated or unperforated 70mm film. This is good 'cause I have a 100' roll of fresh unperforated Efke 100 70mm from J&C.
Bought it just before they went out of business. This back dosen't care if it's unperforated.

Here is the Beattie Coleman 4x5 70mm Back, attached to my 4x5" Plaubel Makiflex Adapter. Fits like a glove.
 

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Transet 70mm Roll Film Back Instructions.

Transet 70mm Roll Film Back Instructions.

Found a copy of the original operating instructions.
 

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Nokton,

I would love to get a look at those instructions you found...

Also, does anyone have an experience with the Beattie Coleman Transet back vs the RH50 back? Which is more reliable?
 
I have the korona, can shoot up to 240 pictures there when reel is full(dont know yet how long it it is must measure). tested old rolled film dry(no camera, no exposure/no developping just viewing. it does not look flat. maybe i must unroll fresh film form large tube. and prepare film by rolling it up onto large reel the wrong way around to avoid curling. Tony sansone told Mamiya RB 67/70mm with adapter is the best, even no vaccum needed. i have vaccum. but none ever used. have also HB 70mm back which i will use on my future Hartblei 1006M or HB 2000.
 
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