110 camera and film discussion

[CMur12]

Seany65, we shot a lot of 126 film in my family, in four different cameras that I can think of (Kodak Instamatics 100 and 300, Zeiss Ikon Contaflex 126, and a Minolta Autopak 600), 1963 to mid-1970s, with no light leaks.

This wasn't with high speed film, however. The instamatics and the Contaflex were loaded with standard Kodacolor (ASA 80?) and the Autopak was loaded mostly with slide film (ASA 50 - 64).

- Murray

 

[Pál_K]

...
I bought a bunch of Fukkatsu film and it is terrible. I think I got it from Blue Moon Cameras.
Developed a roll, and it looks really bad, like it is severely expired plus has a smattering of heat damage...
...

Rats. I bought about six boxes either last year or the year before at the large Kent (Wash.) swap meet. The guy told me it was new film.

EDIT: it is 4 boxes of color film; two expire in 2018, two in 2019. They're refrigerated.

 

[wwfloyd]

...
I've used a couple of 126 films decades ago and never saw any light leaks. I was wondering if anyone knows if this was a big problem in those days, or is it just the "recent" films that give trouble.

It's a known problem with Lomography branded 110 films. Apparently, the backing paper frequently has pinholes. I had that (white spots randomly distributed in the center strip of film) with their Orca BW film. Color has been tagged for this, as well.

 

[seany65]

Thanks to all for the further replies and info.

Huss, The few pics I've seen on a website that were done using fukkatsu 110 film seem pretty good to me:
https://filmphotographystore.com/products/110-color-film-fukkatsu-400

But they say it's from the last batch, so perhaps they'd finally got it right just before going under?

It seems that, from what CMuir12 and wwfloyd say, the "light leak through the backing paper" problem does seem to be only a Lomography film problem. I wonder if they've been told about it, and if so have they even tried to do anything about it?

 

[skucera]

It's a known problem with Lomography branded 110 films. Apparently, the backing paper frequently has pinholes. I had that (white spots randomly distributed in the center strip of film) with their Orca BW film. Color has been tagged for this, as well.

I confirm this. A couple of Lomo 110 rolls I developed had little pinhole spots. The other four rolls were fine. The odd thing is that they all appeared to be in the same lot of film... two 3-packs bought at the same time.

Scott

 

[mh2000]

Thanks for the info skucera.

I did begin to suspect that the film sprockets would 'probably' have something to do with counting the frames not long after posting, but as I wanted to be sure I left the question up.

I think I've reads that some 110 cameras can work without the film sprockets, is this true and if so how?

Both the Rollei A110 and Pentax 110 will work without sprocket holes. I've not had good luck with the Rolleis working because of the finicky design. The Pentax are cute, though do not yield the best results IMO. Have fun!

 

[zuiko85]

Re; K14's photos. That is an amazing moon shot. Usually afocal coupling to a telescope is not that sharp. I can see how the Pentax 110 is an advantage since you can focus through the lens.

 

[seany65]

Does anyone know if Minolta did an off-camera flash accessory like Nikon's AS10, which allows an off-camera flash to have a pc cord inserted and the other end is attached to a thing that slips into the hotshoe so that the camera can still fire the flash, andf if so can it work on a Minolta 110 zoom slr MKII?

 

[skucera]

Almost all the camera companies sold hot shoe PC cable adapters, including Minolta. I've picked up a few over the years. You can find them on eBay used quite inexpensively. I think I found all mine at thrift shops for under a dollar over the last five years or so.

Good luck and good hunting,
Scott

 

[CMur12]

The hot shoe to PC adapter was a very common third-party accessory, also.

- Murray

 

[seany65]

Thanks for the replies, skucera and Murray. I'd seen them before, but I was wondering if Minolta had a way of making sure we could only use a Minolta adapter.

 

[skucera]

No, hot shoes are intended to be compatible with industry standards. Manufacturers customize the number of electrical contacts, but most implementations are deliberately compatible with one central contact pad, so standard flashes can be used. Additional pads and pins are used to support other communication paths, like flash units from Canon EOS cameras with five pins still working in a simple manner on cameras with one pad in the center of their hot shoe.

Scott

 

[seany65]

Thanks for the info, Scott.

 

[seany65]

I've been wondering about Lomo tiger 200 film, not just whether they have a notch/thingy on them to tell the camera the speed of the film, but also what happens if a camera can only "see" 100asa and 400asa, like my minolta 110 zoom slr mkII?

If the camera can't "see" 200asa, how does it decide which film speed to work with?

It has just this minute occurred to me to set my gossen variosix f to 100asa, 200asa then 400asa and take readings and then take readings of the same things with the slr mkII, and compare.

Wish I'd thought of that befoe posting, lol.

 

[skucera]

The local developer told me that the Fuji minilab develops 200 ASA film exactly the same way as 80 or 100 ASA negative film, and that the printer’s auto-exposure system compensates automatically for the different density of the film. That method didn’t work for 400 film, hence the notch in the film case to have the newer 110 cameras adjust their exposure.

Scott

 

[seany65]

Thanks for the reply, Scott. So if I've understood correctly, only the 400 asa cases have a notch to tell the camera the film speed?

That would seem to agree with the very limited testing I did earlier today, in which my variosix f set at 100 asa gave basically the same readings as my 110 slr mkII, but not when the variosix was set at 200asa. Although I didn't set the exposure compensation on the camera to -1 as a double-check. (Oooh, I'm so lazy, lol!)

 

[seany65]

I've been wondering if the "pinhole problem" is actually a designed idea by Lomo?

If their Tiger 200 film is made in China and if their Orca 100 is made in Germany (that's what it says on the Tiger/Orca boxes I have), and both have this pinhole problem, it must mean either: The backing paper is made only in one factory and some is then shipped to the other country OR both the German and Chinese factories are crap at making backing paper OR the pinholes are a designed element.

But the Chinese have been making paper for a very long time and should be quite good at it by now (surely?), and to go with a slightly stereoytpical view, the Germans are almost allergic to making crap, although not everything they've made has always been good.

Do I take it that the pinhole problem occurs with their other 110 films such as redscale (but would you see the red dots if it did occur with this film?), Metropolis and the purple stuff?

And while we're at it, I know their Metropolis and Purple films can be used at 100-400 iso, but do they have a "rated" speed llike Ilford XP2 Super, which can be used at 50-800 iso? Surely the cartridges must have tabs on them to tell the camera what speed the film is, otherwise the camera wouldn't have any idea what exposure to give?

 

[Doug]

...And while we're at it, I know their Metropolis and Purple films can be used at 100-400 iso, but do they have a "rated" speed llike Ilford XP2 Super, which can be used at 50-800 iso? Surely the cartridges must have tabs on them to tell the camera what speed the film is, otherwise the camera wouldn't have any idea what exposure to give?

I believe 110 film cartridges only trigger the 100 ISO speed, used for both 100 and 200 speed films, or with 400 speed film they set the camera for 400... just the two possible speeds for all films. (I have a pair of Pentax Auto-110).

FWIW, XP2 is a normal C41-process film, same as color negative films only without the color dyes. C41 films handle overexposure quite well, but not underexposure, so I typically set my meter to 2/3-stop lower film speed in aid of better shadow detail/contrast. I do like the ISO 200 color films, but have mostly used Verichrome Pan in my little Pentaxes.

 

[seany65]

Thanks Doug.

Yes, it's the tab on the 110 cassettes that make me wonder how Lomo can call their metropolis and purple "100-400" when they are being used in 110 cameras that can only see 100 or 400?

My Minolta could cope with using those films as if they were at different speeds as it has an Exposure compensation dial, so if the films were officially rated at 100iso, I could set the dial at "0" to use them at 100iso and "-1" to use the films at 200iso and "-2" to use the films at 400iso.

Or if officially rated at "400", use the dial at "+1" and "+2" for 200iso and 100iso.

At least, that's what my 2 braincells think. They are already working overtime trying to work out what I would have to do if the official speed is 200iso, and I wanted to use those films at the other speeds. I've been experiment with setting the dial to "-1" while using my most recent tiger 200 as my previous film seems a little bit washed out, except for a couple of shots which are rather dark, I'd say by more than one stop.

I've also been wondering about how the grain size of Orca 100 would compare to Delta 100 or XP2 if they were available in 110?

I've used xp2 ( at 400iso) in 35mm in several cameras and have had nothing but well-exposed results. XP2 is also capable of being processed in normal b+w chemistry according to the thread somewhere around here. I'd been under the impression that it would give slightly sepia-toned images (which I like the sound of) in b+w chemistry but then I read it wouldn't produce good images, but I'm seeing good stuff in the thread I mentioned.

 

[Doug]

By all means experiment to learn and have fun, but I think it's not necessary to over-think this ISO issue. 🙂