Kodak Bantam Special 35mm conversion...any sources?

kdemas

kdemas

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I was wondering if anyone knows of someone who can perform a conversion (828 to 35mm) on a Kodak Bantam Special.

This camera is one of my all time favorite designs and I'd love to be able to conveniently shoot it a bit.

Any help is, as always, appreciated.

Kent

ps: If you don't know which camera I'm talking about, have a look:
http://www.cameraquest.com/superban.htm
 
Just a little bump for this thread - I just picked up a beautiful Bantam Special Supermatic on sale and would love to know of this fabled 35mm conversion process.

Anyone with any news?
 
A couple of options here.
(a) a very small film canister (and spool) will need to be constructed and a way to advance the film accurately from frame to frame. Or...
(b) cut and hack on the camera til a standard 35mm canister will fit it. I don't EVEN like the thoughts of that ... but an unused camera is a paper weight. Still, w/standard canister, accurate film advance will have to be worked out.

Surely we could figure this out. It's just too great a camera to sit on my shelf for rest of it's life.

attachment.php

Here's mine, purchased in Biloxi, MS 6+ yrs. ago.
 
What a conincidence. stopped in my favorite (only) camera store today to see what film cameras they I might have collected lately. Got talking about obsolete film developers and thhe sales guy who I always BS with pulls out a shoe box full of obsolete film (mostly 620). There had to be a dozen rolls of 828 Kodacolor film in the shoe box. I was teasing him because he was older then me and I had to open a box to show him the film. I used to have the Bantam, never could figure out a replacement film for it which was a crying shame.
 
I have heard that you can spool your own with regular 35mm using the backing paper from the original, or cutting your own from 120 stock. Of course, you'll get the 'sprockets' look. But that can be cropped out. But please don't go grinding on a Bantam Special, or even an RF. They are just too good to be hacking on, and possibly damaging beyond use.

PF
 
farlymac said:
But please don't go grinding on a Bantam Special, ...
Click to expand...
ehhh, yeah, I threw that out there, but nope. Not a serious option for me. And I honestly think you could hog it out to the aluminum outter skin and it still wouldn't accomodate a 35 canister. Ive shot a short test roll of paper backed 35mm film through it that I rolled up myself in a dark bathroom. I think I'd rather cobble a loadable canister together to work with. There's no rewind to a Bantam sooo thats gotta be considered.

Anyway, I'm scopin for materials.
 
reagan said:
ehhh, yeah, I threw that out there, but nope. Not a serious option for me. And I honestly think you could hog it out to the aluminum outter skin and it still wouldn't accomodate a 35 canister. Ive shot a short test roll of paper backed 35mm film through it that I rolled up myself in a dark bathroom. I think I'd rather cobble a loadable canister together to work with. There's no rewind to a Bantam sooo thats gotta be considered.

Anyway, I'm scopin for materials.
Click to expand...

I think the best option is building two custom canisters, with a spool that will fit a generic bulk loader for easier loading.

Custom paper backing isn't worth the hassle IMHO. Cover the hole in the back. Without it, on the other hand, the problem is advancing the film, because it takes a little less rotation of the knob for every shot.

So you'll have to keep track of how many shots you've already taken. For that, make a few marks on the wind spool at fixed angles, so that you end up with something that looks like a pie with eight slices or whatever. Make the marks with a Sharpie if you're afraid of modifying the camera, it will be fine as long as even one is visible, but renew them every now and then as they will rub off. Then make a table how far you have to advance the film (like, 1 1/2 turn for the first two shots, one turn for the next two, and so on). You can take notes for that using a pice of junk film and seeing how far it advances.

If you tend to be forgetful about these things or don't use it often, copy that table on a little Post-it that you stick on top of the camera, and make a mark on the Post-it for every frame you take.
 
Thanks for bumping and posting this! I just sent a Bantam off to a friend for a CLA. Before doing that we were debating the value of doing this to a shelf warmer (shutter didn't fire right) and the conversation turned to a way to shoot 35mm in it. My idea was to perhaps use some scrap film to figure out how many turns of the advance knob are needed to advance a frame via putting a tiny piece of tape on it and counting how many times it goes around like rxmd suggested. The camera would need to be loaded and unloaded in a dark room though, as the only way we could figure to get film in there would be to carefully roll up the film and place it in the chamber ala a 126 cart, then feed it onto the spool and remove it in the dark. Your idea works much better but I hope to give both a try when I get it back.
 
B&H camera sells 828 B&W film, they are temp out of stock. I brought a roll for my Bantam but haven't shot it yet. Waiting for some spring blossoming to do some landscapes. I did find a company in NYC that develops 828 but lost the link, I have ti dig them up to send it out.
I have two Bantams, a flash and an older version, the f4.5 metal ones, both mint. i think they are the coolest cameras and very well made. It is a little expensive- $30.00 for 8 shots, but it will be cool to use it. I like the Bantam RF but always get outbid.
 
supercub said:
B&H camera sells 828 B&W film, they are temp out of stock. I brought a roll for my Bantam but haven't shot it yet. Waiting for some spring blossoming to do some landscapes. I did find a company in NYC that develops 828 but lost the link, I have ti dig them up to send it out.
I have two Bantams, a flash and an older version, the f4.5 metal ones, both mint. i think they are the coolest cameras and very well made. It is a little expensive- $30.00 for 8 shots, but it will be cool to use it. I like the Bantam RF but always get outbid.
Click to expand...

I have been led to believe that 828 film is basically the same as 126 film without the plastic cartridge... yang
David
 
From what I've read, it's 35mm film without sprocket holes. So you will expose almost all the way to the edges when you run it through.

PF
 
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