Minolta 16II, Amazing little camera

Yeah I started the "Shooting XX in the Leica" thread. So I'm really interested in getting some of the 7222. I buy my 35mm directly from Eastman in NYC. The shutter in my camera is very "snappy" and the meter seems to work reasonably.

If I get a 16mm carrier for my Omega D2V that might work. Recently I bought a really short focal length Componon that would prolly work too. Might need to go on a a recessed board.

Yep this is plenty fun.
 
I kinda cheated building the enlarger I mentioned. I already had a Mimiya Enla head so all I had to supply was a lamp housing, bottom board and means to adjust working distance from the (home made) easel. My light source is a small 8W LED bulb that puts out plenty of light. It is about the size of a regular 40W bulb. Still adjusting the lamp housing. Of course the Enla head is for 10 X 14 negatives the Minox fits OK.
 
Timmyjoe said:
So it uses the 16mm film as well?



Best,
-Tim
Click to expand...

Actually the Minox uses 9.2mm wide film for a 8X11mm negative size. I built a slitter that produces two 9.2mm wide strips from the center of 35mm film. I can obtain 6-24 exposure rolls from 1 standard 36 exposure roll of film. So that is about 85 cents per roll from a 36 exp load of Tmax 100. Just for kicks I'd like to shoot some TX in low light and push it 2 stops to 1600, crazy idea for such a small negative but still cheap to experiment with. Right now I'm working my way through a very ancient bulk roll of Pan F, about 10 years expired but stored in the fridge. Results seem nominal to my eye.
 
Nope not yet. I'll guess I will have to order a roll directly from Eastman in NYC.
How difficult is it to reload the cartridges?
 
Make sure you get single perf.

Whatever you use to load your 35mm cartridges with 5222 should work fine for the little Minolta cartridges.

I use just a changing bag, and I cut off a length of film. Then measure it out to 18" and use that as my template. Then in the changing bag again, I pull out lengths and cut them to that 18" and spool them up and put them in a solid black 35mm film cassette case (from old rolls of AgfaPan 100). After I've cut as many lengths as I have empty cassettes to fill, I close up the 100' spool, and exchange it for the empty cassettes. I use blue tape to hold the film to the internal spool, and blue tape to tape the cassettes back together again. It's really pretty straight forward.
 
I did some internet searching, and I decided to buy a film slitter from Joe McGloin. It cuts the exact size of the original Minolta film, and that's from 35mm stock. So I can use 5222 or whatever else I feel like loading up. That seems like a big advantage to me. I've paid and it's on it's way.

Lots and lots and lots of info here:

http://www.subclub.org/

Specifically on reloading Minolta Cassettes here:

http://www.subclub.org/darkroom/rollmin.htm
 
I've got 800 feet of 7222 and 7231?? (16mm Plus-X) in the freezer, and it works great in the Minolta, in fact it's what Minolta tells you to use for reloading their cassettes in the instruction manual that came with the cameras.

Good luck with the splitter, I'm sure that will work fine too.

Do you have a battery for your 16MG?
 
It has a selenium meter so no battery required for the camera. The flash takes a 15V Eveready 504 to fire AG1 flashbulbs. I bought one twenty years ago and it still pops 'em just perfectly.

The 16MG is extremely small (smaller than the original Minolta I have read). So they were diverging in their models as they got bigger and bigger. The 16MG was a return to the smallness of the early models, yet has some sophistication in terms of features.

Just found the instruction book here:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/minolta/minolta_16mg/minolta_16mg.htm
 
I picked up a 16MG off the auction site a year or so ago, because it had 35 flashbulbs and a couple cassettes, but unfortunately the camera itself didn't work.

That instruction book you linked to has a section on loading 16mm film into the cassettes.

The 16QT that I'm using now has the larger image on the negative. Is the 16MG the same, or does it have an image size the same as the original 16II? The reason I ask is that the original Minolta 16 cameras could use the 16mm double perf film because the image area fell neatly between the top and bottom of the film strip, between the two rows of perforations. With the 16QT and the larger image size, you need to use single perf film because now the image area extends from one edge of the film all the way down to the single row of perfs. So with double perf film, one row of perforations would run right through the image.
 
Timmyjoe said:
Is the 16MG the same, or does it have an image size the same as the original 16II?
Click to expand...

Hmm Not sure about the image size, I need to get a few more things together to start making images with this camera. I think it will be a hoot! The illustrations in the instruction book (I printed it out to read at me leisure) shows double-perfed film. I've read that single-perfed will work (thanks) from several sources. As you can see below, the film I purchased new twenty years ago has no perfs. That is another reason why I just purchased a film slitter, but also, because I have a deep freeze full of all types of 35mm film. The slitter cuts right down the middle of the 35mm stock, producing a strip identical to what was in my cartridges. Whether or not that will make any difference remains to be seen.

2016-03-27 10.26.25 by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
Timmyjoe,
Only the QT and the MGS have the larger negative. The MG has the original 10X14mm negative size. The MGS is quite advanced with faster f2.8 lens but unfortunately fixed focus. Only the QT had focus adjustment with the larger neg. I only wish Minolta had made a 16II with a focusing lens and a 13X17 neg size, that would have been a killer combo. The Russian copy of the Minolta 16 does a focusing lens, to .5 meters, with a 23mm f3.5 specification if I remember right. Of the Russian copies the Kiev 30 is the best one, with a larger frame size and will take Minolta 16 cartridges. It does have a more limited shutter speed range and no 'B' setting. One time I tried to transplant the shutter from a 16II into a Keiv 30 because they are so similar, but there was just enough difference to prevent the transfer.
 
This illustrates the different image sizes from the Minolta 16 cameras.

Minolta16Negs


The top strip is from the 16QT and the bottom strip is from the 16II. All my 16mm film is single perf so there isn't an issue with using it in either camera.

That film slitter should work fine. And I agree, the cameras are fun because I can use them to shoot through all this film I've had stored in the freezer for years.

I have a couple of stainless steel 16mm development reels that I use in my normal development tanks. And use a Coolscan 9000 to scan the negs.
 
One other thing about the perfs in 16mm motion picture film, they are necessary for the film to be used in motion picture cameras, but are completely useless in the Minolta 16 cameras (unlike 110 cameras). If you have solid/no-perf film in 16mm size, that will work fine.

16mm double perf will work fine in the Minolta 16 cameras with the smaller image size as the perfs fall outside the image area. And single perf 16mm film works fine in both the smaller image size cameras and the larger image size cameras because again, the perfs fall outside the image area. With the larger size image area cameras it's important to load the single perf film so the perfs ride along the side of the cartridge where the plastic bridge is located (that holds the supply side and the take up side of the cartridge together). Otherwise the perfs will be in the image area on the film.
 
Nokton48,
One item, that you can make, is a 'spinner stick'. It is a wood dowel with a 16mm deep slot cut into one end. I cut the slot with an Xacto razor saw, the wide one. You slip on end of the film into the slot and then, guiding the film along the edges with your thumb and index finger you spin the dowel and roll the film, emulsion side in, into a nice tight roll. Then slip it off the dowel. Don't worry when you slip the film off the dowel about getting finger prints on the film, this part of the film does not have images on it. With a 18 inch length of film you will have about 2.5 inches of start and tail of film to handle it in the darkroom. That is with a 20 exposure load. Single perf 16mm double X works fine (Eastman 7222) I use it all the time and you don't have to slit it. However slit film opens up a lot of really fine films. I'm wanting to try Tmax 100 or Delta 100 for the potential of much finer grain over the double X
 
If you need a developing reel that will adjust to 16mm about the only new tank and reel on the market is the Yankee tank with 1 reel. Many years ago I bought one and all I can say is, it is "adequate", but cheap and fragile feeling. I've bought a couple of older Yankee Master tanks with adjustable reels off that auction site and the older ones don't feel so cheap. I think B&H still has the current Yankee tank in stock.
 
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