110/16mm Camera Image Quality

[ciniframe]

From time to time you see a Minolta "clamp" that fits the 16 and 16II (may be different clamps, I only have one) -- this provides a tripod socket as well as cable release mount. It's metal, so it's thin and compact -- a 3D printed part would have to be bulkier not to be too fragile.

Then again, with 3D printing, you could make a similar add-on for a Kiev 30 (which also has B, plus a focusing lens -- the 303 doesn't have B or PC sync).

That is interesting Donald. In my 25 years wandering Minolta 16 land I personally have never seen a tripod/cable release combo for the 16II. I’ve custom made a couple that attach to the tripod clamp, but never come across a factory setup.
My home made attachments are over built and make the petite 16II into a Rube Goldberg monstrosity. But hey, it don’t matter much if you are going to use ‘B’ anyway because you will probably have it on a tripod.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Now I think about it, I might be misremembering -- it's been more than ten years since I've used my 16II and I bought the clamp but never used it -- perhaps because it wouldn't make much difference without a cable release.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

I haven't looked closely at the wall thickness on the Minolta cartridge; it may or may not be thick enough to work with black PLA without additional light masking.

A vintage minolta cassette film chamber has a thickness of ~1.1mm and ~0.5mm around the cap area. The 3D printed, unfelted cassettes I got from FPP are marginally beefier at ~1.6mm and ~0.8mm. Otherwise light-tight, those tolerances leave very little room for felt in the mouths of the film chambers to squelch light leaks and potential scratches from the chamber lip's (rather prominent at this scale) ridge artifacts. I've used repurposed felt from a 35mm canister so maybe there are thinner options out there.



MG-s, Double-X, HC-110

 

[Cholentpot]

A vintage minolta cassette film chamber has a thickness of ~1.1mm and ~0.5mm around the cap area. The 3D printed, unfelted cassettes I got from FPP are marginally beefier at ~1.6mm and ~0.8mm. Otherwise light-tight, those tolerances leave very little room for felt in the mouths of the film chambers to squelch light leaks and potential scratches from the chamber lip's (rather prominent at this scale) ridge artifacts. I've used repurposed felt from a 35mm canister so maybe there are thinner options out there.

View attachment 279661

MG-s, Double-X, HC-110

What a blockhead.

Nice shot.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Only way it could have been better would have been a well-placed sprocket hole. He managed to set up quickly enough to get a long 3/4 telephoto shot of me walking away, a bit of b-roll that ended up in the finished piece.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

16 mm is proving to be one of my craftsier photo projects: I found a Mamiya 16 Super II at an attractive price because it was sold "For parts / as-is". Fortunately, despite it's diminutive size, it wasn't too hard to service. Mamiya applied grease with a generous hand, but after 60 years, it was in dire need of a freshening up. Shutter speed escapement was bone-dry, focusing helicoid was frozen, and link to the focus control was bent, but the remedies were straightforward.

I 3D-printed a film slitter, and am currently in the process of printing film cassettes. I needed to slightly modify the latter as the designer had assumed single-spindle only, but the Super has a spindle on the supply side of the cassette too: It simply twirls a visual indicator which lets you know that film is advancing properly. The feature was removed from newer Mamiya-16 cameras for good reason: It makes loading the cassette into the camera a lot trickier! It took me awhile but I think I figured out a simple technique which lets me drop the cassette into place without undue frustration or film-wastage: Start with the supply spindle first, lining up the mating parts hand if necessary, and once that drops into place deal with the take-up spindle, which is lots easier. But it's no wonder that Mamiya went through a number of iterations of their film cassettes!

View attachment 279618

I had no idea those Mamiya 16s were so small.

Got a picture of your printed slitter? I'm kinda looking for one.

 

[4season]

I had no idea those Mamiya 16s were so small.

Got a picture of your printed slitter? I'm kinda looking for one.

I thought I'd take a group photo of the slitter and film cassettes once I've completed them (one more cassette to go). Meanwhile, here's the Thingiverse page:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2103954
No real documentation to speak of, and unless double-edged shaving razor blades fit that bolt pattern, I have no idea what kind of blades the designer had in mind, and the only thing I found at my (USA) hardware store which came close were Stanley carpet blades #11-525 snapped in half lengthwise. Larger bolts are M6 size, and smaller one for hinge is M2.5.

Most ingenious film slitter that I've seen to date was made from nothing more than a matchbox and a couple of hobby knife blades! Wish I could remember where I saw that, think it was old-school Soviet resourcefulness.

 

[Cholentpot]

I thought I'd take a group photo of the slitter and film cassettes once I've completed them (one more cassette to go). Meanwhile, here's the Thingiverse page:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2103954
No real documentation to speak of, and unless double-edged shaving razor blades fit that bolt pattern, I have no idea what kind of blades the designer had in mind, and the only thing I found at my (USA) hardware store which came close were Stanley carpet blades #11-525 snapped in half lengthwise. Larger bolts are M6 size, and smaller one for hinge is M2.5.

Most ingenious film slitter that I've seen to date was made from nothing more than a matchbox and a couple of hobby knife blades! Wish I could remember where I saw that, think it was old-school Soviet resourcefulness.

I made on with a disposable camera and some razors. Worked pretty well but maybe not so safe.

 

[ciniframe]

I make all my slitters from wood and double edged razor blades held together with 8-32 screws and knurled nuts. The wood blocks are cut on my table saw to 15.5mm thickness with each side to fill out to 35mm film wide then sides to act as a channel for the film.
Kind of hard to describe in words. My last one cuts a 15.7mm plus 9.2mm strips from 35mm film to feed both my Minox IIIs and Minolta 16 cameras. This leaves no waste from 35mm, except the perfed strips which are useless anyway. There is 25mm between the perforations on the Ilford Pan F film I’m using, *just* enough room to get the two strips.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I also have a film slitter design on Thingiverse, designed to use #11 X-acto type blades, and to cut either three 16mm strips or a 127 and a 16 mm strip from 120. I've printed it, but haven't yet cut any film with it.

 

[xya]

I don't have a slitter, but several slicers. there is one that makes 1 slice of 21mm and 2 slices of 16mm from 120 film. works like a charm. so I get film for my ajax f21 and for my 16mm cameras that don't need sprockets...

 

[Huss]

Rollei A110, Fuji Superia 200

 

[Huss]

Rollei A110, Fuji Superia 200

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I am not rockin' the free world like Huss and Bronson, but I've got some reasonable results with 5222 I loaded in a Rollei E110.

 

[4season]

3D printing is done. I used a small entry-level printer by Monoprice (Mini Delta), given to me as a secondhand gift a couple of years ago. I think the designer of the cassettes didn't anticipate using any light trap material at all, as the opening is only about 1 mm - too thick for light trap material recycled from an old Ilford 35mm cassette or craft-store felt, but still wide enough to admit stray light. I'll treat the cassettes as light-leaky for now (16 mm film scraps used for this photo).

 

[Cholentpot]

3D printing is done. I used a small entry-level printer by Monoprice (Mini Delta), given to me as a secondhand gift a couple of years ago. I think the designer of the cassettes didn't anticipate using any light trap material at all, as the opening is only about 1 mm - too thick for light trap material recycled from an old Ilford 35mm cassette or craft-store felt, but still wide enough to admit stray light. I'll treat the cassettes as light-leaky for now (16 mm film scraps used for this photo).
View attachment 279974

Some cameras don't like the Vision3 stocks. Too thick.

 

[Cholentpot]

Pentax Auto 110, Tri-X, D-76 1:1 10.5 min

 

[Huss]

I got 10 Kodak Fling cameras for sale in the classified in my film ad. The 110 film in them is useless (I developed one) but the cameras can be reloaded and actually take decent pics in bright light!

Kodak Fling single use/disposable camera reloaded with Fuji Superia.




Surprisingly good, all things considered. Best use (of course) in nice bright conditions as only one shutter speed/aperture. Optimal sharpness seems to be about 12 ft, but decent results from 6 ft to about 40 ft... Main cause of lack of sharpness is camera shake, as this thing is awkward to hold, the shutter button is in an awkward position, and the action is awkwardly long and stiff. Thassa awful lotta awkward!
But if you hold it steady, not bad especially seeing the camera looks like a couple of pieces of lego stuck together.

I got 10 Kodak Fling cameras for sale in the classified in my film ad. The 110 film in them is useless (I developed one) but the cameras can be reloaded and actually take decent pics in bright light, as seen above.
But the film cartridges can be reloaded by those who know how, so if anyone needs 10 110 film cartridges to reload, with the bonus of coming with 10 cameras..

 

[Cholentpot]

I got 10 Kodak Fling cameras for sale in the classified in my film ad. The 110 film in them is useless (I developed one) but the cameras can be reloaded and actually take decent pics in bright light!


I got 10 Kodak Fling cameras for sale in the classified in my film ad. The 110 film in them is useless (I developed one) but the cameras can be reloaded and actually take decent pics in bright light, as seen above.
But the film cartridges can be reloaded by those who know how, so if anyone needs 10 110 film cartridges to reload, with the bonus of coming with 10 cameras..

Maybe...

Auto 110, Tri-X

 

[4season]

Some cameras don't like the Vision3 stocks. Too thick.

What do you like about Vision 3? I hadn't thought to try that or any other motion-picture film for stills.

 

[Cholentpot]

What do you like about Vision 3? I hadn't thought to try that or any other motion-picture film for stills.

It's ok. Very grainy but it has loads and loads of latitude. I like it most because I can get shortends cheap and I shoot it for pennies a roll.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

 

[Cholentpot]

Auto 110, Tri-X

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Excellent use of footage; 3 or more frames and you've got a movie

Some cropped copy from the Mg-s. Dat typesetting.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Snagged a 16ii for $20 also containing a cassette of unprocessed plus-x 100. Looks to have been exposed some time in the mid-70's.

Minolta 16ii, Plus-X (found film)
Xtol 1+1 8', anti-fog

A drag race, fuel filters, and a gggghost?!