250 film back 101 . . .

[Les Sarile]

I'm hankering for a 250 film back . . .
Never had or used one.
I probably have a body I can mount it on so not adverse to a brand/model.
Any pitfalls? What look out for? Any one not to get?

 

[MattKing]

I probably have a body I can mount it on so not adverse to a brand/model.

Les is one of the few people on the planet who can say this .

 

[Les Sarile]

Les is one of the few people on the planet who can say this .

I suppose I have to qualify that to be any Japanese made between '60 - '80 . . .

 

[mshchem]

F4 is auto focus with 250 back. Hewes makes reels for 33'

 

[Mick Fagan]

Well in another life, one of my F3 bodies was mated with a borrowed 250 frame back, my MD4 drive, my MF18 back and a borrowed power source to power and control the firing rate precisely for an advertising shoot. Basically we were doing something like 3 frames a second with a model doing something, over and over again. Then the film was taken out, all of it in one hit, then put through a roller transport processor. After it was processed it was run through a movie cutter where it was viewed by the advertising people.

Then we did it all over again. For two days we did this, another fella and I became good at loading the film cassettes from 1,000' B&W movie stock from Kodak. We went through quite a lot of film over the couple of days. We eventually saw the advertisement, our part was about 4.5 seconds. As far as I was concerned, it was a fabulous waste of time and money, but the advertising people thought it was wonderful.

One good thing is that the film cassettes are a universal fitting. By that I mean we had some cassettes from an Olympus system and the rest were from a Nikon system. Make sure the film cassette loader doesn't have any bent shafts. We did a dry run prior with a borrowed cassette loader and it had been used and used and used; we found someone else with one and borrowed that; perfect. Chalk and cheese situation.

They are a fun thing to play with, school photographers were their main market that I knew of in this country.

The MF18 back is great in that you can run sequential numbering between the frames, or you can run the date if you so desire.

We also had a dodgy connection for the shutter button on the 250 film holder, cleaned the connections with film cleaner and we were away.

Mick.

 

[Les Sarile]

Thanks Mick!
Now can I transfer a 24 or 36 exposure roll into it? What's the mechanics of loading the canister?

 

[Mick Fagan]

Les, first a brain fade, the MF18 back wasn't used, we did use it on a test run prior to getting the borrowed 250 frame back.

Now for the film loading itself, you could load from a 24 or 36 frame cassette, but you will certainly lose a fair bit what with all of the fiddling in the dark and the sheer length of the unit.

First up, you set the amount of frames you wish to roll, from memory it runs in lots of 5 frames, so you could have 10 frames, 25 frames or 30 frames, up to the maximum of 250 frames. The counter counts down and when you reach the desired frames, the unit is back to zero and you will hear the click and I think it locks, or at least is then very hard to wind. You then cut the film and remove the cassette inner.

Basically you place a bulk film roll fresh out of the tin, or whatever is used these days and place it on the back of the unit, then you place the inner part of the cassette and pull the film leader and place it into the slot. Then you place the moveable arm which goes down over the film, this keeps the film sprockets in position and aligns the film. You then wind until you hear the click.

Then you remove the cassette inner and assemble the cassette, there are three parts. Place this to one side, then grab another cassette and do exactly the same, all of course in the dark. You keep doing this until you have used the entire bulk film roll.

Then the lights go on and you can load the camera.

Easy as, sort of. While the specifics I've mentioned will be reasonably correct, it is over 30 years ago I used that 250 frame back and my memory is certainly terrible these days.

The best tripod will be one capable of handling 5x4" film camera, you're looking at 6kg at the minimum.

Mick.

edit, youwill need to reset the counter each time in the dark, you can count the clicks; good luck with that. We just loaded the maximum each time.

 

[gordrob]

I have a Pentax Spotmatic 250 Frame Back and a Canon Film Chamber FN-100 and they are fun to use. Loading the backs is best done with a film loader 250 in the darkroom. Put a spool of your bulk film on the loader in the dark and spool of as many frames as you want onto the film back's cassette. They are easy to load. When you are finished the film in the cassette remove it and then spool it on to the processing reel. Nikor made a big rig for loading the exposed film onto a processing reel. The biggest problem with exposing this much film is having the facilities to process it.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have a 100 foot roll back for my Minolta 9000, I loaded about 25 feet of Ultrafine 400, cut in the dark to fit a Unicolor 35mm reel and developed in a film drum, lost a number of frames, one of which would have made a nice photo. In the old days you could develop an entire roll of 100 foot film in a versa mate, the Air Force base I worked at had a couple of Vera Mats, Vandenberg, as we did a lot of work on missile shots, movie and still. As I recall the Versa Matt was set up in 2 rooms, the feeder room was dark, the film was attached to a feeder card which was feed through the chemistry and wash pulling the film after it, room light on the other end, a tech would cut the film for drying. Or was the film dried in the machine, may not have a Versa Mat, another brand. After 50 years the details are fuzzy.

 

[Chan Tran]

Les, first a brain fade, the MF18 back wasn't used, we did use it on a test run prior to getting the borrowed 250 frame back.

Now for the film loading itself, you could load from a 24 or 36 frame cassette, but you will certainly lose a fair bit what with all of the fiddling in the dark and the sheer length of the unit.

First up, you set the amount of frames you wish to roll, from memory it runs in lots of 5 frames, so you could have 10 frames, 25 frames or 30 frames, up to the maximum of 250 frames. The counter counts down and when you reach the desired frames, the unit is back to zero and you will hear the click and I think it locks, or at least is then very hard to wind. You then cut the film and remove the cassette inner.

Basically you place a bulk film roll fresh out of the tin, or whatever is used these days and place it on the back of the unit, then you place the inner part of the cassette and pull the film leader and place it into the slot. Then you place the moveable arm which goes down over the film, this keeps the film sprockets in position and aligns the film. You then wind until you hear the click.

Then you remove the cassette inner and assemble the cassette, there are three parts. Place this to one side, then grab another cassette and do exactly the same, all of course in the dark. You keep doing this until you have used the entire bulk film roll.

Then the lights go on and you can load the camera.

Easy as, sort of. While the specifics I've mentioned will be reasonably correct, it is over 30 years ago I used that 250 frame back and my memory is certainly terrible these days.

The best tripod will be one capable of handling 5x4" film camera, you're looking at 6kg at the minimum.

Mick.

edit, youwill need to reset the counter each time in the dark, you can count the clicks; good luck with that. We just loaded the maximum each time.

So if he load the film from a 36 exposure roll he only has 36 exposures right? He can't load multi roll of 36 exp in the back isn't it true? If so if he can't buy regular stock in bulk roll he could use 35mm movies film.

 

[Nokton48]

003 by Nokton48, on Flickr

I bought this Minolta SR-M 250 exposure back from a nice fellow from Ireland. It was new in the original box and never used, his father was a Newspaper Photographer in Belfast, and won the back as a top prize in a photo contest. I have loaded it with Eastman XX 35mm movie film, and it works perfectly, but it is gummy inside and needs a cleaning. It did stop running a couple of times, I rapped it gently on a wooden table, and it started up again chugging right along. I need to find a good tech familiar with this unit and get a CLA and new light seals. It's pretty cool and I'm glad I found it. I found a bunch of original SRM 250 cassettes and a bulk loader so all set in that regard.

 

[Paul Howell]

Is it the intergrader motor drive body with 250 back? Only seen it in photos.

 

[Nokton48]

Is it the intergrader motor drive body with 250 back? Only seen it in photos.

Yep it is.

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Minolta SRM Original Brochure 3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

005 by Nokton48, on Flickr

001 by Nokton48, on Flickr

It needs new foam and an interior cleaning. Lubes inside have turned into glue. Should be easy peasy to restore.

 

[Les Sarile]

Easy as, sort of. While the specifics I've mentioned will be reasonably correct, it is over 30 years ago I used that 250 frame back and my memory is certainly terrible these days.

I can understand completely and appreciate you reaching back to provide such detailed info! Sounds like I will waste some frames which will all be in great fun . . .

 

[Les Sarile]

The biggest problem with exposing this much film is having the facilities to process it.

That's why I was thinking of just loading a few frames at first. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Les Sarile]

It needs new foam and an interior cleaning. Lubes inside have turned into glue. Should be easy peasy to restore.

That's a looker for sure! Hope you get that sorted.

 

[ph]

interesting.

I used to buy B&W film in long lengths when I was a student, spooling it onto the when-mounted- opening Leitz and Canon cassettes (which did not suffer from scratching the emulsion), but never used a a whole roll in one go.

Although I define myself as a user rather than a collector, I do have a motorized Alpa with an extra 250 exposure back, but never used the back, Maybe I shall fish it out from storage and see whether it allows taking out shorter runs and leaving the unexposed bits in as mentioned above.

p.

 

[Paul Howell]

Motorized Alpa, another I've only seen in pictures, don't think it's hand hold able,

 

[Nokton48]

Les,
The Minolta XK MOT with the 250 Back is also fun. I bought such a back for $300 and then returned it 'cause I don't have an XK MOT. It was a beautiful piece. My SR-M 250 Back has a film cutter built in, you can shoot whatever length you want, then go in the darkroom and cut, and develop the however long shorter strip. Nikon might have this option??

Come to think of it, I have a number of 72 exposure JOBO 35mm reels and a JOBO loader. So three of those reels could handle 250 exposures and go into a 2500 series JOBO Multitank. Hmmmm.......

 

[AgX]

Such built in knive is a good idea, but I guess with all long-film backs one can take off the back, cut the film with a pair of scissors and take out the already exposed film.

Maybe someone is more knowledgable on this.

 

[AgX]

Les is one of the few people on the planet who can say this .

He seemingly got no body for the Praktina 17m back... but that is 450 exp. anyway...

 

[Paul Howell]

By the way the lens on the Alpa is a reflex zoom.

 

[Les Sarile]

Motorized Alpa, another I've only seen in pictures, don't think it's hand hold able,

Makes sense it's mounted portrait mode as I understand it was commonly used for taking lots of portraits like in graduation and the like.

 

[Les Sarile]

He seemingly got no body for the Praktina 17m back... but that is 450 exp. anyway...

But it's not for lack of trying. I guess that model is more available farther east then where I'm at . . .

 

[Paul Howell]

Makes sense it's mounted portrait mode as I understand it was commonly used for taking lots of portraits like in graduation and the like.

The set up as shown was used by James Edger to takes photos of the space shuttle at lift off, the lens is a 500 to 800. The motor drive is all mechanical operated.