ADOX attempting to restart 110 film production.

terceslil said:

Surprised someone hasn't started a respooling service or started making cartridges and putting the 16mm film in the cartridges. I'd pay for the service so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with the cartridges.

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I was thinking of taking a machine shop class specifically to do that. High quality metal reloadable 110 cartridges.

terceslil said:

Surprised someone hasn't started a respooling service or started making cartridges and putting the 16mm film in the cartridges. I'd pay for the service so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with the cartridges.

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Does ADOX sell rolls of 16mm film?

I couldn't find 16mm film on the ADOX website. Doesn't seem too hard to find the 16mm film though. http://www.subclub.org/sponsors/goathil2.htm

terceslil said:

Surprised someone hasn't started a respooling service or started making cartridges and putting the 16mm film in the cartridges. I'd pay for the service so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with the cartridges.

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I would imagine perforating the film is the limiting step. I suspect the tolerances may need to be pretty tight to ensure it works on all cameras out there.

terceslil said:

I couldn't find 16mm film on the ADOX website. Doesn't seem too hard to find the 16mm film though. http://www.subclub.org/sponsors/goathil2.htm

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I don't know if all that is still available, bottom of page shows last update 2004...

In 2004 you could get 100foot rolls of Ilford HP5 NEGATIVE in single perf (I should have bought more . )

This post says that he got in touch with the owner as recently as 4/6/11. So I guess he still has the 16mm.

Well, Chuck it looks like I solved the film problem too! I finally got in touch with Joe McGloin at Goat Hill Photo by email. I just sent a money order to him for 3 cartridges. So hopefully soon, I'll be ready to start shooting some pictures with this very cool little camera!

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His contact info: email
Joe McGloin
3271 S. Clay St.
Sheridan, CO 80110

i bought a slitter from goathill a few months ago.
mr mcgloin is is VERY alive and well ... and a pleasure
to buy from...

2F/2F said:

I was thinking of taking a machine shop class specifically to do that. High quality metal reloadable 110 cartridges.

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Seriously? Do you plan to sell loaded cartridges?

terceslil said:

Seriously? Do you plan to sell loaded cartridges?

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I wasn't planning on it. If anyone did want some, I wasn't planning on pre-loading them. But this is all long away. I haven't even taken a basic machine shop class in about 20 years.

I also use the Goat Hill/Al Spoil film slitter. Mine slices a 120 roll into a 127 roll on one side and a 110 roll on the other, so I can make one roll into two--one for my Yashica 44 (127) and another for my Minolta 110 Zoom SLR. Fortunately the Minolta does not require the specific 110 perfs to cock the shutter. I also remove the 110 paper backing, put black tape over the window, and just keep count (the film seems to run smoother in a reloaded cartridge that way and I can get about 18 shots.

Having said that, it would still be great to get some fresh 110 Adox B/W film pre-loaded. I hope they are successful with the project. The only thing that I don't really understand is why 400 film? With such a small format won't that be too grainy? Did I misread that, or perhaps they are looking to create a specific aesthetic with the higher grain film? (I've never actually tried to shoot a 400 ASA B/W film in 110 but 125 ASA film like FP4 can look surprisingly good.)

Ektagraphic said:

It would be really awesome if they did 126 and 127 too

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Agreed. My wife has a beautiful baby gray Rollie and I recently found a 4x4 carrier for my 23CII, just in case...

It seems that with all the interest in respooling and rigging up 120 film to work in 620 cameras that Adox could produce some 620. Surely producing the spools can't be that difficult. That being said I can't wait for the 110.

I'm sure they could make 620 spools easily but re-spooling to a 620 roll is so easy that I am not sure they could make any money on this. I would not pay more than 50 cents extra for a 620 roll vs a 120 roll. Any more that that and I will just roll my own.

Also can their 120 film spooler also do 620 rolls? If not I don't think there is any chance of that happening.

brianmquinn said:

I'm sure they could make 620 spools easily but re-spooling to a 620 roll is so easy that I am not sure they could make any money on this. I would not pay more than 50 cents extra for a 620 roll vs a 120 roll. Any more that that and I will just roll my own.

Also can their 120 film spooler also do 620 rolls? If not I don't think there is any chance of that happening.

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I doubt the spooler can do it unmodified. But that my be an easy modification. If they have a few sharp mechanics to make an adapter and control systems guys to modify the drive train speed they can do it very cheap.

Even if they have to go outside for it I think the cost would be reasonable. The question would be what is the potential market. If you totally flood the market for several years with only 10k rolls you can't pay for it. But of you can make a run of 10k once a year and sell it off then it may be marketable.

I remember Mirko making a comment that they could produce as few as 10k units on their new micro line.

brianmquinn said:

I'm sure they could make 620 spools easily but re-spooling to a 620 roll is so easy that I am not sure they could make any money on this. I would not pay more than 50 cents extra for a 620 roll vs a 120 roll. Any more that that and I will just roll my own.

Also can their 120 film spooler also do 620 rolls? If not I don't think there is any chance of that happening.

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I agree that re-spooling 620 reels is easy. A thought would be to provide a paper roll and long roll film and let us just roll our own. I've been saving paper so all I would need would be the film in bulk, preferably short canisters that look like a large 35mm canister for easy refrigeration and usage.

waynecrider said:

I agree that re-spooling 620 reels is easy. A thought would be to provide a paper roll and long roll film and let us just roll our own. I've been saving paper so all I would need would be the film in bulk, preferably short canisters that look like a large 35mm canister for easy refrigeration and usage.

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I have searched in vain to ever find that anyone ever sold 120 size film in long rolls. 70mm film comes in long rolls, and 46mm film comes in long rolls, and 135 size film comes in the canisters. But those are the only "bulk" films that I've ever been able to find that were marketed.

That certainly isn't to say that a company couldn't sell a bulk roll of 120 size film. After all, they slit in the confectioning plants. There's nothing t prevent them from stuffing a hundred feet of it into a canister of some type and selling it to us, aside from the fact that it's not a canister size they have available right now.

MB

terceslil said:

Surprised someone hasn't started a respooling service or started making cartridges and putting the 16mm film in the cartridges. I'd pay for the service so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with the cartridges.

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16mm film has the right width for 110 cameras but a different perforation.

I haven´t gone through all of this thread- so excuse me if I am posting things twice- but let me update you on the current status(es):

1) We have remanufactured the 110 casettes, they are actually in stock already
2) We have built a perforating machine for 24 exposures (at some point earlier it was questionable if we can only get 20 exposures working as the perforating tool was originally build for 20 exposures and had been extended in the 80ies for 24).
The perforating machine can also chop the film to ready cut stripes.
3) We have backing paper available (also something which was questionable- at one point we considered closing the little window on the back and go with film in the casettes only).
4) We have a high precision slitter capable of slitting a 35mm film down to 32 mm on bulk rolls. This machine can make the 32mm pancakes for us to go into the perforator.
5) We have stock of 35mm unperforated colour film for the first 50.000 units of film already in the coolhouse (so we can start with colour independantly from AP400).

What needs to be acomplished now:

1) The spooling process
2) We have an ultrasonic welding device made by Branson/USA with a coresponding tool to weld the cassettes shut. This machine has been remooved from a production line and is complete with ultrasonic generator but needs to be rewired.
Branson Germany refuses to do this as they want to sell us a new unit for 20k EUR.
We don´t even want to think about distributing these costs on the film so we are looking to find someone who has expirience in fixing these Branson ultrasonic welding units. I am sure it can be fixed. We just need someone who has done this for years and knows how to do it. Any help is welcome!
3) We are currently building the raw-film confectioning "departement" (lacking a better english word). The "departement" is the newly put upper floor above the paper confectioning. The whole part of the building will be equipped with a special air conditioning and air filtration (suction above any cutting device to take away possible dust) and preconditioned inflow. All rooms will be clean rooms acording to film confectioning standards. This is quite complex and demands also "traps" for the workers where they put on overals and a certain path they have to follow to get somewhere. Obviously the film confectioning room can´t have any doors to the outside or other areas which are not clean rooms. Next to this the infrared lighting conditions have to be installed.
This all will be finished by the end of the year. So whichever progress we make on the 110 production machines until then determines what we can start with by the end of the year. Before this date we cannot put the machines in operation as we would run the risk of getting dust onto the films.

Kind regards,

Mirko

That's really interesting...never thought that we would see new 110 films again!

I'll certainly be finding my old 110 camera from the attic and buying some films when they become available.

Good news indeed! Please keep us posted! Fresh(ish) color would be good and B&W would be awesome.

I've been thinking about respooling but the perforations are tough though I already have unperforated 35mm Portra 160NC and Rollei Retro 400S which I use in 828 (needs no perf), 126 (cut perf detecting finger off and use backing #) and 135 (Canon EOS10 needs only leader perfs which I cut by hand with my Swiss Army Knife). I'm not sure I can cut the perf detecting finger off a 110 camera like I did with 126 so no perfs are needed.

Interesting! I thought you would be doing B&W only! I'm really looking forward to your 110 film, as I currently use old stock from the Frugal Photographer.
I would think any good industrial electrician could re-wire the Branson Ultrasonic welder. Maybe not so easy to convert to European power though. I've used plenty of those here in the U.S. - really great machines.
I'm only one customer, but I'm ready to buy both B&W and color 110. Glad you are doing this-thanks.

i don't know how any news i read today will top this,
thanks for the update mirko!

john

Mirko, please provide details about the exact type of machine. Some of us know good engineers and might find the right man for the job.

As a compensation, my Pentax auto 110 equipment waits for b/w high-resolution 110 films

This news is phenomenal, Mirko. The first film I processed in my home darkroom as a teenager was Verichrome Pan 110.

It's good to see such enthusiasm for Adox's proposed 110 products, especially from some of the 'heavyweights', who I might not have expected to show so much interest. I must admit that I can't get too excited about colour print film, as it's increasingly difficult to get processed commercially to a satisfactory standard at a realistic price and I can't see me ever being keen about getting into processing it myself. However, a supply of perforated B/W film would lend itself to easy experimentation with both equipment and results, both for the Lomography followers and for those like myself who would just see it as a challenge to get the best results they can from the format with some of the ancient cameras currently gathering dust. (I specify perforated film as those of us who cut down film can already use that in the relatively small number of 110 cameras that don't need the perfs).

I hope the products will be readily available via our existing favourite suppliers. Whilst I'm sure no-one will be dumping their Leica M3 and whisking out a Minolta Auto 110 instead, the renewed availability of ammunition for the cameras can't do their sales on eBay any harm, along with perhaps a few more people wanting 110/16mm developing tanks.

Apologies if all/some of this has already been said, but it's getting to be a long thread to check through!

Steve

Color film is fine, too... I only have 30 rolls of 110 Kodak color negative film left.

Some examples from a very old italian Solaris film, the last 110 roll from a local camera dealer. He sold it to me for an outrageous price:











Let's call the Pentax auto 110 what it really is: the impressionist version of a Nikon F2