Anyone remember super slides?

OlyMan · Dec 24, 2017

Sorry if this is classed as 35mm..I guess it straddles the two!

I have a few dozen of these inherited from my dad. They used 127 film to shoot 4cm x 4cm transparencies which were mounted in thin-bezel 2"x2" mounts and could be projected by regular 35mm projectors.

Here's a photo showing the difference between super slides and regular 35mm:

I guess they ultimately died a death because they straddled a no mans land between the convenience of 135 and its 24-36 shots on a roll and 2¼" square aka 6cm x 6cm. Compared to 2¼", super slides had the same drawbacks compared to 135, ie greater expense and fewer shots on the roll, but 2¼" gave even higher quality images.

MattKing · Dec 24, 2017

I have a few. They project beautifully.

aoresteen · Dec 24, 2017

Somewhere I have a box of a couple hundred cardboard SuperSlide mounts. I used to shoot SuperSlides in my Baby Rollei. I shot the last available new 127 E6 film from J&C Photo around 2005ish. Every now & then you can find respooled 120 E-6 into 127.

I also have a Hasselblad A16S film back that will shoot 16 SuperSlides on 120 film. Used with the 80mm lens it gives a nice cropped portrait.

Super slide do project beautifully.

http://www.oresteen.com/ROLLEI4X4.htm

http://www.oresteen.com/ROLLEI4X4_use.htm

David Brown · Dec 24, 2017

It's what 127 film was designed for. Unfortunately, most 127 cameras (not the Rollei, obviously) were not much above amateur levels, and the format did not survive.

In a way, it's too bad. Square format in a smaller package. Cameras not much larger that a 35mm. And, it didn't have to be square. I've seen negative carriers for a rectangular format on 127 that was extremely close to 645. Only 8 exposures on a roll, but cameras could have been made in a horizontal configuration without too much trouble.

I have hundreds of these, shot by my Dad, mostly in the 1950s.

Ian Grant · Dec 24, 2017

MattKing said:
I have a few. They project beautifully.

Not in all projectors, I have a few cut down from 120 but some projectors don't have a square gate they clip the corners off actually I've seen slide scanner trays that do the same, I can;t remember which of my projectors clips the corners maybe my old Kinderman (stolen), maybe my Priz (Dixons) which is just a re=badged Rollei.

It's a nice format shame 127 never really caught on. But then I wish Kodak would bring back 110 the original not the sub-miniature as I have a camera

Ian

AgX · Dec 24, 2017

I assume most projectors from the 80s onwards will not illuminate 4x4cm images.

OlyMan · Dec 24, 2017

AgX said:
I assume most projectors from the 80s onwards will not illuminate 4x4cm images.

Worst case scenario is they tend to crop the corners off. Some require a slight adjustment, eg the 10xx and 20xx series of Kodak Carousels need you to reposition one of the condensers, which is clearly explained in the manual.

Sirius Glass · Dec 24, 2017

I remember them but I never used them.

AgX · Dec 24, 2017

OlyMan said:
Worst case scenario is they tend to crop the corners off. Some require a slight adjustment, eg the 10xx and 20xx series of Kodak Carousels need you to reposition one of the condensers, which is clearly explained in the manual.

But these multifunctional projectors are rare...

Though these sketches show that one might give a try at twisting a condenser-half in a given set.

OlyMan · Dec 24, 2017

AgX said:
But these multifunctional projectors are rare...

They're not really, there's about a dozen for sale every month, you just refuse to buy online. I respect your decision but the world has had a paradigm shift. The days of finding anything like that at camera fairs and flea markets have pretty much gone, unfortunately, and they won't return.

GRHazelton · Dec 24, 2017

I remember shooting Ektachrome something in the 60s with my Komaflex S, a leaf shutter 127 SLR. The Koma sported a rather good 4 element f2.8 and was a pleasure to use. I recall processing Ektachrome from the Koma and from a 35mm Beauty camera - a leaf shutter rangefinder with a fine lens - in a Kodak tank using the aprons to carry the film. The processing regimen called for the reversal exposure to be exactly that: accomplished with a photo flood bulb! The slides projected wonderfully. I'd love to use the Komaflex again, but 127 film is too expensive to justify a CLA on the camera, which has an inoperative automatic diaphragm. The slides I processed are still in good shape.

Europan · Dec 25, 2017

Once had a very cheap snapshot 1½ inch square camera and made slides. A beautiful format. The Rolleiflex 4 by 4 (cm) was my dream then. Yes, pity it got almost lost. I hope Film Ferrania will cut 127 film once they have their chrome up. I dealt professionally with Superslides as head of the slides department of the art history seminar at Zürich university more than 30 years ago.

Paul Howell · Dec 25, 2017

I have a few dozen or so, taken with a Yashica 44, and a box of superslides I bought in Rome, I was in hurry so didn't have time to visit all the sites at the time, quality is really bad, copies of copies, waste of money. Years later on return trips took my own slides.

Alan Gales · Dec 25, 2017

I belonged to St. Louis Camera Club for a year back in the 1980's when I first started shooting 35mm. It was a large club and we would sit there and view member's 35mm slides every meeting while they were being critiqued. Anyway, there was this photographer who shot super slides with his Hasselblad. He often traveled to Africa and had a lot of his photographs printed in National Geographic. The fellow was really good and when his super slides were shown the whole crowd would just gasp in awe.

Sirius Glass · Dec 25, 2017

They would have really gasped if he had shown 2 1/2" x 2 1/4" slides.

Pentode · Dec 25, 2017

I still have a couple dozen plastic mounts for these. My Yashica 44 doesn't see the light of day very often anymore, but I messed around with it for a while in the 90s.
127 is so hard to come by now and costs a king's ransom. Too bad... I kind of liked the format.

Alan Gales · Dec 25, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
They would have really gasped if he had shown 2 1/2" x 2 1/4" slides.

Oh yeah!

I didn't know what super slides were so I asked and was told that they were smaller than 6x6. Right then, right there I wanted a Hasselblad. I just couldn't afford it at that time. A 500cm with 80mm lens cost more than my used car did.

OlyMan · Dec 25, 2017

Pentode said:
I still have a couple dozen plastic mounts for these.

My dad's are all in cardboard mounts. I was hoping to trace about two dozen Gepe glass mounts, but probably not surprisingly, mounts for them are rarer than NOS 127 film. I haven't given up hope of finding some for sale one day, but I can't help but feel when that day comes, there's gonna be a few of us battling for the same thing, and it'll be a case of which one of us has the deepest pockets. And I will lose.

Sirius Glass · Dec 25, 2017

Alan Gales said:
Oh yeah!

I didn't know what super slides were so I asked and was told that they were smaller than 6x6. Right then, right there I wanted a Hasselblad. I just couldn't afford it at that time. A 500cm with 80mm lens cost more than my used car did.

And now you can afford a Hasselblad, lenses and a SWC. It is a wonderful life except to the state of film which out be greatly improved.

billdele · Dec 26, 2017

I bought a Baby Rollei from Montgomery Ward in 1961 or 1962; they sold them for about $57. As I understand it, an unfavorable review in Consumer Reports led to this close-out price. My camera never gave me any trouble, though the slow speeds never worked (and I never used them); I took hundreds of super slides on Ektachrome (Wards in St. Paul had a very good camera department where I could buy a dozen rolls at a time). When Kodak stopped putting up Ektachrome in 127 (about 1983), I think), I sold the Baby Rollei and bought a full size Rollei and picked up a "Super Slide for Rollei" adapter that was made, I think, by Burleigh Brooks in New York, a premier Rollei dealership in New York. The adapter consisted of a mask for the viewing screen and one for the film gate. I didn't have a convenient way to cut the 1&5/8" squares out of the processed 120 roll till one made by Mamiya showed up on Ebay; when I talked with the seller about shipping I found out that I had bought 3 or 4 of them which I still have.

I thought that it wouldn't hurt to put this tiny corner of SuperSlide history into this thread.

aoresteen · Dec 26, 2017

IIRC my Carousal 750 (700 maybe?) projector handled SuperSlides without any corner issues. Biggest issue I had was with my screen. I had a cheap screen that the sides turned forward. Once I upgraded to a nice Daylight screen all was well.

Pentode · Dec 26, 2017

OlyMan said:
I was hoping to trace about two dozen Gepe glass mounts, but probably not surprisingly, mounts for them are rarer than NOS 127 film.

This is one of those good news/bad news situations.

The good news: I looked for my Gepe glass mounts with the intention of offering them to you and they were actually right where I thought they were!

The bad news: They’re not the size I thought they were. They’re 6x6. I guess my memory can only be counted on half the time.

Sorry, Man.... I tried to help you out.

jtk · Dec 26, 2017

I shot thousands of them with an animation-stand camera...and processed them E4...in the Seventies for multi projector commercial slide shows. Gepe mounts.

OlyMan · Dec 26, 2017

Pentode said:
This is one of those good news/bad news situations.

The good news: I looked for my Gepe glass mounts with the intention of offering them to you and they were actually right where I thought they were!

The bad news: They’re not the size I thought they were. They’re 6x6. I guess my memory can only be counted on half the time.

Sorry, Man.... I tried to help you out.

No worries thanks for thinking of me. Shipping from the states to UK would probably have been $$$ anyhow. Not sure why but suddenly the cost of international shipping from the USA has gone through the roof.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2017

I always thought that the format was convenient and a better shape than 35mm. It played well with all 35mm projectors and filled the screen nicely. I just never owned one.

Anyone remember super slides?

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