Complete Guide to 70mm Film

[film4eva]

I was wondering about that. I was thinking that it'd be difficult to fill and drain in close timeframes to balance out the amount of dwell time at two given, distant, points on the film.

I guess the other thing is for me to really decide if I even want to chase 70mm, or if 65mm could be my jam.

 

[MCB18]

I have found that you need a slow-working developer, as it takes a couple of minutes to fill or dump my Kindermann, it's like weight lifting, you will get a workout. I use mine with ADOX Borax Replenished which is a D76 Derivative. With Replenished Microdol-X Straight Replenished very long times are appropriate for me; I've gone as long as 28 minutes with some films. Just Sayin".

To solve this issue I plan to just develop in my darkroom, at least for now. Would need to find a way to time dev and agitation in the dark, but this is probably pretty easy to do. I am designing a developing tank for 70mm and 65mm that I am trying to get fill and dump times as fast as possible (30 seconds ideally), but we’ll see how that works out.

 

[Nokton48]

DSC05808 by Nokton48, on Flickr

This one I own has a 4x5 Graflok Back on it. I think I paid $35 back then.

DSC05820 by Nokton48, on Flickr

I filed out this Omega 4x5/70mm Carrier to take full frames from my smaller Beatty Coleman. Can see the sprocket holes in the edges of the prints.

 

[OrientPoint]

For those of you looking for a 70mm developing reel and accompanying tank:

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[MCB18]

For those of you looking for a 70mm developing reel and accompanying tank:

Pardon Our Interruption...

Wow, AI description spotted. Womp womp.

Also, this doesn’t come with the loader, and it is not going to be possible to load without that… trust me I tried. After about a hour I managed to get maybe 50 ft on there in the light. You will have to build yourself one if you get this.

 

[OrientPoint]

How were you trying to load film onto this sort of reel? I've seen large crank loaders for this type reel for sale pretty inexpensively from time to time. The loader is bulky but quite lightweight. I have one that I got about 10 years so (with the reel). I don't have the tank though. I ended finding an old Jobo 70mm tank + loader set soon after, so I've not had to mess with loading these big stainless reels, or get into finding a tank. These days I use the crank loader I have to roll film from cans into a bulk loader.

 

[MCB18]

@OrientPoint I do have the loader for it, I think I showed a picture of it earlier in the thread. With that I can load the reel in about 2 minutes. It’s a giant piece of equipment as well though and probably weighs 10 lbs on its own, so it is not light nor small. It’s not like the JOBO loader, which I imagine is what you are thinking of.

I was attempting to load the reel just on a table without the loader to see if it was possible to do, out of curiosity more than anything… it’s really not.

 

[OrientPoint]

I see your post now. My loader looks like yours. It it large. It is not heavy though. Maybe 3 lbs and seems to be all aluminum. The Jobo loader is plastic and particle board. Feels flimsy, so I'm always concerned I'm going to snap the guide. It works well though (at least until I do manage to break it).

 

[Nokton48]

DSC05899 (1) by Nokton48, on Flickr 70mm Nikor reel in Kindermann Tank by Nokton48, on Flickr

 

[blee1996]

Anyone happen to have photos of the Jobo 70mm reel and tank solution?

 

[Sonynolta User]

Found me some goodies. Nikor Tank & Reels. Just need to 3d print a cap for the lid.
One reel is a bit worse than the others, but I think it can be salvaged.
If I could just figure out how to get one down to 65mm. But they look pretty solidly built.

 

[MCB18]

I had a slitter printed for 105mm film, I added a blade for 70mm. Might be a good film to have some fun with.

 

[MCB18]

In case anyone here hasn’t seen this yet, I found an extremely good deal on some 70mm cassettes in double lindhof cases. Considering that even 1 cassette usually goes for almost twice this online, this is a super awesome opportunity to stock up on cassettes.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/2x-70mm-film-cassettes-in-double-storage-containers.215664/

 

[aoresteen]

I have never used 100 feet all at once. I have a 70mm bulk film loader. My 70mm reels hold 15 feet of film.

I built a daylight tank for them using a daylight print tank that I cut down to fit the 70mm reel.

I am down to my last 50 feet of Ilford 70mm HP-5 double perf film.

 

[Nokton48]

Paterson Olde Tanks Converted to 70mm 24 Exposure Reels No Leaks by Nokton48, on Flickr


I converted these two 120 Paterson Reels, expanding the width, so they will each hold a 24 exposure roll of 70mm film. The large tank holds two rolls of 70mm film, with room for a 35mm roll on top. None of these tanks LEAK. I tested the big one extensively, rolling on a Unicolor Uniroller, and it dosen't drip at all. I've been using these tanks recently again, they are all working really well for me. And I built them from parts I already had around, so repurposed the reels to work easilly with 70mm film.

 

[MCB18]

Look what’s on its way to me! Unfortunately not all for me (I don’t need 16 cassettes haha), but I’m keeping 4 of them!

 

[MCB18]

Also I bought *more* 70mm Techpan, because I’m a crazy person I guess haha

 

[blee1996]

Some people have wine cellars, we would rather have freezer for film.

 

[film4Me]

This Nebro reel allows for extra slots to be filed into it's spindle for odd size film. So far I've filed slots for 110, APS, and 70mm. These are in addition to the standard 35mm and 120 slots which are present from new. So this tank is what I've been using to develop 116, 616, and some bulk roll 70mm color film. I established first the liquid level and quantity by filling the tank with water just above the reel and pouring the water out into a measuring beaker to record the milliliters. If you see one of these tanks for sale, grab it.

 

[Chuck1]

Also I bought *more* 70mm Techpan, because I’m a crazy person I guess haha

I didn't know that existed

 

[MCB18]

I didn't know that existed

A member of the forum was selling them for a little while, I think they might be out now, which is unfortunate, otherwise I would snag one more. I’ve shot a little bit of tech pan, and I really like the look.

 

[MCB18]

I thought I posted this earlier but I guess not. I’m currently selling 70mm film rolls from Astrum. And one of them is IR-sensitive, working well at EI 50 even with an IR filter! Feel free to ask any questions you might have.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...ir-film-lots-of-formats-including-ulf.216034/

 

[MCB18]

OK, I don’t generally like posting back to back stuff on threads that aren’t mine, but I really wanted to share this because I think it’s neat. I just got the 70 mm cassettes from Italy, and some of the spools inside them are actually very different than any of the 70 mm spools I have seen thus far. Most of them have a spool with a film slot, you simply slide the film into, and no metal clip. Pretty interesting, I don’t think I’ve seen that mentioned anywhere else. That’s actually pretty nice, no need to worry about losing the metal clip.

 

[pcameau]

But there is a certain satisfaction of shooting a long roll of 70mm with the motorized Hasselblad 553ELX while pretending to be an astronaut.

Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that laugh. Talking about the Hasselblad Magazin 70, didn't NASA use the 250 version? There are 250 shots and 500 shots versions. The EDC and ELX are not that different from one another.

 

[MCB18]

Mail day! After I make some 120 tomorrow I’ll have… still way too much (400 ft), lol. Maybe it could be fun to try and use this film as intended to shoot some astrophotography stuff!