Kodak Monitor

[Gene Johnson]

Just finished printing a shot taken with an ancient Monitor. Wow! I'm extremely impressed. Granted "at f-22 all lenses are great", but these shots look really good. Very sharp with much better local contrast than I would have expected. I cleaned the glass, cleaned the shutter, patched the bellows leaks with fabric paint, and loaded it with Efke 25 and I have to say that some fairly serious photographic horsepower you can put in a pocket. 25 bucks.

http://www.rollei-gallery.net/gjohnson/folder-4648.html

the two lower right hand pics were done with this combination. The files you see are scans from the neg. The prints look much better.

 

[glennfromwy]

It's always good to see someone using classic gear. There are lots of old, inexpensive cameras out there that are very capable of producing good images. Cheap and fun!

 

[athanasius80]

Very nice. What lens does your Monitor have? Many of them have the Anastigmat Special--basically a front cell focusing Ektar and very nice to use. Glad to see I'm not the only one respooling 120.

 

[Mark Layne]

Very nice. What lens does your Monitor have? Many of them have the Anastigmat Special--basically a front cell focusing Ektar and very nice to use. Glad to see I'm not the only one respooling 120.

If you can find a friend with a lathe, trim down 120 to fit. I've been doing this for a long time now and saves all kinds of respooling hassles. You need to trim both the spool diameter and take a whisper shave off the length.
Mark

 

[Nathan Smith]

If you can find a friend with a lathe, trim down 120 to fit. I've been doing this for a long time now and saves all kinds of respooling hassles. You need to trim both the spool diameter and take a whisper shave off the length.
Mark

Interesting idea, I've just been trimming the edge of the spool with shears - not very precise but quick.

This trimming works with most cameras, but a few have decidedly smaller, uh, nubs, that fit into the hole in the end of the spool ... what's the best way to deal with that? A few years ago someone was selling some sort of inserts to basically shim up 120 to fit 620, I've been thinking of trying to come up with something like that using brass tube from the hobby store. Any ideas?

Nathan

 

[Donald Qualls]

Take along a 120 spool to the hobby store. Find the size of K&S nesting brass tube that exactly fits in the center hole, its inside diameter will fit nicely on the 620 spool pins. Buy a K&S tubing cutter while you're there, you still won't spend $10 and you can cut the 1/4" lengths you need, cleanly and squarely. Assuming you take up to original 620 spools, you won't need to do any more than slip a pair of the bushings into the trimmed 120 supply spool when you load, but if you don't have enough 620 spools and the camera can handle the extra 0.1 inch of length, you could also slot the bushings to fit the 620 takeup key and epoxy or super glue them into the trimmed 120 spools, to use the same spools for takeup. Done assembly line fashion, this could be little enough effort to make those 620 cameras even more practical shooters than they are with respooling or 620 spools (since you can make as many as you want/need, you don't have to worry about getting the adapted spools back from the processor when you do color).

Alternately, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you could get a suitable piece of brass C-channel while you're at the hobby shop, and solder it to the bushings to make keyed adapters that could be removed from the takeup spool when unloaded from the camera and reused indefinitely. And if someone were to make a bunch of these and sell them (perhaps stamped from aluminum or steel, wouldn't have to be brass), I'd buy a bunch if the price was reasonable.

Sadly, of my current three 620 cameras, only one will accept even a trimmed 120 supply spool, the others can't handle the length even though they'd be fine with the diameter.

 

[Gene Johnson]

Very nice. What lens does your Monitor have? Many of them have the Anastigmat Special--basically a front cell focusing Ektar and very nice to use. Glad to see I'm not the only one respooling 120.

Yeah it has a Special. It's actually a later coated one. I am able to put 120 on the supply side. had to mak a very small groove in the body of the camera so the lower flange would go in. I cover the groove with a tiny piece of electrical tape that fits in the light seal margin right next to the hinge. I still have to use 620 take-up spools. There are a few different configs of the film compartments in these things. On some, there's a little insert that holds the supply spool and also incorporates the film roller. Can't get a 120 roll in those without removing the insert, and you lose the roller. No big whoop according to people who've done it. But it's seriously a hullova camera for the money.