Minox photography for absolute beginners

[Donald Qualls]

@tjwspm I've had no trouble using the 828 (35 mm unperfed), 127, and 16 mm rolls and strips from doing this. Yes, it's very possible to cut through the plastic core, but done in a well lit room even this doesn't result in much edge fogging (though it probably would in a film known for light piping issues). Ideally, you'd stop cutting when you reach the core. It ought to be possible to fabricate a cutter with the correct blade spacing for your strip width and blade length selected to have the cutter body act as a stop against the outside of the 120 roll, but the only one I've seen like that is a commercial 127 slitter I have sitting on my desk (at home).

In my experience, 127 and 828 are tolerant of a millimeter or so of width variation, but the width is very even since you're rolling the cut and cutting through the length while you only cut 5-6 mm deep. The 16 mm strip from 127 works in my Minolta 16 format cameras, also -- in all of these cases, the film is driven by tension at the head rather than rollers or sprockets.

 

[xkaes]

For what it's worth, Minox film is not 9.5mm wide as is commonly seen in print and on the Web. You need to get it down to one tenth of a millimeter.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Actual spec is 9.2 mm, giving 0.6 mm clearance on either edge of the image. I'd surely want to build a mechanical cutter to cut Minox from 120, at least with the blades carefully spaced and rigidly fixed. Six strips would be 55.2 mm, giving 2.9 mm on each edge of 120 to eliminate the edge markings. For 828 and 127/16 mm I've used a hand held snap blade knife many times with good results from first try to the last time I did it (about 10 years ago).

And yes, getting six Minox strips at once is a lot of film to keep track of (never mind cutting it in half lengths for 36-ish exposures). Sure gets cheap to feed that way, though...

 

[xkaes]

GOATHILL sells a lot of 120 to SIX-strip Minox slitters.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Friends - a question about film advance:

When I load a roll of film into a cassette I always place a small Sharpie mark on the film, load the cassette, take two shots then take out the cassette to see if it has wound on. About one in every five films will not move in my LX or EC, but those ones will always wind on in my B.

Has the B got a stronger wind mechanism?
What is the cause of film not winding on in these cassettes?

 

[tjwspm]

Friends - a question about film advance:

When I load a roll of film into a cassette I always place a small Sharpie mark on the film, load the cassette, take two shots then take out the cassette to see if it has wound on. About one in every five films will not move in my LX or EC, but those ones will always wind on in my B.

Has the B got a stronger wind mechanism?
What is the cause of film not winding on in these cassettes?

What exactly do you mean by “sharpie mark”? Why do you need the marker? Do you glue something onto the film or do you cut it in?

 

[perkeleellinen]

Sorry for confusion, Sharpie is a brand of permanent marker pen:

https://www.sharpie.com/

I place a dot of permanent pen ink on the film so I can ensure it winds on; if I can still see the pen mark after two photos then the film is stuck.

 

[tjwspm]

Sorry for confusion, Sharpie is a brand of permanent marker pen:

https://www.sharpie.com/

I place a dot of permanent pen ink on the film so I can ensure it winds on; if I can still see the pen mark after two photos then the film is stuck.

I see, in Germany we would say put a “Edding” dot.

I assume that the film can be easily pulled out of the cartridge by hand.

Then the first thing I would suspect is that in the camera the freewheel is slipping on the spool drive. Have you perhaps oiled this area? You would think that if the spool drive is stiff, you would oil it there. But you have to pay very close attention to the right places. I have described why this is the case here:

Incorrect film feeding

It happens that the Minox film feeding works incorrectly, resulting in the negatives overlapping on the film. Learn here how to fix it.

moments-of-now.com

 

[xkaes]

My first question is -- Did you cut film and/or load the cassettes yourself?

I can think of three reasons for film not advancing:

It might have been cut slightly too wide and is getting stuck. As I mentioned earlier, Minox film is NOT 9.5mm wide.

The film might have been attached insufficiently to the take-up spool. I always use a double attachment. With a LONG strip of tape, I attach BOTH sides of the film to the take-up spool. If you only attach it to one side, it's more likely to disengage.

Also, if the tape and film are not attached to the take-up spool STRAIGHT, the film can be dragged at an angle and jam.

 

[tjwspm]

For most Minox-type cameras with manual control, exposure is easy with a small adjustment to the f-16 rule. Just multiply the ISO by 20 and that's the shutter speed for a SUNNY situation.

ISO 25 = 25 x 20 = 1/500 SUNNY - adjust as the light dims:
Cloudy w dull shadows = 1/250
Cloudy Bright no shadows = 1/125
Overcast/shade = 1/60
etc.

ISO 100 = 100 x 20 = 1/2000 SUNNY -- use a filter

Since I normally shoot B&W at 1/2 the ISO, I adjust for that too.

Today the proof of how accurate your process is. I didn't have a gray card with me, so it was a gray wall.
Alsdorf, Germany, cloudless sky in the morning:

 

[perkeleellinen]

Also, if the tape and film are not attached to the take-up spool STRAIGHT, the film can be dragged at an angle and jam.

I am buying slit film from MS Hobbies in the UK which I load myself. I'm sure it's an alignment issue as you suggest but my puzzle is why does the B always move the film when the LX will not?

Any tips for ensuring the take up spool is square?

 

[tjwspm]

Any tips for ensuring the take up spool is square?

The best description I know is by Tristan da Cunha. Here are three pictures of how he does the alignment:

https://tdacunha.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/21-chargement-film-minox.jpg

https://tdacunha.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/23-chargement-film-minox.jpg

https://tdacunha.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/24-chargement-film-minox.jpg

He shows how he does it in the dark. I would do it in the light while the film is already in the film chamber.

You can find the full description (in French) here:

Minox 8X11 : l'extraordinaire - Tristan da Cunha

Comment utiliser aujourd'hui un Minox 8X11 pour faire des photos de qualité. Choisir le bon modèle, le bon film et méthode de numérisation.

tdacunha.com

 

[xkaes]

I am buying slit film from MS Hobbies in the UK which I load myself. I'm sure it's an alignment issue as you suggest but my puzzle is why does the B always move the film when the LX will not?

Any tips for ensuring the take up spool is square?

You can open up the take-up side of the cassette -- dim light is best -- and see how the film is attached.

You might want to measure the width of the film you have to see exactly how wide it is.

 

[Donald Qualls]

GOATHILL sells a lot of 120 to SIX-strip Minox slitters.

Well, and for that price it's hardly worth trying to 3D print one for myself. Am I correct in understanding that a 120 roll will actually produce twelve 36 exposure Minox rolls? Six wide, and two lengths from each strip (okay, likely 33 or so actual exposures from the 15-16 inch half length strips).

 

[perkeleellinen]

You can open up the take-up side of the cassette -- dim light is best -- and see how the film is attached.

I'm attaching the film myself, I just buy the slit film. I've never had a film come detached but I do suspect that i'm not always getting the film on totally square. Strange that the issue only impacts the LX and not the B.

 

[xkaes]

Am I correct in understanding that a 120 roll will actually produce twelve 36 exposure Minox rolls? Six wide, and two lengths from each strip (okay, likely 33 or so actual exposures from the 15-16 inch half length strips).

That's right, and you can always cut the strips shorter or long at your discretion.

 

[xkaes]

Strange that the issue only impacts the LX and not the B.

Have you transferred a cassette that jams in the LX, placed it in the B, and have it advance OK? That would indicate a problem with the B.

Do all cassettes jam in the B, or does it happen just some of the time?

Are all of your cassettes genuine Minox?

 

[perkeleellinen]

Have you transferred a cassette that jams in the LX, placed it in the B, and have it advance OK? That would indicate a problem with the B.

Do all cassettes jam in the B, or does it happen just some of the time?

Are all of your cassettes genuine Minox?

All genuine Minox cassettes. The pattern is that about one in every five cassettes I have loaded will not advance in the LX but then when transferred to be B will advance. This year I shot all summer with the LX no issues but the cassette I loaded last week would not advance so it's now in the B advancing fine.

 

[xkaes]

Assuming no problem with the LX, the only thing I would do is measure the width of the film than jams in the LX. The LX might be putting a little bit more pressure on the cassette than the B. That might be all that is needed. The fact that it is only some cassettes that jam is hard to explain. Are all the cassettes the same? Minox made different styles and sizes. Are they just snapped together or taped?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

When I was a kid, I wanted a Minox so I could become a spy.

 

[xkaes]

When I was a kid, I wanted a Minox so I could become a spy.

Funny, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy so I could get a Minox.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Funny, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy so I could get a Minox.

Being a spy is more interesting than taking pictures.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Assuming no problem with the LX, the only thing I would do is measure the width of the film than jams in the LX. The LX might be putting a little bit more pressure on the cassette than the B. That might be all that is needed. The fact that it is only some cassettes that jam is hard to explain. Are all the cassettes the same? Minox made different styles and sizes. Are they just snapped together or taped?

The cassettes are taped, mostly old ones from the '80s and '90s. This has given me a thought, I wonder if the spring to assist unloading the cassette in the LX may be applying just enough pressure on the cassette so that when the take up spool is not perfectly aligned the film jams.

 

[FriedLouisStudio]

Funny, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy so I could get a Minox.

I actually had a Minox when I was a kid... in 1967, when EVERYONE wanted to be a spy!

Since I was growing up working in my parents' little commercial studio doing b/w photography daily, I developed skills like estimating focus distance to convince my folks that I could handle a Minox. So I had a Minox B for over two years, when I was 12 to 14, and I shot 90+ rolls of Tri-X (factory loads of Kodak emulsions were what was available in that time/place.)

But you know, 60s Tri-X developed in straight D-76 was awfully grainy even in 4x5 prints - not to mention the endless issues with scratches and dust (our studio/darkrooms were always a mess, quite the opposite of what "photo lab" conjures) and I eventually became frustrated with my results. I wanted a compact 35mm... So we sold the Minox and my next personal camera was a Petri Color 35 that served me well for nearly 15 years.

Some examples of my 60s 4x5 Minox shots on Tri-X. Note that I got MUCH better results in my second round of Minoxery, 1995-2016, using 100-speed films and more mature, careful darkroom practice. And make no mistake, I still think the Minox is the COOLEST camera ever, I still have a IIIs and B...

 

[xkaes]

The cassettes are taped, mostly old ones from the '80s and '90s. This has given me a thought, I wonder if the spring to assist unloading the cassette in the LX may be applying just enough pressure on the cassette so that when the take up spool is not perfectly aligned the film jams.

I didn't know the LX had such a spring. Learn something every day!