Processing 70mm (x 4.5 metres) Rollei 400S from Combat Graphic ????

Having totally failed to find anyone to process this film commercially of the 70mm (Perf type II) 50 exposure, 4.6metre/15 foot lengths of Rollei 400S black and white film, it looks like I may have to go back to processing it myself. Unless of course, anyone can suggest anyone who would be prepared to process this film (I can supply the reel). John Salim can process E6 film but nobody I can find, now sells E6 70mm Perf.Type II film. I have one 70mm cassette of very elderly Ektachrome 64 and that I suspect is "it".

I sold/gave away all my darkroom equipment about 30 years ago, when I became sensitised to hydroquinone, through being careless not wearing gloves. I will therefore be processing in Kodak XTOL. I have found someone (Nigel Hewes) who can make me a 70mm x 5M stainless steel reel but it is large at 78mm high and 170mm in diameter with little to no central hole. A friend in the USA has an old Honeywell/Nikkor tank that will take this reel but is about as simple as a tank gets, being just an empty stainless steel cylinder with a push on tight fitting cylindrical lid. There is nothing sophisticated like a light trap filling and emptying port. I would probably get a filling tube brazed on with a double U bend in it, which could be closed with a rubber bung. I cannot find any other tank which would take the Hewes reel, again unless of course, anyone knows different. My water in France, where I will be doing the developing, is very hard. I am not sure this matters for the stop bath but for the final wash, I will use de-ionised water.

Having finally managed after 10 years to find a working Graflex Combat Graphic 70mm giant rangefinder camera (the complete KS-6 kit with all three lenses and flash), it would be disappointing not to be able to process the film.

Wilson

If you have 70mm reel, then you can process it in dark using simple dish (bucket) with appropriate diameter. That is how I process my 70mm film. No need for the "proper" tank

Jobo makes a long-roll reel and tank that could handle that film. The reel is definitely number 3075, the tank might be 3035 or 3037 or something. Don't know if that's cheaper than having Hewes custom-make you something? I use the 35mm equivalents to process 100-exposure lengths of film, just doing it by hand inversion like any other daylight tank. You have to pop off the gear and get a red cap, and it sure does use a lot of chemicals, but it works. There is a loader base for each size of film, but I just hand load it like any other spiral. Tricky, but doable (and no worse than loading a custom Hewes reel, unless they also make you a custom 70mm version of their fancy loader rig!)

Duncan

I have used a 70mm Nikor reel and loader in a 3.5 gallon tank system, I'm sure Kindermann and Jobo also make reels and loaders. I have a reel I picked up cheaply a few years back, it can be loaded without the jig but not as easily.

Having looked at Kindermann's website, I don't think they do darkroom equipment at all any more. All digital office equipment now.

I have a Kindermann I have used with much success to develop 70mm shot with Hasselblads. The reel is stainless steel, the tank and lid/cap are made of grey and black plastic. Not easy to acquire but worth every penny. Pretty sure I got it on German Ebay

Looks like a giant 35mm tank Works great!!

wilsonlaidlaw said:

Having looked at Kindermann's website, I don't think they do darkroom equipment at all any more. All digital office equipment now.

Click to expand...

There are three reels on ebay right now. Or you could contact Hewes http://hewes.co.uk

Well - I own an old Kaiser drum with variable wheels.16mm, 35mm - 120 films.
It is also expandable a bit over 120 films.
So it also should work with 70mm films.

Perhaps you may have a look on old used equipment.
The type is this here :



But notice : The wheels have to be transparent (hard plastic) Type is produced before 1985 !

And sure the little disadvantage is the limitation of lenght.
220 films have ~ 2 x 67 cm = 1,24 m

your absolute max. lenght to the spoule
is about 1,30 meter.
So you have to cut your film .

With regards

This is a very old thread, but I think Wilson has responded recently to my 70mm thread, over on RFF, so here goes:

I modified a broken Jobo 2502 120/220 reel to take the wider 70mm film. I took an Efke 25 35mm film cartridge, and cut the bottom off of it. It tightly fit the central spindle on the JOBO. Then I used 70mm film to get the correct size of new (longer) central spindle, sliding everything around until it just fit the 70mm film tightly. Then I glued carefully everything (using clear DUCO cement). You have to be careful not to get excess DUCO cement on the moving parts of the reel. But I was successful as you can see.

It works well, I have used it. I can process up to a 220ish length of 70mm film in my rotary JOBO Mutitanks.

70mm 2502 Jobo Reel by Nokton48, on Flickr

Jobo 2502 70mm Reel Modification by Nokton48, on Flickr

Jobo reel 70mm Dummy full load by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here is a JOBO 2502 70mm Adapter, looks to me like this was 3D printed? I'd like to have a few of these.

2502 Jobo Reel mod by Nokton48, on Flickr

Jobo 70mm reel mod No 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

And here is my 70mm Kinderman Daylight tanks and Kindermann metal reel.

Kindermann 70mm Tank & Reels by Nokton48, on Flickr

The white plastic 70mm reel is available new on the internet. If you want I will post the website.

Here is a recent image I shot with 70mm Agfa Aviphot 200 Aerial film, which is supposed to be the same as 70mm Rollei 400s.
I processed this film in Rollei Supergrain dev that I got from Freestyle.

Aviphot 200 Supergrain 100 EI by Nokton48, on Flickr

And here are the negatives from above

DSC05901 by Nokton48, on Flickr

DSC05891 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Two rolls of 70mm Rolle 400s. Arrived to me from Maco in Germany

Nokton48 said:

DSC05891 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Click to expand...

Great - absolute in any case!

with regards

DSC05873 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Loaded 70mm cartridge and 70mm Rollei 400s

DSC05892 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Hi Nocton48, is this Rollei 70mm film old stock? Just checked Rollei and Freestyle and could not find it?

Hi Gorbas,

No it is fresh 70mm Rollei 400s film stock, but you must order it from Maco Direct in Germany. I just ordered a couple of rolls and it cost me about $100 per roll including shipping. Each 100 foot roll will yield about 500 6x6 exposures. Shipping to me in the USA was amazingly quick. They tell me they have several hundred rolls in stock. If you have a camera that takes 70mm film I would load up if I were you.

Maco Direct appears to me to be the B&H of Germany.

See here:

https://www.macodirect.de/en/film/infrared-films/1697/rollei-infrared-400s-70mm-x-30.5m

Thank you Nokton48! For now I'm fine with my stock of 70mm Kodak Double X Aerographic, but you never know..