Resurgence of 110 film?

gr82bart · Nov 27, 2007

I don't know about you guys, but are my eyes fooling me? Yesterday at Walgreen's I saw 10 rolls of NEW Walgreen brand 110 film and the day before at Wal-Mart, there must have been 15+ rolls of Kodak Gold 400 110 film. I haven't seen this much 110 film ever.

To other 110 users out there, are you seeing more availability of 110 film?

Regards, Art.

kraker · Nov 27, 2007

gr82bart said:
To other 110 users out there, are you seeing more availability of 110 film?

I have only recently become a 110 user, but alas, I'm not seeing more availability of 110 film. Enough of the stuff on 'bay, and Ferrania still producing new stock. But more availability: no...

Still, even though there's quite some water separating us, it's good news that at least someone is seeing more availability .

(Simon-trigger: I'd love to see some B&W film in 110 format. Ah, well, dream on...)

crabby · Nov 27, 2007

I always carry a 110 camera loaded with color print film. The only problem is getting it processed. No local lab will touch it. I have to send film to a mass mailorder lab and the results are usually poor.

This week's camera is a Canon 110E. A major strength of the Canon 110's is that they take common batteries. My 110's that use K batteries are difficult to use. (Yes, I make my own K batteries from three 625's).

Steve Roberts · Nov 27, 2007

kraker said:
(Simon-trigger: I'd love to see some B&W film in 110 format. Ah, well, dream on...)

In one of my "just for the hell of it" phases, I made a jig for cutting down 35mm film to 110 size (16mm). It has two blades correctly spaced and guides 35mm apart. I load a 35mm cassette with FP4/HP5, feed it into the jig then switch out the lights. One swift pull and I have a strip of 110 width film. Having disassembled a 110 cartidge, I then spool the film and backing paper together, place in the cartridge and reassemble. There are a few provisos, not least that most 110 cameras require the perforations that cock the shutter and/or stop the film between what would normally be pre-exposed gaps. The Pentax 110s, however, don't rely on the notches and all is well as long as you can live with a steadily increasing frame gap. Development is straightforward, as my ancient Johnson tank will handle 16mm. It's not as hard as it sounds once you get the hang of it. Of course, another option would be to buy 16mm cine stock and sacrifice part of the picture area to perforations.

Cheers,

Steve

Stephen Frizza · Nov 27, 2007

I own a lab in sydney australia called the lighthouse I sell and process and print 110 film, own 110 camera and enjoy the format if anyone down here needs help with 110 film im happy to assist

~steve Frizza
The Lighthouse Lab

removed account4 · Nov 27, 2007

crabby said:
I always carry a 110 camera loaded with color print film. The only problem is getting it processed. No local lab will touch it. I have to send film to a mass mailorder lab and the results are usually poor.

hi crabby

wally's world .... they will send it to fuji ...
they have been processing my 110
( and when i shot movie film my 8mm )
film for a long time.

PHOTOTONE · Nov 27, 2007

I think you are seeing seasonal marketing. Mass market retailers are going to stock more amateur film just because it is the Holiday Season, and for many people, this is the only time of the year they take pictures. The real "test" would be if they still stock the film in February.

Photo Engineer · Nov 27, 2007

Jobo once made all reels with one click setting for 110 film, so you could do 120, 220, 35 and 110. IDK if this is still true or if you now have to buy special reels.

I have never checked mine for the 110 setting.

PE

srs5694 · Nov 27, 2007

A few random thoughts/comments:

The Sub Club site has lots of information on subminiature cameras and film, including 110. I seem to recall their having a description of how to make a tool to do the film cutting that Steve describes, but I haven't bothered to locate the exact URL.
I still see 110 cameras for sale, mostly as toys for kids. In addition to the seasonal marketing explanation offered by Phototone, it's conceivable that these toy cameras have experienced a recent surge in popularity. I have no data to back this up, though; it's just a hypothesis to be tossed out.
I picked up a Russian developing tank with an unusual design that supports 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm film formats. In theory I could develop 110 film in the thing, but I've never tried it. These tanks seem to be rare; I don't see any on eBay at the moment, although I do see a couple Russian tanks of another design. (Here's a photo of mine, if anybody cares. The spool can be put together with no spacers or with spacers of two different sizes to handle different film formats.)

David A. Goldfarb · Nov 27, 2007

That Russian tank sounds a lot like the Lomo tanks for movie film, which can be set up for 8mm, 16mm and 35mm, depending on how you orient the reels and spacers.

Long ago I had a stainless steel reel for 110, so they do exist. The spiral was only on one side, and the other side had four radiating wires with a circular rim to hold the film in.

Photo Engineer · Nov 27, 2007

I checked my various Jobo reels and none of them can do 110, nor can they be adapted to do it.

The Jobo catalogs I have, which don't reflect reality now, do list a 110 reel.

PE

David Brown · Nov 29, 2007

http://cgi.ebay.com/Yankee-Master-D...goryZ629QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Stephen Frizza · Nov 30, 2007

Yep P.E theres a store here in sydney which still sells jobo 110 reels.

John Shriver · Dec 3, 2007

There are 16mm Nikor reels out there. 9.5mm ones for Minox film too. Just got one of each in a large lot.

Not to mention that Nikor Products made 127, 116/616, 118, and 122 reels. I suspect that the 118 size is by far the rarest, after 122 (which I have).

removed account4 · Dec 3, 2007

David A. Goldfarb said:
That Russian tank sounds a lot like the Lomo tanks for movie film, which can be set up for 8mm, 16mm and 35mm, depending on how you orient the reels and spacers.

Long ago I had a stainless steel reel for 110, so they do exist. The spiral was only on one side, and the other side had four radiating wires with a circular rim to hold the film in.

i have one of thems david.
my yankee clicks down to 110 too.

never used'em ..

Brac · Dec 4, 2007

Durst used to sell a plastic 110 size reel and an autoloader device too.

srs5694 · Dec 7, 2007

FWIW, when searching for unrelated items, I ran across this eBay auction for a 16mm SS reel. I'm unaffiliated with the seller and I have no idea how well the reel would work in practice. It matches the description of the reel David Goldfarb described a few posts back.

IloveTLRs · Dec 12, 2007

Sure, I still use 110; I got back into the format this summer after digging my old Pentax Auto 110 out.

Over here in Japan, Fuji still makes 110 film: Super G (I think it's Superia) in 12 & 24 exp rolls. Kodak still makes Ultra 400. Fuji and Kodak Japan will develop 110 but it takes about 10 days to 2 weeks (as opposed to overnight for E-6.) I had prints done once, but they were crap, so now I just get negatives done. It costs about $5 a roll. I tape the negatives down to the scanner bed and can get some pretty good scans. Grain is somewhat of a problem, but considering the size of the negatives there's not much that can be done.

I have some recent shots on my pbase account in the Pentax Auto 110 gallery.

enbrabild · Mar 17, 2010

Hi Stephen!
You give this answer :Yep P.E theres a store here in sydney which still sells jobo 110 reels.
Do you have adress to this store ?
I look for just this type of reels to jobo.

Best regard
Rolf
Sweden

mikebarger · Mar 17, 2010

I have what I think is a 110 negative holder for my Beseler 4x5.

Mike

Andrew K · Mar 17, 2010

regarding Jobo 110 reels - they were actually a fixed 16mm transperant reel for the old 1000 series tanks. They fit the current series, but are a little loose on the centre core if you do rotation processing.

And you can cut a Patterson reel down to do 110 film - I used to have the instruction sheet a long time ago, but basically you cut the outside reel (the one with the bigger core) so that when it is pushed onto the inner reel the space is perfect to fit a 16mm/110 film (it should be easy enough to work out) - you then glue the part you cut off onto the top of the reel as a locking ring..and you've got a 16mm/110 film spool.

I've also got a couple of small 16mm film developing tanks - a Minolta one, plus another one that takes 2 16mm reels....in fact quite a few of the old tanks that took larget film sizes like 116 and 122 could be adjusted to take 16mm..

michaelbsc · Mar 19, 2010

Andrew K said:
...

And you can cut a Patterson reel down to do 110 film - I used to have the instruction sheet a long time ago, but basically you cut the outside reel (the one with the bigger core) so that when it is pushed onto the inner reel the space is perfect to fit a 16mm/110 film (it should be easy enough to work out) - you then glue the part you cut off onto the top of the reel as a locking ring..and you've got a 16mm/110 film spool.

I've been looking at this myself for a while. I have convinced myself it will work, but haven't tried to mic out the dimensions required. If you happen to find those instruction, please share them.

enbrabild · Mar 19, 2010

Hello!
Since I have a Jobo machine so I applied for 110 reel to this. Yesterday it happened so incredible that I am in a shop (England) got hold of Jobo 110-reel.
I have a pro lab for developing film, black and white, color negative and color slide, from 110 up to 4x5 ". I even do all sort of darkroom job.
Rolf Berntzen
bildinfo@enbrabild.se

ionsourcerer · May 15, 2010

35 mm to 110 film splitting adapter

25+ years ago I bought an original Asahi (black) Pentax kit from a friend who had brought it back from Japan on one of his frequent business trips. I used it a couple of times and didn't think much of it at the time so just added it to my collection of Half-frame Pen-F stuff and other photographic odd but elegant cameras.

I just dug both of them out of deep storage recently, and think they might be fun to experiment with, and perhaps even resurrect my darkroom.Most of the posts are old and I'm looking for some recent news from active users.

I've really missed B&W as well as analog cameras, so finally might get over my procrastination and do something besides work in my physics lab and sleep.

The 35 mm Pen-F isn't going to be a problem, but if I start using the Asahi I'm going to want to use it a lot and don't want to be at the mercy of the film hoarders and increasingly rare processors.

Any wisdom you might be able to spare will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

b.

Steve Roberts said:
In one of my "just for the hell of it" phases, I made a jig for cutting down 35mm film to 110 size (16mm). It has two blades correctly spaced and guides 35mm apart. I load a 35mm cassette with FP4/HP5, feed it into the jig then switch out the lights. One swift pull and I have a strip of 110 width film. Having disassembled a 110 cartidge, I then spool the film and backing paper together, place in the cartridge and reassemble. There are a few provisos, not least that most 110 cameras require the perforations that cock the shutter and/or stop the film between what would normally be pre-exposed gaps. The Pentax 110s, however, don't rely on the notches and all is well as long as you can live with a steadily increasing frame gap. Development is straightforward, as my ancient Johnson tank will handle 16mm. It's not as hard as it sounds once you get the hang of it. Of course, another option would be to buy 16mm cine stock and sacrifice part of the picture area to perforations.

Cheers,

Steve

brianmquinn · May 15, 2010

Blue Moon Camera and Machine has both film and does the best 110 film processing I have found. They are more expensive than a lab like Clark or York but worth it in my opinion.

I have a stock of Fuji Superia 110 that I stashed in my freezer a while back. It expired in 2009 and was probally the last batch made. I could sell you some at a reasonable price if you are really interested. PM me with your needs.

Resurgence of 110 film?

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