Super Ikonta film path scratchy???

loccdor said:

The new Kodak backing paper that I first noticed with Gold in 120 has a pretty shiny plastic coating that I hadn't seen previously.

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Apparently, the R&D and technology behind it are and were both extremely expensive.
As I understand it that knowledge is considered a very valuable and closely guarded industrial asset.

koraks said:

Kodak & Harman likely went with materials that are available in their supply networks at reasonable cost, quality, quantities and with acceptable lead times and MOQ's. It's very possible (likely) that whatever works for Foma just doesn't work very well for them.


They might not have done it on purpose.

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I'm sure they didn't do it intentionally either since it does lose them a very small percentage of the market. Mainly, we few folding camera and box camera holdouts.

Sorry for that joke; it was in jest. This must be something they either overlooked, or just didn't manage to resolve in an economically viable manner. Or, at least, not yet!
I must admit I don't shoot a lot of 120 and when I do, it doesn't involve any red windows, but I have on occasion used a camera with one and I'm aware of the issue you have with the poorly visible numbering. It can be really hard to read, especially if it's kind of dark/dim to begin with and/or that red window has a little grime on it.

The Zeiss Ikonta that I used for the photo of the bench and tree is always accompanied by a penlight LED flashlight - it is a required accessory!
I expect that there is a bit of confluence between the relatively low contrast of the numbers, and the much older version of my eyes that were employed when the numbers were easier to read!

MattKing said:

The Zeiss Ikonta that I used for the photo of the bench and tree is always accompanied by a penlight LED flashlight - it is a required accessory!
I expect that there is a bit of confluence between the relatively low contrast of the numbers, and the much older version of my eyes that were employed when the numbers were easier to read!

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I do exactly the same thing Matt. My camera bag always has a very small LED flash light. My little pocket notebook has a built-in pen/pencil holder and a small pen and pen light combo fits it perfectly. Oh, and there is always a light on my other camera I carry at all times......my iPhone. The Medalist II is really pretty easy to see the numbers, but my Super Ikonta B is a little harder to see. I notice that a lot of the German made cameras have darker windows than American made ones do.

MattKing said:

Apparently, the R&D and technology behind it are and were both extremely expensive.
As I understand it that knowledge is considered a very valuable and closely guarded industrial asset.

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Is it on all their films now? I haven't bought fresh Kodak 120 in a year or two.

loccdor said:

Is it on all their films now? I haven't bought fresh Kodak 120 in a year or two.

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They have one form of 120 backing paper now.
The old, in-house produced backing paper that used no longer available paper, inks and printing techniques was apparently employed until it was all used up, at which time the new stuff replaced it - film type by film type.