The newly, shiny, sexy, upgraded Kodak Disc 4000

[fabulousrice]

I'm going to play around with some Disc film to experiment... but before, I wanted to make sure the camera would look better than Kodak (these dweebs!) designed it!

And that's how this shiny new thing came into existence... Can't wait to use it!
More on my blog.

 

[Horatio]

They still make film for that? I had one many years ago. The images were horrible. Terrible grain, IIRC.

 

[AgX]

Today old unexposed discs are very rare, in contrast to the cameras, I see them at about every second fleamarket.

Disc cameras are described today as big failure, which is hard to believe seen how often they appear today. You even could go underwater with some models. Interesting though is that Agfa neither made disc cameras, nor disc film, what indeed makes one think.


Considering that new cover, that seems to really have been cut out to the point.


By lack of unused film one would have to cut out new sheet film. Something the OP showed to be able to at least with the lights on...

 

[removed account4]

back in the day a family member got one in the sock for the holiday gift thing, and the Irish setter promptly chewed on it.
FR. I hope you don't have an IS if you do be advised that camera is not very durable.

 

[4season]

Can new disk film be made using a product like Cricut? If so that would be kind of awesome.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Can new disk film be made using a product like Cricut? If so that would be kind of awesome.

It might be possible to cut the film portion of a disk from sheet film with a Crikut or similar machine (modified to darken all status lights) -- but the film depends on the sheath for dark protection and on the crimped-on hub for camera drive. It might be possible to 3D print a reproduction hub and fabricate a sheath from something like an old 5 1/4" floppy disk envelope -- might be possible. Unlikely to be reproduced on a hobbyist basis.

 

[fabulousrice]

They still make film for that? I had one many years ago. The images were horrible. Terrible grain, IIRC.

Check out Tony Kemplen's flickr feed. I love this guy's work and experiments and his results with Disc aren't much worse than some what crappy expired 35mm would produce!

 

[fabulousrice]

Today old unexposed discs are very rare, in contrast to the cameras, I see them at about every second fleamarket.

Disc cameras are described today as big failure, which is hard to believe seen how often they appear today. You even could go underwater with some models. Interesting though is that Agfa neither made disc cameras, nor disc film, what indeed makes one think.


Considering that new cover, that seems to really have been cut out to the point.


By lack of unused film one would have to cut out new sheet film. Something the OP showed to be able to at least with the lights on...

Thanks!
I actually see a lot of film pop-up on eBay and it seems a waste to just let it go bad without putting something on it first!
At least... in my life I'd want to try to use any format at least once to see if it's fun! Disc seems a wonderful underdog format to play with... also, super stealthy! (maybe less so not that it's iridescent...)

 

[fabulousrice]

back in the day a family member got one in the sock for the holiday gift thing, and the Irish setter promptly chewed on it.
FR. I hope you don't have an IS if you do be advised that camera is not very durable.

What is the meaning of "have an IS"?

 

[fabulousrice]

Can new disk film be made using a product like Cricut? If so that would be kind of awesome.

OMG that's a really good idea... using a cricut to cut film!! You just blew my mind.
Do you have a cricut? We should exchange tips... I did this cover using an AxiDraw plotter but have been thinking about getting a cricut or a silhouette but both seem to have cons that I'm not 100% ok with, so I haven't decided on one or the other yet...

 

[4season]

OMG that's a really good idea... using a cricut to cut film!! You just blew my mind.
Do you have a cricut? We should exchange tips... I did this cover using an AxiDraw plotter but have been thinking about getting a cricut or a silhouette but both seem to have cons that I'm not 100% ok with, so I haven't decided on one or the other yet...

Nope, I've never tried one, it was just something I thought of off the top of my head. That and cutting film down from 4x5 sheets which don't have a curl like 120 film does.

 

[Helge]

Cutting up LF film is a waste. And would be extremely hard to do.
The best bet would be to make a punch or cutter for taking chunks out of regular film. And then repurpose a Disc cartridge with a disc that could hold the film.
I’m thinking Viewmaster disc style perhaps.
It would all have to take place in the dark though and be a lot of effort.
Making the disc fit in the cartridge and making sure the motor will spin it could prove the real challenge though.

 

[Cholentpot]

Cutting up LF film is a waste. And would be extremely hard to do.
The best bet would be to make a punch or cutter for taking chunks out of regular film. And then repurpose a Disc cartridge with a disc that could hold the film.
I’m thinking Viewmaster disc style perhaps.
It would all have to take place in the dark though and be a lot of effort.
Making the disc fit in the cartridge and making sure the motor will spin it could prove the real challenge though.

Xray film.

Do it under a safelight. The film is cheap and it would be fun to try.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Xray film.

Do it under a safelight. The film is cheap and it would be fun to try.

That seems like a very good start to test the concept. Not to mention, I don't think Kodak ever sold B&W for disc cameras. Do they handle slow(ish) films?

 

[AgX]

Cutting up LF film is a waste.
The best bet would be to make a punch or cutter for taking chunks out of regular film.

Xray film.
Do it under a safelight.

Rollfilm is a bit too narrow, but it should be doable.
X-ray sheet film has the advantage of being flat from the start and in most cases being fine for a safelight.

 

[fabulousrice]

It might be possible to cut the film portion of a disk from sheet film with a Crikut or similar machine (modified to darken all status lights) -- but the film depends on the sheath for dark protection and on the crimped-on hub for camera drive. It might be possible to 3D print a reproduction hub and fabricate a sheath from something like an old 5 1/4" floppy disk envelope -- might be possible. Unlikely to be reproduced on a hobbyist basis.

Donald, you seem to have thought about it, that's great! I do think that some "obsolete" formats might come back into the light (pun) through 3d printing.

 

[Helge]

I'm going to play around with some Disc film to experiment... but before, I wanted to make sure the camera would look better than Kodak (these dweebs!) designed it!

And that's how this shiny new thing came into existence... Can't wait to use it!
More on my blog.

Raffi is that you‽

 

[Helge]

Rollfilm is a bit too narrow, but it should be doable.
X-ray sheet film has the advantage of being flat from the start and in most cases being fine for a safelight.

No, I was thinking about cutting small slivers or wafers from basically any film, and placing them in a disc shaped holder.
Possibly made from an actual Disc disc.

 

[AgX]

I wondered about your wording, as I rejected the idea you are meaning a holder for snippets.
Inserting these would introduce plane issues within the holder. Maybe designing it as like a slide mount as you indicated. On the other hand, at that format you got a tiny bit of more DOF at the film stage.
Also you would have to give up the idea of a cassette.

 

[removed account4]

What is the meaning of "have an IS"?

Irish Setter. Ours chewed everything on sight... cameras racketball rackets bibles other books u name it. very cultured and well read breed...

 

[Cholentpot]

That seems like a very good start to test the concept. Not to mention, I don't think Kodak ever sold B&W for disc cameras. Do they handle slow(ish) films?

You can get Xray film up to 400 speed. I'm using 100 speed Xray film these days.

 

[Helge]

I wondered about your wording, as I rejected the idea you are meaning a holder for snippets.
Inserting these would introduce plane issues within the holder. Maybe designing it as like a slide mount as you indicated. On the other hand, at that format you got a tiny bit of more DOF at the film stage.
Also you would have to give up the idea of a cassette.

No, the film would be in exactly the same plane, but the disc would probably have two one or three times thicker at least in patches.
I'm looking at one now, and it doesn't seem to be a problem space wise.
What could be a problem is the motor and mechanism driving and perhaps registering the disc.

 

[Helge]

Xray film.

Do it under a safelight. The film is cheap and it would be fun to try.

But it would be ortho with UV thrown in. Might be fun, but the lens isn't at all corrected for UV AFAWK.
They are some of the highest resolution commercial lenses ever made, at least on the Kodak Disc cameras. And like on Minox (ca. same size) a great lens and fine grained film is really needed to get anything appealing out of the format.

 

[AgX]

There is no more sensitivity to UV with any X-ray fillm than with any classic B&W film.

 

[Cholentpot]

But it would be ortho with UV thrown in. Might be fun, but the lens isn't at all corrected for UV AFAWK.
They are some of the highest resolution commercial lenses ever made, at least on the Kodak Disc cameras. And like on Minox (ca. same size) a great lens and fine grained film is really needed to get anything appealing out of the format.

I shoot Xray film with no filter. You just need to develop it right and you got decent results.