A 3D Printable Cartridge To Fit Fuji Single 8 Cameras

[christophernigel]

Just to let you know there is now a A 3D Printable Cartridge To Fit Fuji Single 8 Cameras , To help keep film cost down & reload your own films , Big Thank you to Jenny & Frank . .

Words from Jenny .

This cartridge model is open-source, that means I have made my design freely available for the Single 8 community to print and use their own cartridges. The licence I have chosen is strongly reciprocal, this means that if you modify the design you must also release it as open source. If you distribute it or cartridges made from it you must also distribute the URL of this repository.

You can sell these cartridges, but if you do so I have something to say. The photographic world is full of profiteers, and if that's you I have something to say to you. It costs well under 20 dollars to get these cartridges printed commercially, less if you produce them in quantity, so I think 30 dollars is a maximum fair price to sell them for. I made this model as a free gift to the community under an open source licence, because I earn my money as a technical journalist. If I catch anyone selling these cartridges for silly money I promise this: I will make sure the world and dog knows about it, and I will undercut you. Try adding value by loading your cartridges with film, but even then don't take the piss.

https://github.com/JennyList/Single-8-cartridge?tab=readme-ov-file

[Andries Molenaar]

Refilling early originals beats using these. Certainly the originals are made to specs and are light tight at all moments

[christophernigel]

Maybe , But try finding 2nd hand carts  ? , This just open the market for DIY , Which can only be a good thing  Jenny 's video .

 

[Andries Molenaar]

It is a research thing and not working. It is obviously not light tight  from the backside.

 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

You have to read the instructions:

“I suggest very strongly that you spray the outside of both cartridge bottom and lid with a good quality matt black paint.“

[Andries Molenaar]

In the video it is stated as being an experimental design. Paint is not going to do it.

In USA cartridges may not be so numerous, In Europe there are far more. Especially in Fuji countries like Netherlands and Germany. 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

12 hours ago, Andries Molenaar said:

In the video it is stated as being an experimental design. Paint is not going to do it.

The video is from April 7th, 2023, the files on GitHub are V1.1 as released in January 2024. The cartridges on GitHub also differ from the ones shown in the video…

…the only obvious flaw is the lack of the two „noses“ (the protruding things close to the film gate where the position of the upper „nose“ is used to inform certain cameras about the film‘s sensitivity, e.g. Fujica AX100). So the GitHub files will only work for cameras that use the „arc“ for the sensitivity.

[Andries Molenaar]

Good luck with them.
Better find a fleamarket cartridge and use that.

[christophernigel]

My 3D cartridges are working fine , Just give's me more space in which to play around with + Choice in a DIY way to load other kinds of film .

 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

We’ll see. I know someone who is going to test them soon.

[Jason Lu]

Jenny said in the video that if you use resin material for 3D printing, the finished product needs to be covered with black paint, but generally speaking, there is very low risk of light leakage when using an FDM printer and opaque black PLA or ABS materials. Maybe you can see some light on the other side when you put a strong flashlight against the surface, but in my experience, it is good enough. Another option is to use SLS (selective laser sintering) 3D printing. The finished product of nylon material is better but more expensive.

[christophernigel]

I have check all my 3D carts with old film , Once you get use to loading the film it's very easy , Will try soon with real Film.

[Aapo Lettinen]

don't know this particular project or cartridge but I think this thread is a good example of how people expect too much from the home 3D printing technology, trying to use it for purposes which would have better end results if entirely different technology would be chosen.

I think it is that "OH THIS IS SO COOL I CAN PRINT STUFF AT HOME, NO NEED TO BUY ANYTHING ANYMORE" thing which blinds people a bit and they think that the technology magically solves any and all issues there is 🙂 
 

You know, it is not mandatory to 3d print the whole thing even if some 3d printing is used. you can get stuff machined out of different materials too if it would end up being higher quality choice than printing. And there is professional printing services with much higher quality than average home printers can do.

------

For example, people were asking me if i'm going to make load bearing parts with home 3d printing because me mentioning some 3d printing would likely be used on a motor project. Well I can break the home made print with bare hands, absolutely NOT going to trust it holding the full weight of the 16mm film camera! there is a aluminium cnc machined "skeleton" underneath which holds the weight and makes it rigid and the (professional)3d printed stuff is just outer finishing layer to make it nice looking and dust proof. But if something similar would be made open source they would absolutely be like "yeah we will 3d print it all with this 80bucks home printer out of cheapest PLA we can order from China, it is so cool to print the entire motor at home!"

 

Another example is people doing film spool flanges with 3d printer. Not want to be sceptic it might work OK if remembering they are brittle and somewhat uneven... but you could just get similar shape of flange made out of aluminium for like 1 or 2 dollars and does not waste hours and hours of printing time. It would not be as "cool" as the entirely 3d printed gadget but it would be much more durable, better looking and much better working and actually cheaper too in most cases.

 

 

Edited July 21 by Aapo Lettinen

[Joerg Polzfusz]

On 7/21/2024 at 6:12 PM, Aapo Lettinen said:

don't know this particular project or cartridge

…

home 3D printing technology,

Then better take a look at the project - there’s a clear notice that it will not work with most home printers (especially the cheap ones) and that it’s recommended to use a professional printing service instead.

[Aapo Lettinen]

48 minutes ago, Joerg Polzfusz said:

Then better take a look at the project - there’s a clear notice that it will not work with most home printers (especially the cheap ones) and that it’s recommended to use a professional printing service instead.

but it ruins the whole project if you need to use professional printing service for it to work, the whole idea of open source gadgets is to do everything at home and not need to pay someone else even if the end result would be better 😅

[christophernigel]

don't know this particular project or cartridge but I think this thread is a good example of how people expect too much from the home 3D printing technology, trying to use it for purposes which would have better end results if entirely different technology would be chosen.

This post is not about home 3d printing , It's about  3D Printable Cartridge To Fit Fuji Single 8 Cameras , Sure the Fuji Cartridges are way better , Yet this day & age it's now become harder to find , All Jenny List has done is to help keep the format alive for free & not asking for them $$$$$$$ , AS is clearly pointed out .

The photographic world is full of profiteers, and if that's you I have something to say to you. It costs well under 20 dollars to get these cartridges printed commercially, less if you produce them in quantity, so I think 30 dollars is a maximum fair price to sell them for. I made this model as a free gift to the community under an open source licence,

[Aapo Lettinen]

7 hours ago, christophernigel said:

don't know this particular project or cartridge but I think this thread is a good example of how people expect too much from the home 3D printing technology, trying to use it for purposes which would have better end results if entirely different technology would be chosen.

This post is not about home 3d printing , It's about  3D Printable Cartridge To Fit Fuji Single 8 Cameras , Sure the Fuji Cartridges are way better , Yet this day & age it's now become harder to find , All Jenny List has done is to help keep the format alive for free & not asking for them $$$$$$$ , AS is clearly pointed out .

The photographic world is full of profiteers, and if that's you I have something to say to you. It costs well under 20 dollars to get these cartridges printed commercially, less if you produce them in quantity, so I think 30 dollars is a maximum fair price to sell them for. I made this model as a free gift to the community under an open source licence,

I think the issue would be that most potential users don't have much possibility to test out different printing services and settings and materials and thus they can easily see it being too difficult to get these made if they only need one or two.

I don't think Jenny would personally need to get these printed and sell them one by one but SOMEONE would need to do that if wanting to get them used more by regular users. Typically for this kind of stuff one would first collect enough orders, take the money and then make all the printing and shipping in one batch to keep the costs down. Kind of community project and nothing commercially viable but one would get the testing costs covered and would get enough profit to buy one roll of film to shoot as a compensation for all the hard work needed 🙂

[Joerg Polzfusz]

On 7/23/2024 at 9:19 AM, Aapo Lettinen said:

I think the issue would be that most potential users don't have much possibility to test out different printing services and settings and materials

That is the reason for a very long readme.md from Jenny as part of the project. Yes, the downside is that you have to read and think before doing something. This might indeed become too complex for most users.

[Martin Baumgarten]

Despite how nice this is of Jenny to offer to the community, and I thank her for it.....I have decided to keep locating used or unused FUJI Single-8 cartridges for reloading.  Most I have bought off eBay, and there are Japanese sellers that are selling 'new' film expired decades ago for crazy high prices [not all that dissimilar from folks here in the USA not knowing anything about film expiration problems selling various Super 8mm film types for crazy prices].  Early FUJI cartridges open easily as they were only sealed with two pieces of tape.  Later ones are sealed, but can be opened to varying degrees of success via a couple different methods:  gently but firmly twisting the shell to try and break the seals, and also via scoring all around the seals with a single edged razor blade or Exacto Knife or similar to weaken them prior to prying the main cover off the chassis with a butter knife, pocket knife, gentle twisting method etc.  The originals were offered in varying ASA/ISOs:   25 Daylight, 50 Daylight, 50 Tungsten, 100 Daylight, 200 Tungsten, some in Black & White Reversal Neopan, and in Color Reversal for Daylight (ISO 25) and Tungsten/Artificial (ISO 50 and 200) but with #85 Daylight Filter for Daylight Color usage.  As mentioned, the cartridges indexed most Single-8 cameras with the curved notch on the bottom of the chassis of the cartridges, and for a couple others using these nibs near the film gate.  Anyhow, despite some limitations in reloading ease and the lower amount of cellulose triacetate film that will fit into the Single-8 cartridges, it's doable!   On another historical note, KODAK had originally planned/experimented with putting 100ft of Polyester [Estar] based film stock into their Super 8mm cartridges.  The only ones sold this way were the "Surveillance" films made in both Black & White and Color Negative, with later Color Negative ones reduced to 50ft acetate film in their long running ASA/ISO 200T film, before the Vision Films were introduced years later.

 

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Funny side note: Single8-cartridges also have a third „hole“/„notch“ to inform a camera about the film’s sensitivity - see the yellow circles. This is defined in the standard, but I haven’t seen a camera that uses it.

And there are even more „holes“/„notches“ that are not described in the standard - see blue circles. They have probably only been used by Fuji’s lab to automatically distinguish between color and B&W films. 
 

Photos are from Muddy‘s page - https://www.muddyfilm.net/2006/04/single8speedset.html and show 25 ASA (daylight color), 50 ASA (B&W) and 200 ASA (tungsten color) - from left to right.

 

Another strange observation: in these images, only the cart for the RT200N has got a lower „nose“/„nib“?! (Only visible on Muddy‘s webpage as I had to reduce the image size here on the board.)

Edited September 8 by Joerg Polzfusz

[christophernigel]

Martin , Always great to have your input , The Fuji carts are the best , if you can still find them ? As for Jenny + Frank , I am very thankful .

 

[Samuel Berger]

On 9/7/2024 at 3:15 PM, Martin Baumgarten said:

I have decided to keep locating used or unused FUJI Single-8 cartridges for reloading. 

Martin, are you still processing film?