Charles MacDonald

I am probaly out in left field (No joke intended) but why not try to use the viewscreen out of a junked 35mm Still camera? Should have enogh area to cover much more than even 35mm Movie, and they typicaly have a fresnel condensor built in to brighten up the image. Many have a "microprism" or slit field focus aid in the centere which might still work, although would proably take up most of the frame, depending on what camera you were scavaging from. You can cut it down with a fine saw blade, as they normaly are made of (soft) plastic. Note that I have not seen your application so I don't know if the SLR screen would be too thick to fit.

Java photo among others will sell you an english version of the K-3 manual. or download http://www.k3camera.com/k3/k3pdfs/2004k3man.pdf After you try this with a scrap roll of film, ask again if anything is unclear.

While that mark is "perf shaped" the edges are quite soft so it is not a real perf! If you were getting perfs on your image, I would expect to also see one in the lower part of the frame. If you can look at the negative, the frame line should be verticaly centered on the perfs. Perhaps the "shadow" apperas on the neg over a larger area than you had scanned, the shape of the part that does not show in the scan might give a clue. The edges of your frame DO have a fair anount of dirt, (less than on my last roll, so perhaps I am noticing it more) perhaps the camera could use a cleaning, and some dirt is in the area beween the lens and the gate. It almost looks like some part of the mechanism is out of place. As far as the scratches, to have a mark repeat on part of several frames, the finger of blame is on the area of the camera where the flm stops and starts. elsewhere you would get a mark that would not correspond with the perfs. Size of Loop, lack of burrs on the presure plate and loop formers not touching the film would all be conditions to try for.....

Funny, since I am in Canada, I get re-directed to http://www.kodak.com/CA/en/motion/products...0.1.6.4.8&lc=en which has K40 at the bottom of the page. Clicking get me re-directed to http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products.../tech7268.jhtml

Kodak does mark the box, "Load in total darkness." Which is a frightening statment for someone who is doing this for the first time. The statement I beleive is based on the fact that the Black and white stock does not have the Black backing of the clour stock and so it is a little more sensitive to fogging. I would guess a simalar test your camera package (film and transfer) based on ECN 50D would be a bit more expensive. If I was coaching someone with a new camera, I would say to use the bathroom at night with just one light, as Yes it is easier to do if you can see. I often will use a safelight, not because it is "safe", but because it is dim (15 Watt bulb) when loading from a spool if I want to check the load. Worst case, even at the perverbial Kitchen Table I doubt if you will fog more than the first five - 10 feet even In normal daylight. (That is the worst I presonaly have gotten back, and even then you will probaly have the "white edeges to the pictures" effect. Since it is a test, just relax and go for it, and you can unspool the negative (carefully in case you want to use something you shot) when you get it back and see exactly how much fog you got. Using the coat trick to pop out the film is probaly a good idea. If you close and tape the Kodak Box, you probaly don't _really_ need to put the paper band back around the spool. If you save the part of the label that tears off when you open it, you can use it to tape up the Box after you put the exposed film in it. {side note} the package you have will likly have a spool in a plastic tray, their will be a paper band arround the spool, and the end of the film may be taped in place. When you get film from a short end place they often don't bother to use the band and the tray. You can look up the spec on the Kodak web site to see that a PXN455 does come on a spool. They even have a drawing of what the spool looks like.

How long has it been since this was cleaned and lubed? Gummy lube might cause this, I have an OLD Keystone A-3 with this problem that is waiting for me to learn camera repair..... Their may also be something bent in the spring motor.

THANKS< that explains the weird lens I bought on e-bay one time. A K-3 Zoom with no mount, just a smooth cilider about an inch long ... I thought that maybe the mount had been removed. AT the time i bought it I only knew of the Pentax mounts and I put in a low bid figuring I would play with it on a still camera. (with the mirror locked up if needed.)

Just to clarify, their are two variants that I have herd of, some use the pentax style screw mount, other use a bayonet mount.The bayonet is probaly a bit more secure, but only lens from the Former Soviet Union come in that mount. (as far as I can find out) The screw mount has hundreeds of lenes available, although all for a slightly bigger format. (lots of telephoto options - few wide angles)

One problem of course is that the shipping is always at least a third of the price, maybe half. Even if you get a refund for sending itback you are out almost the entire price. That is why I have not bought one to try.

Welcome to the world of 16mm.. I see you are in the UK. Kodachrome sold outside the USA is generaly sold with Kodak processing included. It will say on the box that it came in - "price includes processing" In the USA market, Kodak was caught by the antitrust laws and has to sell it without processing. "film price does not include processing by Kodak" YOu should put your exposed roll back in the plastic box, and mail it off to the same address as you sent your super 8, unless there is a differnt address in the package! Here in Canada you send film with processing included to Brampton Ontario, and Kodak forwards it to the lab. I have not sent them any 16mm, but both Super 8 and US market regular 8 (Via "international Film" sent in with a US market PK-59 mailer) were returned after apperntly being proceesed by Dwaynes- They were mailed back from the US and They came on a white tayor reel return reel. Kodak labs used to have their own - Black for super 8 and grey for regular 8. You can probaly ask the "help line" from Kodak in the UK to confirm the address. And the price if your film is not processing included. AS far as spools, you send in the takeup spool, and use the one that the film came on for your next roll. I am not sure if the lab will return the spool if requested, it is an extra step for them to do so. (some labs handling reveral film in general will use the camera spool as a return reel, saves them buying a reel, but I doubt that Kodak would work that way.) If the processing is included, so would be the return shipping by regular surface mail. Kodak and Dwaynes traditional splice on a length of white leader.

I wonder if they have an 800 number that only works in canada? It is only fairly recently that those have defaulted to work across the border.

Probaly depends on how well your process is controled. :P You mix enough stuff at the working dilution to fill your tanks, and then You add replenisher to the solutions as you run film, and IF you can run enough to keep the solution fresh, you seldom actually mix up a new batch. The processing manuals should give the rate of replenishment for 100 Ft of 35 and 16mm for each of the chmicals.... Eventualy the chemicals change over by replecing the overflow from the tanks with fresh replenisher. Fixer and bleach overflow can even be "regenerated" to make new replenisher :rolleyes: with the fixer treated with an electo-plating machine to get out the silver. B) Of course you have to dump the whole machine full :o if your process gets too far off.

About 6 months ago I took a 36 exp still roll of 5247 which has been sleeping for ten years in my freezer out and had it processed, even their the fog level was up and the speed Down. If you want to use it, whould sugest cutting off a still roll frst and using that for some tests to pick the best Exposure meter setting.

I have the manual for an old 1930's Keystone Home movie camera. The lens mount on that is a stamped metal plate. The users guide sugests splurging on the optional 3 inch telephoto, but to send your camera along so that the lens can be set to the camera! This is a plain c mount with no reflex finder of course. Yet the optional normal lens was a 1 inch f1.9, the botom of the line standard lens did not need to be adjusted for focus.

IF your Viewfinder is properly set in relation ot the film plane, (including the postion of any interviening Mirrors and prisms (including the mirror on the shutter of most movie cameras.) Normaly when the talk about Collimation they are setting the lens to focus coretly at infinity and also to stop at the inifity setting- although I can't imagine any competent camera tech how would not check the viewfinder at the same time. If you lens will not focus at infinity all the focus footage/meterage markings will be out.

The zoom will have twice the number of elements. That normaly is is not good for contrast and sharpness. Also the zoom will be bigger and hevier than each individual prime lens. Modern lenes hae features like Multi-coating that can reduce many of the negative effects of the more complicated lens. Of course they also make the prime lenes even better. (Newer prime better than an older prime) You might find you can get better results from a newer Zoom comparied to an older prime. My Filmo has a cooke Ivotal 2 inch that looks absolutly opaque compaired to a pentax SMC lens for example. (both 50mm f1.4) On the plus side, a zoom is lighter than a case full of primes, and can be set to the useful focal length with a twist of the wrist. (that is why they have always been popular with sports and news folks.)

Sorry if My post sounded a bit negative (no Pun intended) Peter: I am a happy customer myself! And I would not metion any firm that I felt that I could not recomend highly. The point I was making is that if you are a 5 million dollar production, with a bank breathing down your neck, You proably will sleep easier at night with stock that comes directly from the nice folks on state street in Rochester NY! Folks in thaose shoes would buy enough stock to do their entire production from one batch and put someone in charge of making sure it is looked after. If you are a low budget film maker, You can't take that route, and your best bet is a reseller like Peter. NOT ALL OF THEM ARE AS PICKY AS Peter. In my distant past I have gotten the wrong stock in a can, that sort of thing. TO clarify, I have gotten nothing but great film and wonderful service from Certified film, based on what I have had processed so far.

B)--> QUOTE(Steven B @ Jan 26 2006, 06:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This should help you out... http://www.jandcphoto.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=11 Steven But that is the process using FOMA official formulas, Including "Fomadon LQR" developer. (formula not given.) Anyone have some solid recomendations for running it in the formulas given by Kodak for TXR, and PXR? Perferably with the new formaulas that don't use the Hevey Metal bleach. (K2Cr2O7)

The lab that seems to be into reversal in Toronto is Exclusive Film: http://www.exclusivefilm.net/ And for Reversal and Neg/pos black and white there is BWFF: http://blackandwhitefilmfactory.com/ There are some overlaps between them, and some of them also have "funny services" like Video to film

The formulas are available in the links that John has posted, You can mix the chemicals from scratch for the developer and Bleach. The developer is he most obviously different, but the bleach used to give problems when I tried this about 20 years ago, (for the still camera). The C-41 bleach was sometimes not strong enough to fully oxidise the cyan Dye of all things. Some of the "hot dog" experimenters would sugest using a e-6 bleach, others just mixed up the OLDER and no longer politicaly correct fericyanide Bleach. (made iwth Potassium Ferricyanide ) I am not sure if you can get the REm-jet off BEFORE processing and still get the film in the LOMO tank. If you leave it, you will hav eto use the developer "one-shot" which might not be a bad idea for anything done in the Lomo Tank. (it is SO different than the continuos processors that the chemicals are speced for. http://www.jdphotochem.com/ is one place that sells small quanities of raw photo chemicals needed to mix the Kodak Formuals. They list both CD-3 and CD-4 for example. You can also try Photographers Formulary in the states. I would suspect that your lab may have trouble making final prints that are technicaly correct, but you can probaly pull in better colour than some of the deliberatly distorted - cross processed stuff that you see in Music Videos often. (better being in the eye of the beholder. DO be sure to get that rem-jet off The film while it is still wet. Depending on what you want, it might be simpler to play with some E-6 film first. to avoid the rem jet and to get something that you can buy in (Small) Kit form. The folks I mentioned abouve sell half-liter E-6 Kits for example. I am of course asuming that you have been sucessful in processing some black and white in the lomo.

Sorry if I am interpreting you wrong Dominic! :( I said {We have a guideline of .10 above "normal" being a guideline for film that can be considered reduced in Quality.} I was interpeting your post to mean that within 0.10 away from the original value you should be OK to use the film and still be able to correct to a profesionaly useable result, very much more than that and you risk your project looking like a Music Video where you did not internd it to have that look :P Where did I go wrong? I am seriously curious as the local suplier of ends makes a big deal of giving the reading of their tests right on the can label. which is nice, but I would feel better if that were to tell me something I could relate to.

Are you going to be hand holding the camera or do you want to mount it somewhere, (Like a helmet) Will you want an electric motor so you can shoot an entire roll at once, or will 20 second shots be good enough. Sound is normaly recorded separately on 16mm, so almost no camera that is light weight has any sound cabability. Film is expensive, Normal film speed is 24 Frames a second (25 in Europe) and their are 40 frames in a foot of film. Kodak has a nice online calculator on the http://www.kodak.com/go/motion site. Figure roughly 3 minutes per 100 ft roll. 16mm Cameras in good working condition sell from about 20 dollars to 20 Thousand dollars. The 20 dollar ones are 60 or more years old, have wind-up motors and probaly require Double perf film. Keystones, Devry and such -- The Filmo, Bolex and K-3 run $100-500, have wind up motors and are meant for serious use.

60 years old.... about ten times the lifespan that most folks I know would expect! Thnak you, a very interesting image, have you contacted the book of world records folks, I think you have the oldest useable film title sewn up.

I am wondering also where you would have obtained Nitrate stock. Particularly if you are using a K-3 Camera? The story goes that 16mm Came about in part because George Eastman declaired that he would not sleep well if he let "ordinary' folks use Nitrate, so he made his "home format" slightly wider than half the space between 35mm perforations so that it would not be ecconomical to re-slit 35mm stock. As John said, Nitrate has not been made for eons, at least in North America. It was seldom made in 16mm outside North America. Are you perhaps using some "old Fashoned" european/Asian film, that has a simalar emuslion to what was used in the Nitrate era? are you making your own?

As long as the can is well sealed, you may as well store ot as cold as you can, unlike food, film does not seem to mind being frozen and re-frozen, as long as it is allowed to warn up before you break the seal. Frozen film will take over night to be sure, refigerated a few hours. I sometimes use one of those Bag sealers used for Frozen food to add an extra mosture barrier in the freezer. I would expect New 100T to last 3 years or more in the frezzer, and less time in the fridge. I tend to freze anything I am not going to use in teh current month, and transfer it to the fridge a few days before I plan to use it.