Looks like they came out with a reasonably good digital mini-camera of their own. (although I have doubts that it's really made by Minox)
Problem is that the vendors I checked say "out of stock", even though it's still shown on Minox's website.
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The Vintage Camera Club Thread
- Thread starter Two Gun Bob
- Start date
Looks like they came out with a reasonably good digital mini-camera of their own. (although I have doubts that it's really made by Minox)
Problem is that the vendors I checked say "out of stock", even though it's still shown on Minox's website.
Doctor Strange
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Wow, they don't even list their film cameras at their site anymore! They still did the last time I looked.
They seem to be concentrating on those miniature digital versions of "classic" cameras.
They remind me of the tiny cameras they used to sell from coupons in the back of comic books (circa late-1950's), only nicer.
Doctor Strange
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Those are generally referred to as "hit cameras" - http://www.subclub.org/shop/175mm.htm
I'm just shocked that Minox GmBH no longer sell (and likely no longer make) their film cameras. While they had long been pushing their other products - digital cameras, 35mm point-and-shoot cameras, binoculars - the 9.5mm camera was their original product since the company's founding shortly after WWII. While the 9.5 cameras and film were an ever-smaller part of their business, it was still their signature flagship product...
Walter Zapp, the inventor of the Minox, must be turning over in his grave!
I'm just shocked that Minox GmBH no longer sell (and likely no longer make) their film cameras. While they had long been pushing their other products - digital cameras, 35mm point-and-shoot cameras, binoculars - the 9.5mm camera was their original product since the company's founding shortly after WWII. While the 9.5 cameras and film were an ever-smaller part of their business, it was still their signature flagship product...
Walter Zapp, the inventor of the Minox, must be turning over in his grave!
My Minox stuff...
Haven't touched this junk in years, but my new (to me) Minox B came in today, so I dug around my office and found all my old Minox stuff.
Including my old Minox B which I thought had been in a camera bag which was stolen about 15 years ago.
So what I found (clockwise from upper left) was my old Minox B, which is mounted in a minox tripod with cable release, a Minox daylight developing tank, a Minox binocular adapter for telephoto pictures, my new Minox B which came in the original box, a standard flashbulb adapter with reflector that came with the new camera, some Minox flashbulbs (not for the above mentioned adapter), several rolls of unused asa 400 color film, a negative/slide viewer magnifier.
In the center from front to back are my Minox C camera, a Minox tripod adapter with standard tripod thread on it, a Minox flash unit which uses those flashbulbs (both of the two previous items also came with the new camera) and two more flash adapters in original boxes, one that accepts the Minox bulbs, and one that uses flashcubes.
Also in the picture are the leather cases and lanyard chains that belong to each camera.
My mil-spec. Swiss Army knife is in the photo for scale.
After digging all that out, I was looking at the C camera and realized it still had film in it. The C has automatic exposure setting (why it's bigger than the B) which requires a battery. I haven't touched that camera in over 10 years, and I expected it to be dead, but the exposure lamp in the top of the camera lit up when I tried it, and the shutter works.
My old B has had a dead exposure meter for years, but the one in the new camera works fine.
Can't wait to try it out with that ancient film in it! I may even look into using that developing tank this time around.
Haven't touched this junk in years, but my new (to me) Minox B came in today, so I dug around my office and found all my old Minox stuff.
Including my old Minox B which I thought had been in a camera bag which was stolen about 15 years ago.
So what I found (clockwise from upper left) was my old Minox B, which is mounted in a minox tripod with cable release, a Minox daylight developing tank, a Minox binocular adapter for telephoto pictures, my new Minox B which came in the original box, a standard flashbulb adapter with reflector that came with the new camera, some Minox flashbulbs (not for the above mentioned adapter), several rolls of unused asa 400 color film, a negative/slide viewer magnifier.
In the center from front to back are my Minox C camera, a Minox tripod adapter with standard tripod thread on it, a Minox flash unit which uses those flashbulbs (both of the two previous items also came with the new camera) and two more flash adapters in original boxes, one that accepts the Minox bulbs, and one that uses flashcubes.
Also in the picture are the leather cases and lanyard chains that belong to each camera.
My mil-spec. Swiss Army knife is in the photo for scale.
After digging all that out, I was looking at the C camera and realized it still had film in it. The C has automatic exposure setting (why it's bigger than the B) which requires a battery. I haven't touched that camera in over 10 years, and I expected it to be dead, but the exposure lamp in the top of the camera lit up when I tried it, and the shutter works.
My old B has had a dead exposure meter for years, but the one in the new camera works fine.
Can't wait to try it out with that ancient film in it! I may even look into using that developing tank this time around.
Doctor Strange
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Very nice collection!
I've used the daylight developing tank hundreds of times - back in the sixties and in the last almost-twenty years - and it's always worked beautifully, what a great design! But I haven't used commercially loaded Minox film since early in my neo-Minox career. A friend built me a Don Krehbiel-style film slitter, allowing me to cut down a 36-exposure 35mm roll into FOUR 36-exposure Minox loads and reload the cassettes in the darkroom. Besides great film economy (often under a dollar a roll), this allowed me access to better emulsions than Minox was loading: I have long used T-Max 100 for b/w (after experiments with Plus-X, Agfapan 100, Ilford FP4, and assorted development chemicals in search of the finest grain), and when I used to shoot color, a succession of very fine grain 100-speed Kodak and Fuji color print films (Ektar, Supra, Reala).
The Minox is a brilliant photo system, and the resulting pictures have a very unique look. And not just from the big grain and the quirks of now-ancient lens design/manufacture: the 15mm Minox lens and its focal distance to the 8x11mm film plane is very similar in size to the human eye and retina, and the depth of focus in Minox pictures is much closer to how we see than images from other cameras.
I've used the daylight developing tank hundreds of times - back in the sixties and in the last almost-twenty years - and it's always worked beautifully, what a great design! But I haven't used commercially loaded Minox film since early in my neo-Minox career. A friend built me a Don Krehbiel-style film slitter, allowing me to cut down a 36-exposure 35mm roll into FOUR 36-exposure Minox loads and reload the cassettes in the darkroom. Besides great film economy (often under a dollar a roll), this allowed me access to better emulsions than Minox was loading: I have long used T-Max 100 for b/w (after experiments with Plus-X, Agfapan 100, Ilford FP4, and assorted development chemicals in search of the finest grain), and when I used to shoot color, a succession of very fine grain 100-speed Kodak and Fuji color print films (Ektar, Supra, Reala).
The Minox is a brilliant photo system, and the resulting pictures have a very unique look. And not just from the big grain and the quirks of now-ancient lens design/manufacture: the 15mm Minox lens and its focal distance to the 8x11mm film plane is very similar in size to the human eye and retina, and the depth of focus in Minox pictures is much closer to how we see than images from other cameras.
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In your quest for fine grain B&W film, does anyone remember or even know of H&W Control? It was made northern Vermont in the seventies, and was one of the films of choice for air reconnaissance applications. A Googoo search actually turned up formulations and some film alternatives.
http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/003Hix N
This is something for those who are motivated and capable of formulating their own developer, above. Worth it, though if you use the Minox, or other similar format.
Wonder where Harold (Holden) and Arnold (Weichert) are today...
http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/003Hix N
This is something for those who are motivated and capable of formulating their own developer, above. Worth it, though if you use the Minox, or other similar format.
Wonder where Harold (Holden) and Arnold (Weichert) are today...
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Doctor Strange
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Wow, I was definitely reading those forum discussions back in 2001! There were lots of folks fooling around with Kodak Technical Pan, Agfa Copex microfilm and a number of developers in search of near-microscopic grain. For my own purposes, as long as I could make a 4x5 or 5x7 print that didn't have grain like cannonballs from the Minox negative, I was happy. So after many experiments, I eventually settled on T-Max 100 and good old D-76 1:1.
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At one time I knew all the resolution factors by the numbers; lines/mm, I believe. Now I suffer from CRS, of course. But from a big picture (no pun intended) perspective, The results were nothing less than amazing. I actually have a continuously refrigerated small quantity (I'm slightly ashamed to admit) in the downstairs fridge.
Now you have me wondering if...
Now you have me wondering if...
I may be wanting to pick your brain once I get ready to experiment with this developing tank. No sense in re-inventing the wheel.
I can probably cobble up a film cutter, my cousin who introduced me to Minox cameras back in 1972 had made one.
How do you replicate the ends of the filmstrip? I had heard that there was a cutter available that could produce the tapered end with the hole in it.
Refilling the film cartridges and doing my own film processing is the only way I'll be able to afford taking pictures as much as I used to with my old Minox. Back then, I'd send the film in for negative processing only to save money. That way, I'd only have the ones I liked printed.
I can probably cobble up a film cutter, my cousin who introduced me to Minox cameras back in 1972 had made one.
How do you replicate the ends of the filmstrip? I had heard that there was a cutter available that could produce the tapered end with the hole in it.
Refilling the film cartridges and doing my own film processing is the only way I'll be able to afford taking pictures as much as I used to with my old Minox. Back then, I'd send the film in for negative processing only to save money. That way, I'd only have the ones I liked printed.
Very nice collection!
I've used the daylight developing tank hundreds of times - back in the sixties and in the last almost-twenty years - and it's always worked beautifully, what a great design! But I haven't used commercially loaded Minox film since early in my neo-Minox career. A friend built me a Don Krehbiel-style film slitter, allowing me to cut down a 36-exposure 35mm roll into FOUR 36-exposure Minox loads and reload the cassettes in the darkroom. Besides great film economy (often under a dollar a roll), this allowed me access to better emulsions than Minox was loading: I have long used T-Max 100 for b/w (after experiments with Plus-X, Agfapan 100, Ilford FP4, and assorted development chemicals in search of the finest grain), and when I used to shoot color, a succession of very fine grain 100-speed Kodak and Fuji color print films (Ektar, Supra, Reala).
The Minox is a brilliant photo system, and the resulting pictures have a very unique look. And not just from the big grain and the quirks of now-ancient lens design/manufacture: the 15mm Minox lens and its focal distance to the 8x11mm film plane is very similar in size to the human eye and retina, and the depth of focus in Minox pictures is much closer to how we see than images from other cameras.
Doctor Strange
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Carlo - Feel free to PM me with questions - this stuff is probably too arcane for this thread.
Regarding the ends of the Minox rolls... I've never bothered putting the taper and keyhole cut for the dev tank on the inner end: when developing, I just use a small piece of masking tape to attach the film to the start of the reel. (Crude, but effective!) When loading cassettes with fresh film, I use a hole punch to put a little quarter-moon at the start to indicate that it's unexposed (a la factory loads). But really, a strip of Minox film is just a plain strip... it's brilliant that Walter Zapp designed the Minox system so that the film is pulled through from an inner core gearing, with no need for tiny, hard-to-replicate sprocket holes!
I'm thrilled to see that Don Krehbiel's Minox site is still online. For info on building his slitter, see http://kcbx.net/~mhd/2photo/slitter/slit.htm
Regarding the ends of the Minox rolls... I've never bothered putting the taper and keyhole cut for the dev tank on the inner end: when developing, I just use a small piece of masking tape to attach the film to the start of the reel. (Crude, but effective!) When loading cassettes with fresh film, I use a hole punch to put a little quarter-moon at the start to indicate that it's unexposed (a la factory loads). But really, a strip of Minox film is just a plain strip... it's brilliant that Walter Zapp designed the Minox system so that the film is pulled through from an inner core gearing, with no need for tiny, hard-to-replicate sprocket holes!
I'm thrilled to see that Don Krehbiel's Minox site is still online. For info on building his slitter, see http://kcbx.net/~mhd/2photo/slitter/slit.htm
Small Town Girl
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I know next to nothing about cameras but I picked this Polaroid Land Camera at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago for $5.99 mainly because it was cool and cheap. Does anyone still make film for these? The model number on it is 80.
There was also a Konica 35mm SLR from what I guess would be from the '60's on the shelf next to the Polaroid for $5.00. That's all the info I have for the Konica. Any opinions on either camera?
I bought one of these this past weekend, do you guys have any suggestions for film to use in it? I emailed Bhphotos and all they said was "Polaroid no longer makes film for that camera." Any ideas would be very much appreciated!
2jakes
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I bought one of these this past weekend, do you guys have any suggestions for film to use in it? I emailed Bhphotos and all they said was "Polaroid no longer makes film for that camera." Any ideas would be very much appreciated!
https://www.the-impossible-project.com/
Small Town Girl
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Thank you so much!!!!
2jakes
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Looks like you might have the Polaroid "Highlander" model 89.
"The Granddaddy of the iPhone "...:clap2:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=... cgwWs146NVWJ9qvhemElWA&ust=1402693509969811
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=Y_8HBZyLAzNJYQoQ66E3kg&bvm=bv.68911936,d.aWw
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Small Town Girl
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Haha! "The granddaddy of the iPhone." I like that. And, you are absolutely right, that is the same model and even the same color. Thank you so much for your help. I'm so excited to get film and see if she still works! Yay!
And, you are absolutely right, that is the same model and even the same color. Thank you so much for your help. I'm so excited to get film and see if she still works! Yay!
2jakes
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Haha! "The granddaddy of the iPhone." I like that.
You're :welcome:
Let me know if you got it working !
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1930artdeco
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Wow, I had heard about this company. I heard they were having problems with reverse engineering the chemistry or Polaroid was giving them trouble. Now if I just could get polaoird film for my speedgraphic again...
Mike
Mike
I hate to be a negative voice (pun intended), but you will need Type 42 Roll Film for that older model Polaroid, and as best I can tell no one makes that (yet). Maybe they will at some point but not now.
Polaroid made a number of types of cameras and types of film.
http://en.polaroid-passion.com/polaroid-roll-films.php?id=74
Roll film was the oldest and worst. You were lucky to get 2-3 good images out of a roll for one reason or another.
At this point it will have to exist for looks only, not for function.
As for the Speed Graphic, if you have a Type 405 back, or get one, you can get all the film for that that you want. Fuji makes a good quality, reasonably priced version of the Polaroid films. Type 405 backs were the most prevalent and cheapest of the Polaroid backs for Graphic (and other) cameras. ( Wow! I just checked on ebay and was astounded to find that most of the 405 holders were in the $200 range. Once upon a time you could fill a basket with them for under $50 each.)
Even with the higher cost, it's a feasible way to get modern Polaroid film onto the Speed Graphic.
Polaroid made a number of types of cameras and types of film.
http://en.polaroid-passion.com/polaroid-roll-films.php?id=74
Roll film was the oldest and worst. You were lucky to get 2-3 good images out of a roll for one reason or another.
At this point it will have to exist for looks only, not for function.
As for the Speed Graphic, if you have a Type 405 back, or get one, you can get all the film for that that you want. Fuji makes a good quality, reasonably priced version of the Polaroid films. Type 405 backs were the most prevalent and cheapest of the Polaroid backs for Graphic (and other) cameras. ( Wow! I just checked on ebay and was astounded to find that most of the 405 holders were in the $200 range. Once upon a time you could fill a basket with them for under $50 each.)
Even with the higher cost, it's a feasible way to get modern Polaroid film onto the Speed Graphic.
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