My little miracle

[mickeyobe]

Last week I picked up my Kodak Medalist I beautifully CLA'd.

It uses long discontinued 620 film.
There are several tedious and unpleasant methods of rewinding 120 film onto 620 spools.

I went through my collection of old Kodak box cameras and got plenty of 620 spools.
I also came across this. A Universal Roamer I camera that can use either 620 or 120 film.



The one easy way to rewind 120 on to 620 spools is with a camera that takes both sizes.

As soon as the snow stops falling I am off to Henry's to get some 120 film.

Mickey

[Randy]

Freda (the Mrs.) has a Roamer just like that, and when she used it all of her pics turned out fuzzy.

[mickeyobe]

At least Freda has a good excuse for fuzzy pictures.
I don't.

BUT

That is good news for you if you want to put 620 film on 120 spools.

I have noticed that it takes considerable extra pressure to get the lens bed to click open and sit at 90° to the film plane. There must be an audible "click".

Mickey

[Doug T.]

Mickey,
That's an excellent idea, and one I'm sure that most of us wouldn't even have thought of!
I hope it works well for you.

Doug

[mickeyobe]

Doug,

I deserve no credit.

This information was from an excellent item on the internet by C. D. Wilcox entitled "HOW CAN I USE MY 620 CAMERA"?" Wherein he lists 6 different options.

Mickey

[Berndt]

But isn't it so, that the backing paper is only fixed on one side of the film ? So, 120/620 cameras are actually not made for rewinding the film.

But just from logic ( I never tried it by myself yet though ), spooling the film from 120 to 620 means, spooling it twice. Once on what spool, you like and then once more on a 620 spool while making sure, that the backing paper gets spooled with it.

That shouldn't be difficult by hand ... but with a camera ? How can you make sure, that the backing paper get's grabbed too ? No matter wether you spool the film once or twice, you should have this problem either while spooling the film twice or inserting it into a 620 camera later.

I have a 620 camera ... but unfortunately, I couldn't manage to find empty 620 spools yet Just tried this spooling technique with an old 120 film for fun and it seems to be easy, doing it by hand.

The Kodak No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie should be another camera, that can take both, 120 and 620 film. The film chamber is even big enough for taking 35 mm film cartridges. I want to try that some day. The pictures should look similar to the ones, taken with the "Sprocket Rocket" then:
www.lomography.com/photos/cameras/3328515-lomography-sprocket-rocket/popular
Interesting effect, isn't it.

What kept me away from trying that is the fact. that I couldn't manage to handle the No.2 Autographic Brownie properly yet. The focus is so damn difficult to set on that one. I took a lot of test shots and I couldn't even figure out, where the focus exactly is, also trying to fix the lens with a jammed chop stick ... but it's like trying to cut onions with an ax. What would probably help is, closing the lens completely down and shooting at f:64 or something like that, but then, I would need a speedy film, which looks pretty grainy on 35 mm. Well ... and the 1/50 sec isn't really exciting too. I would just be able to shoot people, if they freeze

[mickeyobe]

berndt,

Herewith the item I mentioned.



In the upper right hand corner you will see the address that should get you to the entire article.

I have a No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie which is probably similar to your No. 2 although smaller.
It uses No A-116 film. The film chamber would take either 120 or 620 but how would you hold the rolls centred precisely?
The Foldex 20 in the article and my Universal Roamer I were both designed to take either size and the pegs that hold the rolls in place are stepped to accommodate both sizes.


As for focus. Sounds as if the lens mount is bent. Is your chopstick from a Bento box?

If it is bent slide it back toward the camera body a little so you don't put a strain on the bellows and try a little brute force to bend it back to where it should be, parallel to the film plane and 90 degrees to the drop bed.

Good luck and have fun.

Mickey

[Berndt]

Well ... I still can't really imagine, that it would work so easily, because the backing paper is taped to the film on one end for good reasons ... but ... if the writer says, he did it many times without problems ...

I am looking forward to your experiences with this method then.