This is a different kind of post, a film post as opposed to a camera post. I got two films back today and both have a tale to tell, so tell it I will.
Firstly, I bought a junk APS camera for $1, which I haven’t written about yet, and I could not get the film door open. I tried yanking it, sweet-talking it, but nope. Then I put a battery in it and low, there was a film inside. So, the camera did a very good job of protecting it. BUT, did the camera work? I hadn’t tested it yet. Was the film ok? maybe not as I tried to yank open the door. In the end, there were too many unknowns so I pressed the rewind button and put in another film. The film I retrieved was a Fuji Nexia 800, quite rare these days with the ever-dwindling supply of APS.
I decided to use the found film in a known camera. Now, here lies the problem…all APS film is unknown so to speak, as it is all expired. So, why not use this film with the unknown camera. Because I would not know it if was the camera or the film. Minolta Vectis to the rescue. I knew this camera worked very well and it accepted film that had been rewound midroll. When I put the film in though, it did not accept it. The junk camera I found the film in had set the code on the film to 3, ready to process. Here are the cassette codes.
- Full circle: Unexposed
- Half circle: Partly exposed
- Cross sign: Fully exposed but not processed
- Rectangle: Processed
Then I remembered the old, use a pencil in a tape cassette to rewind it, trick. Maybe not a pencil, but a screwdriver?? I rewound the cassette so the code showed a 2, and put it back in the Minolta. Goodness me, if it didn’t go and load 🙂 I never thought that would work.
So off I go on a walk around a river in Tokyo. And finally, I got a cd back with viable images. The film was great, perfect even…an absolute steal for $1.
The second film I got back was a Lomochrome Purple. The last time I used a lomochrome film, I forgot to ask for a cd and my scanner could not handle it at all. I was very disappointed with the results. This time I put the purple in the Olympus Mju I had just tried and remembered the CD. Holy crap, there was a huge difference in quality. I have changed my mind about the film and I am so in love with the camera. This week I had the pleasure to try a very expensive camera and I was impressed. This Olympus was $3 in a junk bin, and I think it is better. Sure it doesn’t have some of the fancy settings, but wowee, it is sharp. Here is the test roll I took around Akihabara.
The result from the Olympus makes me think that I will probably sell all the other point and shoots I have…apart from the one other Olympus Mju I have.
My point and shoot keepers.
Nikon af600 28mm f3.5 found hiding in a lot of other camera gear for £20 on you know where. Made my money back selling the other stuff.
Mju 1
Nikon L35AF 35mm f2.8
Pentax espio 24ew which is a 24-105 zoom
Pentax espio 200. A 38-200 zoom.
I can recommend them all.
Oh and a chinon/yashica 38-70 zoom that I worked out I could alter the film mask to expose the sproket holes…..couldn’t be doing with modding medium format. But still can’t scan sprocket holes!
If you look at the lubitel post you can see I did the sprocket thing on 120mm. It was interesting to try, but not something I will do often. I have a canon scanner that can scan the sprockets.
Well, You haven’t scared your new friend into an old friend with an aps camera. Hopefully I haven’t scared you into Los friend status with another sprocket exposure camera. It is horizontal and wider, thought if you messed with the DX coding sprocket redscale might be interesting. I really read you post about aps film. The canon is loaded with one film, going to see if I can use your screw drive cassette tape method and make it double expose.