Reviving an old Shur Shot.

[Grandpa Ron]

After a quick web search I decided to revive my mom's 1940's Agfa Ansco box camera.

A couple of 1 1/4 " washers added to the 120 format film spool ends to fit the 116 film slot and a black poster board film mask and I am ready to go; as soon as the rains stops and the sun comes out.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Well it took a while but I finally got a chance to see if shooting 120 format in 116 would work.

The short answer is yes.
However, there are things to come back and bite you. (especially if you get impatient)
1. On a 116 take up reel the 120 film edges are exposed and must be wrapped tight or light will leak in.
2. Film is not digital, it will scratch, bend and pick up dust, smudges and finger prints very easily,
3. Scanning and reducing to a less than a 1 meg jpg does not do justice to the quality of the negative details.

Details, cloudy day with breaks of sunshine. Chief Menomonee monument in northern IN, 200 ISO Artista EDU film. The format was masked off with black poster board to approximately 8cm x 4cm. this happens to correspond to the 1-16 exposure marks on the film, allowing me to index 2-4-6-8 in the film counter window.

Now to take my time and finish my contact printer.

Some results.

 

[star camera company]

Great images, could have been taken in 1939! Does your camera have a yellow filter?

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Star,

Yes the camera has a yellow filter and two apertures.

Unfortunately, I do not recall the which apertures or filter was used, because as I mentioned, I did not realize that I was letting light sneak into the edge of the 120 film wound on the 116 take up reel. Of the eight photos these were the ones with the least light damage.

That is what happens when excitement shifts my mind to neutral.

On the plus side, I know the process works, so next time I will wait for a less windy, sunny day, and take the film from camera to developing tank in the change bag. I also think I will try 100 ISO film.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

[smithdan]

Sorry I missed this Ron. Great results for first go. Unloading in the bag will help the light issue. Did you tape over the red window, looks like no artifact from it.

Your adventure is an incentive for me to try this on one of my 116 Kodaks.

 

[vintagesnaps]

There are spools adapted for use 120 film in larger cameras like the 116, etc. If you do a search you'd probably find resources, there are people out there doing similar projects. These turned out pretty well and now you know how to adapt for next time.

 

[smoke665]

Wow great project.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I discovered the 116 film spool adapters after the fact.

The 120 film is paper backed so there is no issue with light through the red window. In fact, the Arista paper backing numbers were close enough to the window that I could use the 1-16 exposure count and index two numbers. I used a 1 cm strip of black poster board across the top of the film plane, to provide spacing between the negative frames.

The 120 format film was wide enough that I did not try any edge masking.