Do you develop 35mm? - can you do me some? (21 inches worth!)

[styru]

Looking for someone that develops/prints their own 35mm to possibly do me a favour.

Why, well this (a 1930's Ensign Midget 55 (http://www.ensign.demon.co.uk/midget.htm))

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m227/styru/DSC_1693.jpg

Used to be a camera (I say used to be, as it has not taken a picture for well over 50 years)

This was given to me by a retired Bishop many years ago - and has spent it's retirement looking like a camera - but being little more than an ornament.

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m227/styru/Photo_031209_001.jpg

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m227/styru/DSC_1694.jpg

After a bit of fiddling I've managed to get it to hold 21 inches (54cm) of modern 35mm film, and I'd love to get some pictures out of this camera.

Now obviously my local 'Snappy-hour-loose-your-prints' store isn't going to cope with a short length of un-canned film, with hand wound/randomly spaced exposures.

So, anyone up for it? (I'll cover your costs etc)

Help me get turn this engineering marvel back into a camera (rather than the photographic equivalent of a wade whimsey)

.

[Brick_Man]

very nice!
and good work getting film in there.

the processing shouldn't be a prob for b&w or c41 colour, it the prints that will be hard to get in colour.
in b&w a student and an enlarger will do. most colleges have them and let non students use them if they want
colour though your gonna need a friend! can't help you im afraid

[JJ.]

Did you load it with black and white, or colour film?

I could process B&W with no problems, and scan the negs - I'm out of colour chemicals at the moment, and my kitchen sink method is a little hit and miss on the temperature ;)

One quick word of advice: don't take any pictures that you actually care about until you've figured out if the camera is working properly. I've played around with some vintage cameras we've had kicking around the house and had pretty mixed results :(

[styru]

Did you load it with black and white, or colour film?

I could process B&W with no problems, and scan the negs - I'm out of colour chemicals at the moment, and my kitchen sink method is a little hit and miss on the temperature ;)

One quick word of advice: don't take any pictures that you actually care about until you've figured out if the camera is working properly. I've played around with some vintage cameras we've had kicking around the house and had pretty mixed results :(

Currently loaded with colour film, that has been sat open to the light on my desk whilst I perfected the method (so could be loaded with b&w or colour for the actual pics (I was probably going to go colour because you can get it dirt cheap)

Not expecting miracles from this camera, but would just love to produce something that looks like a photo - so that it lives up to its intended use once again. :thumb

[JJ.]

Currently loaded with colour film, that has been sat open to the light on my desk whilst I perfected the method (so could be loaded with b&w or colour for the actual pics (I was probably going to go colour because you can get it dirt cheap)

I'd be happy to process either (keep in mind I'm an enthusiast, certainly not pro!!). Let me know (if you don't get any better offers ;))

Not expecting miracles from this camera...

Probably for the best :p But if it's in good condition, you might be pleasantly surprised!

[Brick_Man]

So its designed to run on loose film? You can get rolls of B&W (ilford do it) 5m or so I think at a time, guys at uni use it as they have a proper film change room to make it a bit easier, rather than faffing under a cloth.
Fairly sure it works out MUCH cheaper, around half the price, and with a normal roll of ilford hp5 at £1.95, then a £1 a roll is not bad, or you would prob get 2 spools worth out of a normal 36expo roll.
Have you checked it for light leaks? that frame finder vinyl canopy thing looks like the possible offender.

[JJ.]

Oh, and at the risk of pointing out the blindingly obvious, if it originally used paper-backed film and has a red window on the back of the camera, make sure that is really well covered, or it will totally balls up your film :)

[landy]

if you need it, PM me. I'm at a photo uni and we have machines for bw regular and color c41 processes. As for printing, we can work that out as well, i guess. It'd be practical to run a cheap test film through it first to check for light leaks. You get them quite often. I've got a Voitlanger that looks like that and a Zeiss IKON and they are both padded with tape. Otherwise the light would most likely trash my films.

Again, PM and we can set up a meet or mail me the films and it's done :)

[Narcosynthesis]

For colour film the developing is easy enough - any lab that can process colour film should be able to stick it in the machine easily enough - just ask if they could remove the film in the dark and pop it in an empty/reusable canister for you and dev exactly as normal. Worst case would be you needing to get a few empty spools or reusable cartridge and transfer the film to that before handing into the lab.

Printing on the other hand could be a problem. Most labs will have automatic machines that will get confused with a lack of 'standard' 35mm frames, and will quite likely print nothing - depending on your needs it might be worth finding if you can get access to a negative scanner of some form so you can scan to digital, and if wanted print from that.

That may be an easier option if you have better access to a normal photo lab rather than posting it about, but obviously that depends on what you have locally (I can see some staff refusing to do anything non standard, but anyone who knows what they are doing should be able to do it fine) and scanning/printing

[landy]

Processing needs a hole in the film. If you've noticed at the processing centers, all of the films have a white lead at one end. that pulls the film through the entire machine and makes sure it doesn't get stuck. The only film not needing it is the 4x5 color or bw, because that's just a big chunk of plastic with emulsion on it. Can't get lost.The smaller 120 or 135 can on the other hand.

This hole is usually made in the darkroom at uni, but at the centers where they only process 35 mm, they just stick it out and perforate it. Thus, won't always be happy if you ruin their natural life cycle by asking them not to see what they're doing.

As for scanner, i've got an Imacon X1 which is pretty much top hit at the moment. Printing them is expensive and useless. Especially on photographic paper. But be prepared for big file sizes (70 megs for color 120, 20-25 for color negs. Usually 30% to 40% decrease in size for bw because it's less info to scan)