Roll film back for a Certo Bee Bee ?

<p>Hi,<br>

I just purchased an Certo Bee Bee plate camera <em>6</em> x <em>9</em> . Dose anyone know what size roll film back would fit it.<br>

It came with sheet film holders that hold 2.25 x 3.25 or 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 film. The out side dimensions of the film holders are 4 3/4 x 3 inches. <br>

Thanks ,<br>

Glenn </p>

<p>Glenn, Look for a RADA back. They come up on auction periodically and hold 120 film. It will give you 6 x 9 format frames. There are some other brands but the RADA is the nicest. Your Certo is actually a 6.5 x 9 format. I have a Certo Super Sport and Voigtlander Bergheil and Avus in this format. They are a lot of fun to use. Recently I adapted a Mamiya RB67 back to fit these cameras. I like the 6 x 7 format a bit better and the back holds the film flatter than the RADA and is smoother in its operation. It was not a difficult adaptation although I did lose the dark slide function in order to keep the film plane as close as possible to the original.</p>

<p>Thanks R.C.<br>

I'm a newbie at this. Do I look for a 6 x 9 or a 6.5 x 9 back ? What modifications did you make<br>

to fit the Mamiya RB67 back to the camera ?<br>

Thanks again,<br>

Glenn</p>

 

<p>Glenn: I think you need to look for a roll film back to fit a 6.5 x 9 plate camera. That is the original negative format. The roll film back will produce a 6x9 negative size. If you have a spare film holder, measure the outside dimensions of the film holder to determine what size back to look for. I just measured the film holder tracks on the back of my Bergheil and they are 76mm wide by 120mm long. As for the modification to the Mamiya back: I removed the plastic film gate frame and discarded it. Then I carefully cut the back so that it would fit between the film holder rails on the back of the camera. I did this on a table saw with a carbide toothed blade and took several very very light cuts. Finally, I took a sheet of 1/16" aluminum and cut it to size so it fit into the camera back tracks. And I cut out the center of this piece to match the plastic film gate I'd removed. I also drilled this plate to match the retaining screw holes of the film gate. Because I removed the plastic film gate piece I no longer have the use of the dark slide but that didn't concern me. It did allow me to move the film plane closer to the original film plane. You could just trim the plastic film gate width to fit inside the tracks and screw the aluminum plate on top of that. But if you do that you'll have to find a source of tiny metric screws that are longer than stock. Hopefully this is reasonably clear! Contact me (rcbooth@rochester.rr.com) if you have questions or, I can also send you some photos of what I've done.</p>

<p>Sorry for answering an old question, but I just found this.<br>

I have a 35mm roll back for a Bee Bee that I just dug out of an old box. Not sure why anyone would use such a thing anymore, but might as well let people know it exists.</p>