How to open "Advantix" film cartridge

Not sure where to post this. I built my darkroom in 1959 and have processed all

formats of film (roll, 35mm). I promised a friend I would scan their film with

my 120 Polaroid Sprintscan, and make an enlargement. The film she gve me was

Kodak Advantix. Please pardon my ignorance, but how do I open the damn

cartridge to get at the exposed film? Also, what is the approximate neg

size....I only have 35mm and roll film carriers for my scanner. If need be, I

will mask down the carrier to hold the smaller film. Thanks in advance

Dave G in NJ

I don't have much experience with APS film but I do know you don't open the cartridges. As

for scanning there are film scanners built to accept APS film attachments, such as the Nikon

LS-4000/LS-5000, Microtek ArtixScan 4000, Polaroid 4000 and other. The APS

attachements must be purchased separately. Normally you place the APS cartridge in the APS

feeder/attachment and it handles the film.

 

I guess you could destory the APS cartridge and get the film out. I would think you'd need a

universal carrier to deal with the odd size.

It's very easy -You don't take the cartridge apart -

The film gate flap will move to open easily - the pivot point for the flap is fairly obvious.

The film is then wound out ( and back in again) by turning the center core - I use the end

cap of a BIC pen for both jobs.

 

If you scan or print them yourself, the results will be better than any ever printed from any

in-shop mini-lab. The negatives will fit within your scanner's 35mm frame, so masking

will work. The APS negatives look very good when printed with the full rebate showing.

 

I still occasionally use a Contax Tix. Scanning on a nikon 4000 or hand printing. The

results are stunningly sharp.

 

Unfortunately APS film availability these days is just ISO 200. For a limited time

100,200,400 and 800 Fuji was available as well as Kodak's BW400CN and Fuji 100 slide.

I hope you're not planning to proscess c-41 film in b/w chemistry..

Got the negs out, scanned the one I was interested in and made a nice 8"x10"

Thanks for the help!

Dave

<p>Donald Ingram's notes on opening an Advantix cartridge are very helpful. After struggling unsuccessfully to hook up my old Nikon LS 2000 film scanner (which has Advantix capability) to a new computer, I followed his instructions, and easily got access to the film. To scan on my Nikon 9000 (at 4000 dpi), I simply cut the frames I was interested in from the film strip, and mounted them into conventional 35mm slide mounts. The individual Advantix frames are just a bit smaller all around than the 35 mm opening, but some Scotch tape easily secures them in the mount, which can then be inserted into the 9000's slide tray and the film scanned. Of course the resulting scan is far better than one made with the old LS 2000.</p>

<p>The main design goal of APS was to store the processed negatives in a nice safe container.<br>

To a hard core APS user destroying the APS container or cutting out the film is like tearing out pages in a textbook; or doing donuts on you local country club's greens; or ripping apart sheets out of a Bible at church.<br>

If it is another's APS cartridge; they may or may not want the frames cut out.</p>

<p>Once cut out many labs will not deal with the negatives anymore.</p>

<p>Better scanner have an APS module that automatically one can crank out what frame to scan; there is no cutting; no Bic pens. Our old canon 2710 has one of these.</p>

<p>Opened the cassettes today and filed the film with all my other negative material. I'm SOO relieved to have gotten rid of those impractical tiny irritating boxes, to have everything nicely in a chronological order, and am now looking at gorgeous negatives, of actually surprisingly decent size (app 85% of 35mm film length). Wednesday I'm going to make contact sheets and than my filing job is finished.</p>

<p>Thanks to the information here, I was able to open up a mystery cartridge that belonged to my elderly mother and I'll scan the negatives.</p>