Minolta MG 16...

I was rummaging through my closet/darkroom when I ran into a Minolta MG 16 point-and-shoot camera that I purchased over 15 years ago on eBay. I sort of forgot how to use it, but lucky for me there was a online manual for it.

The '16' is for 16 mm film which is what this camera uses. Unfortunately that type of film is obsolete as far as I know. The camera is totally mechanical and does not need any batteries except for the Flash. I was surprised to find that the Light Meter on the front of the camera still works even without a battery !

This camera lets you adjust the aperture, but not the shutter speed which is still not bad considering the age( 1960's). It also come with a built in close-up lens and set of Yellow filters for B&W photography.

The reason why it stayed in my closet so long is that I could not find any film for it . The camera did come with an empty film cartridge to allow you to load your own film. I searched far and wide for some type of film I could use, but the film was usually older than the camera. That's when I chucked it in the closet not to be seen again for a long time. I still think it's a pretty neat camera, just wish I could take some pictures with it...

You couldn't use 16mm movie film?

Or this:

A few years ago, I came across one in an antique shop with what I thought was a decently strong price. I passed on it even though it was interesting, as I didn't want to pay well over $100 for something basically unusable.

Funny enough, at another antique shop just down the road, I found and bought a shoebox full of old film with a lot of good stuff useful to me(a bunch of slow Kodak and Ilford B&W in 35mm and 120) but also strangely enough two rolls of color film for that camera. I paid my $10 for the box of film, but decided to sell the Minolta 16mm stuff off.

As a note, I was at the same shop where I'd seen the camera just about a month ago, and it was still there at the same price...

I found the DIY film splicer. I think I paid $15 for it on eBay. The 35mm film slides in from the back. When you put pressure on the top latch the two blades attached cut the film to 16mm size. I taped the latch open so you could see the inside mechanism. The thing is, I'm not sure how the film is going to advance through the camera without any sprockets ?

I have not touched my Minolta's or Kiev 404's in ages, but you can use 16mm negative film in the cameras. FOMA and several other brands of 16mm are available thru several Net resources. Aloha, Bill

FOMA sells 16mm perforated B&W film but its a positive film not negative. You have to develop it with a process called R100. it takes about an hour to process a roll of 36 exposures ! B&H sells the film and the chemicals...

I found the DIY film splicer. I think I paid $15 for it on eBay. The 35mm film slides in from the back. When you put pressure on the top latch the two blades attached cut the film to 16mm size. I taped the latch open so you could see the inside mechanism. The thing is, I'm not sure how the film is going to advance through the camera without any sprockets ?

 

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I'm not really familiar with this camera but it may not need sprockets to advance the film. Medium format cameras don't use sprockets for example.