david_foy2

126 film is 35mm wide with one sprocket hole per image. The image itself is 29mm square.

 

If your scanner will let you scan slides in both horizontal and vertical orientation, then its sensor can probably do the job, but you may run into software limitations. Software designers make an awful lot of assumptions about what their customers want to do. I suggest you mount one frame in a cut-out cardboard slide mount and test whatever scanner you are considering.

 

I and many others have been successful making paper masks for scanning 16mm and Minox images in 35mm scanners, so I am confident you could make a mask and scan 126 in a scanner that will do medium format.

 

For scanning a few favorite 16mm or Minox negs, you can buy Gepe slide mounts of the right size (I sell them on-line at frugalphotographer.com) and use a scanner that has a 35mm slide holder. This is too expensive and too fiddly for any kind of volume.

 

Your scanning business will be OK if you keep it small and home-based, but I would advise against dreaming too big.

 

David Foy

The MM1 formula quoted above was invented by Grant Haist when he was research fellow at Kodak, early '60s I think. His book "Monobath Manual" is a thorough exploration of the subject and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in how photo processing works.

The "develop in the cassette" technique really does work. The Brooks/Sigell Instant-Load Developing Tank (as it's called on the instruction sheet) AKA the Brooks Pixmat (so named on the box) was marketed by Burleigh Brooks for several years, and you were supposed to use it with the Sigell Auto Developer, which was a monobath.

 

The big problem is that there is no true general-purpose monobath. Any given formulation is really only optimal for one particular film. There are other problems, mainly the problem of incorporating a hardener and dealing with sludge. Again, I highly recommend Haist's thorough and very readable book.

The original Adox films dating from 1952 have not been available since the early '60s as Adox brand films. However, they *are* still available. In 1962 DuPont bought the Adox company. They sold the technology, but not the brand name, to Fotokemika, a Croatian manufacturer, who since that time have manufactured the original Adox forumulations and sell them today under their Efke brand name. I sell Efke films on my commercial web site (frugalphotographer.com), and they are also available from others (use Google for a comprehensive list). Technical details on these films are posted at http://www.efke.com.

There are examples of Efke films in use posted on my commercial web site, http://www.frugalphotographer.com. Click on the "Gallery" link.

 

David Foy

Disclaimer: I am the person who makes and sells these products.

 

"Bluefire Police" film is a microfilm, Tura Pan Line, made and packaged in Germany. "Bluefire HR" developer is based on the H&W Control formula, as disclosed in the patent, functionally identical but slightly modified for longer package life. It gives similar results with Fuji Super HR and Agfa Copex Rapid Pan AHU (which was the original H&W film).

 

The rating of EI 80 is realistic. The Bluefire film/developer combination compares favorably with the only other similar film/developer combination widely available today, which is Kodak Technical Pan and Technidol developer, which is most often shot at about EI 25.

 

Manufacture and marketing of the Bluefire products is now in the hands of Adox Fotowerke, Inc., who will give them wider distribution. The Adox Fotowerke web site (http://www.adox.net) does not yet have information available as of this date (early October 2003).

 

David Foy

70mm panchromatic aero film is sold to aerial survey companies. A Kodak distributor should be able to get it for you.

(Disclaimer: I'm the owner of the business that makes and sells Bluefire Police and Bluefire HR.)

 

"Bluefire Police" is Tura Pan Line, a panchromatic EI 100 microfilm, packaged in 24-exposure 35mm cassettes. Tura does not sell it in retail quantities.

 

The Bluefire HR developer is derived from the H&W Control formula but has been modified for longer shelf life. When processed in Bluefire HR, the film must be exposed at EI 80. The recommended development is a compensating procedure (15 minutes, little agitation) that is meant to give pictorial contrast at relatively high acutance with microfilms. Acutance is more usefully considered a property of developer and development technique, not of film.

 

Since Bluefire Police is a microfilm (very thin, very hard, monodisperse non-tabular small grain emulsion), it gives a different image than tabular films (or any non-microfilm, for that matter), one the photographer may or may not prefer, depending on taste. Ann Clancy's description of it mirrors my experience.

 

I tested it against Kodak TMax 100 during product development (same camera and lens, same scene, shot immediately after the Bluefire roll) and the Bluefire grain is finer. The super-enlarged bolt-head on the web site cannot be detected on the Kodak negative. The super-enlarged man's head image is not distinct and would be not be acceptable as identification in court (the Bluefire image would be). At the extreme of enlargement, when enlargeability is the goal, Bluefire is the more useful choice.

 

This is an extreme test and the differences between the two films, in terms of grain's effect on enlargeability, is unlikely to be significant for many photographers. However, the difference in overall image appearance is definitely noticeable at any degree of enlargement, and it is my hope that at least some photographers will find the Bluefire film's tonality a useful addition to their palette.

In my own personal photography, I treat it like a conventional EI25 film (AgfaPan 25 or Efke KB25) that I can expose reliably at IE80.

The Bluefire HR developer also works beautifully (in my opinion) with Fuji Super HR microfilms. Unfortunately they're not available in perforated 35mm, but the 16mm size can be used for submini camera loads.

 

It works well with Agfa Copex Pan Rapid AHU, which is available in 35mm perfed, 30.5m bulk length (minimum order, 50 rolls if you buy from Agfa or a microfilm house). That was the 35mm film packaged by Holden and Weichart in the '60s as H&W Control VTE Pan.<div></div>

Harold Holden and Arnold Weichert patented a phenidone-based, ultra-

low contrast developer in the late 1960's, and in 1972 they offered

it for sale with repackaged Agfa Copex Pan Rapid microfilm, in 35mm

cartridges and on 120 spools. The brand name was "H&W Control VTE

Panchromatic Film" and they stated on their instruction sheet that it

was the Agfa film noted above. "VTE" stood for Very Thin Emulsion. In

experiments that preceeded the patent, they got good results with

copy films at about ISO 25-40, and with microfilms at 50-80. They

rated the Agfa film they sold at 80.

 

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The formula is in the public domain. Apparently today's Gigabit

product from Germany behaves identically (which does not prove it is

identical). Since 35mm perfed microfilms don't exist any more except

wherever Gigabit get theirs, experimenters are limited to Minox or

16mm subminiature equipment. I have experimented extensively with the

formula and several 16mm microfilms, and the interactions of thin

base, thin emulsion, clear emulsion (very disconcerting!) and a

development process utterly unlike standard processing is, well,

let's say, a fruitful field for on-going research. I have projected a

12x18mm neg to approximately 1x1.3m feet on the wall, and made a

print of a part of the image, and even at that magnification, grain

does not degrade the image. I have samples of a similar image on

display at my commercial site

(http://www.frugalphotographer.com/microfilm_examples.htm).

 

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Microfilms achieve their purpose, which is a stark black image on a

stark clear background, with no gray, through massive underexposure

and overdevelopment. That's why document copying is usually done at

relatively fast shutter speeds (ratings of 200 or more are not

unusual) and A/B type chemistries that mimic lith developers. Holden

and Weichert's achievement was to reverse the situation, and, more

importantly, to find a combination of overexposure and

underdevelopment that was useful for ordinary photography. In

arriving at a useable speed range of 40 to 80, and by inventing an

almost shockingly low-contrast developer, they succeeded.

The most serious limitation of their invention is that exposures must

be exact. There is no latitude.

Efke and Maco 127 film is available on-line at

http://www.frugalphotographer.com

 

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David Foy