Robert, many thanks for your kind words!

They are really unbeatable as a studio camera, but using them in the field is more a test of endurance than pleasure at my age, although I did use them a lot, in often very poor conditions, when I worked on research ships, but I was younger and fitter then !!

Your beautiful capture is greatly admired

Historical & Architectural Gems

June, thanks for your visit!

"I have sorted converting 120 to 620 without re-spooling," You intrigue me even more with that statement besides the discourse on the unusual camera. Is there somewhere I can go to find out more? I have a couple of 620 that might like a look at the scenery again!.

Murray, please excuse the delay in replying, - the intolerable pressures of retirement !!

Now, as for the 120/620 thing. I have a nice workshop, with a toolroom lathe, and I decided to try machining the 120 spools straight out of the box, with the film still in place. The outside diameters are easy, the film is mounted between centres and the flanges turned to size,the only thing to take care of is that the film wrapper end must be "trailing", to avoid the risk of snagging on the tool.

Often this is all that is needed, a lot of 620 cameras will accept the wider 120 spools, but if machining the end flanges to the correct overall width is also called for, a simple split collet, machined from tube, is slipped over the paper wrapper so that the film can be gripped safely in the 3 jaw chuck. This avoids; (a) the inevitable pressure marks from the chuck jaws appearing on the processed film, and (b) much more importantly, the dangers of trying to machine any component that is not securely held - rolled paper/film is not a stable medium !!

Even so, it's best to take light cuts, and not go at it like a bull at a gate, - the flanges are quite thin when machined to size, and of course they are plastic, not metal like the original 620's, and they will distort if heavy cuts are taken.

Some cameras will work quite well with the pivot holes provided by 120 spools, but I usually put a little aluminium bush in each end, so that the film rotates correctly on the original 620 pivot pins. All this takes more time to describe than it does to do it, I reckon about 4 minutes to re-size, and I turn up the bushes in a batch of ,say 30, at a time, so it's not a big deal.

I'm surprised some enterprising outfit hasn't started doing this commercially, it could be easily automated, but I suppose the demand would be quite small, even worldwide. I did consider offering a service doing this a few years ago, but sadly the postal costs would be prohibitive, and anyway, I enjoy being retired !!

Here's the dimensions for anyone interestesd:
120 spool flanges 0.990"(25.14mm)dia, machine to 0.910"(23.12mm)dia.
120 spool overall length 2.595"(65.91), machine 0.025"(0.63mm) from each end, to give an overall length of 2.545" (64.64mm)
Pivot Bushes 0.208"(5.28mm) dia, length 0.350"(8.9mm), drill 5/32" (4mm)

We all know that different makes of films are different photographically, and so it is with physical dimensions, and I found that the wrapped film diameter varied with different manufacturers, so I made three different collets, 0.900", 0.875", & 0.850" inside diameters, which covers any film I'm likely to use. The OD of these is not important, I used some PVC tube I had, - the length should be around 2.350" (60mm).

There it is, Murray, - don't try this at home, unless you know what you are doing !! Meanwhile have a very Happy Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year!

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I did find a place that filed and sandpapered the flanges and was stressing the importance of removing all traces of dust and debris. I did, however, get the picture, and reckon I could do it easier - sans lathe. Then I went looking for cheap film. That's even harder than the flaming conversion!
As a boy I had an el cheapo camera that took either size. Unfortunately the pictures were awful - nothing was in focus anywhere. Great engineering but hopeless optics.
As I said, I have no lathe so that's out. I do have 2 Shanghai in the fridge so it could happen yet!
Murray