I am trying to find some 620 film to go with an old 1960 Kodak camera I have recently acquired. As tge negs are quite large I thought that they may lend themselves to scanning on a flatbed, Has anyone ever tried this? Any ideas or info would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS

DAMIAN

-- Damian Kelly (ptek@wn.com.au), July 05, 1999

Answers

620 film is like modern 120, the only difference is the spool, which had smaller holes in the ends for cameras sprockets.

So, you can use the usual and available 120 film in your camera, if you can find an emty spool for 620, because the camera cannot advance the film, if the spool has sprocket holes of 120. You must ask the spool back every time, if you use commercial labs for developing.

One thing more: the film goes better through the camera, if you make also the holes of the full 120 spool smaller. This is easy, if you find some suitable diameter plastic tube - a soda straw or something. The sprockets of a 620 camera are indeed smaller. Cut 5 mm pieces and put these in the holes. If you are handy, you maybe can make a converter for the empty spool's sprocket hole, too - but it is easier to use an old spool.

I have used old 6x9 cm cameras with these improvements for years, nowadays I have a russian Moskva of 1958, which has a fine Tessar-copy lens. It really makes fine negatives for scanning, and my usual lab does notsoexpensive 4x6" prints - 8 per roll, of course.

-- Sakari Mdkeld (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), July 21, 1999.

Damian, I've scanned a lot of 6x6 images on a Umax Powerlook II with a transparency adapter. I just bought a Umax Powerlook III, but need a different SCSI cable before testing it :-(

Scanning MF film on these scanners works fine as long as you realize the limitations. I use mine for getting images on the web, and for making 8x10 proof prints out of my Epson Stylus Photo 750. Color slide and negative films work well with the Umax software, but black-and- white is unreliable. Maybe with more practice I'll find a procedure that works reliably, or I might have to give up and buy different scanning software.

Anyway, as long as you aren't trying to make fine art prints a flatbed scanner will work fine.

-- Darron Spohn (dspohn@clicknet.com), July 21, 1999.