Loading film into the #Ikkosha Start 35k.

Loading film into the #Ikkosha Start 35k.

Today I thought I would try and figure out how I would go about loading film into the #Ikkosha Start 35k. #Camera, #classic, #film, #OCC22, #OldCameraChallenge,

The Ikkosha takes 35mm film, not in a cassette but as a paper-backed roll, like 120 film. As a first step, my original plan was to roll some exposed 35mm film onto the reels and see how many turns of the film advance were required to move from one frame to the next. However, there was one major flaw in my plan: I don't have any.

Until now, apart from one broken 35mm roll that I loaded into my Sprocket Rocket, I have only been using 120 roll film. So, I thought that I could take the paper backing from a roll of 120 film (I ask the lab to return the paper and the spools when processing) and cut this to fit onto the Ikkosha spool.

Cutting a roll of 120 paper to 35mm was straightforward, and I rolled nearly the whole length of the paper onto a roll. I spooled the other half of the paper onto the take-up spool and loaded it into the camera.

I marked the two sides of the frame onto the paper (40mm) and two spots onto the film advance knob. I then wound the knob to see how many turns it would take to move the paper to the next frame, which was about one and threequarters turns.

The 120 papers have numbers on them depending on the frame size of the camera you are using: 1—12 in 6x6 cameras, 1—8 in 6x9 cameras and 1—16 in 6x4.5 cameras. Rather than loading a 35mm film straight into the camera I wondered if I could respool the film onto the backing paper and use the numbers for the 6x4.5 frame size. The numbers were perfectly visible through the rear window, but with the difference in frame size on the Ikkosha there was roughly a 15mm gap between frames. 

With my first test I think that I'll use the printed frame numbers and then mock up another backing paper with properly spaced frame numbers for the Ikkosha. Of course the next test will be to see how easy it is to roll 35mm film onto backing paper and load it into the camera.

#Ikkosha, #Start, #Camera, #classic, #film, #OCC22, #OldCameraChallenge, #Box, #Retro, #Vintage, #getmono, #believeinfilm, #shittycamerachallenge,