1 ROLL OF FRESH ASA 100 X 10 exp. BLACK & WHITE PRINT FILM
ILFORD FP-4 100 (DIN 21) process-by date 06/2014, for the HIT and all compatible subminiature still cameras. This includes the Ahi, Arrow, Beica, Click, CMC Crown, Colly, Crystar, Darling 16, Diplomat, Emson, Hadson, Kassin, Kent, Midget Jilona, Minetta, Mini Camera, Sanwa Mycro, Satellite, Septon Pen, Shalco, Showa Gemflex, Star-Lite, Stylophot, Konishiroku Kogaku SNAPPY, Speedex, Maruso Top, Petie, Petietax, QT, Regent, Sugaya Myracle, Toko Mighty, Toko Tone, Toyoca, and many others.
FYI: BEFORE ORDERING THIS FILM: Please be aware that from their inception in 1938, most HIT cameras were fitted with poor-quality everset shutters and uncoated single-element lenses. It is doubtful that anyone other than myself ever actually takes pictures with one on a regular basis, as most sane folks prefer just to acquire different models to add to a collection.
However, if you really want to take pictures with a HIT-type: (1) Take the time to hold your camera up to a light, open the back, and click the shutter lever. If it operates at all, you may notice that the shutter drags open through the exposure. The original setting is 1/25th of a second. With practice, you may be able to get a crisp repeatable open-close action. A crisp click is what you need to get useable images. You may have to practice a lot, or even brace the camera against a wall, table, or tree. (2) Be aware that the aperture is permanently set at f/11. This was the correct aperture / shutter-speed combination for daylight exposures on ASA 10 Kodachrome, Agfa IFF, or the Perutz Pergrano still found in vintage rolls of PANCHRO film. Nowadays, using ASA 100, the film would be vastly overexposed if you work in open sunlight. CAREFULLY open the film box in subdued light, and SLOWLY undo the tape on the paper. This is very fresh film and it will have a tendency to spring open and unravel if you don't keep positive pressure on it as you load the takeup spool and set the two spools into the camera, then close the film chamber door. (Voice of experience). Use a light meter, or choose an overcast day, open shade, or a higher shutter speed. Plus-X is panchromatic, have fun with the extra speed; use your yellow, orange, and red filters for dramatic clouds in landscapes, green to lighten foliage, blue for male portraits. Or, if you're daring, and you've taken your camera to the beach, make a pinhole in a piece of tinfoil and tape it over the lens. This reduces the effective aperture to f/22. Once you've exposed the last frame, take the camera into very subdued light, wind the film until all of the trailer is on the spool, carefully remove the roll from the camera, adhesive-tape the trailer to the roll, and put the film in the foil provided. Process your film as soon as possible.
CAMERAS. The best of the HIT-types has to be the Sanwa Mycro. As a kid, I received one as a Christmas gift, and learned to work with it until 1954 when I switched to the Mamiya-16. With variable apertures and shutter speeds, the Mycro with Plus-X gives you enough latitude to make really good "grab shot"exposures without much bracketing. With the addition of a handheld light meter it becomes a first-class photographic tool producing excellent negatives. The enlargements will actually display greater depth of field and finer grain than Minox prints (because of the smaller apertures and larger negative area.) Next, because of their achromat lenses and variable shutter speeds would be the GemFlex, Kiku, Kiku-II, Sugaya Myracle, Tacker, Toko Mighty (w/2x Proxar), and Toko Tone. (The 1948 Epochs, 1949 Meteor, and 1949 Vestkam are all the same camera.) Except for the Showa Gemflex, you'll need the eyes of a teenager to see the image in some of these tiny groundglass waistlevel view-finders. Go ahead and cheat, use the eye-level viewfinder. With all HIT-types, be aware that successfully using a square viewfinder positioned directly over the lens is an acquired skill. Frame nearby subjects to allow for image cropping at the top. If you enjoy using top-shelf or unusual equipment, hunt down a Snappy. Shaped like a miniature Exa (Exakta) the Snappy has shutter speeds: B, 1/25, 1/50, and 1/100. The normal lens is an interchangeable f3.5/25mm Optar. The companion lens is a f/5.6/40mm Cherry Telephoto which accepts Series 5 filters, proxars, and polarizers. A real gem for your 'Bucket List' might be the 1949 Beauty. It has shutter speeds: B, 25-100, and two eye-level viewfinders: one straight ahead, the other at a right-angle, which comes in handy at the beach and gentlemen's clubs.
Try to use the highest shutter speed as a general rule, because hand vibration goes up as the mass of a camera goes down. Use a HIT-type's unique features to best advantage: Double-expose at least one frame. Block off one side of the lens for one exposure, and the other side of the lens for the second exposure. For example, combine a shot of the moon above, with a sunlit landscape below. Experiment with the variable frame spacing..make a panorama by putting two or three frames next to each other with slight overlaps.
Some HIT-types like the Gemflex, and others stamped MIOJ have fine 3-element achromat lenses that were sold just before anti-halo lens coating became standard practice. When you find such a camera, treasure it. A rain-swept row of night streetlights become 5-pointed stars. The portraits and early evening landscapes it can produce have a soft aetherial look that can't be duplicated with modern equipment. If it sounds like I love this format, I do.
CAMERA LIST HIT-type roll film cameras that I'd classify as Display Only:
Arrow Hamco Minetta Traveler Hartex
Astra Homer Mini Vesta Lloyd's
Beica Homer No.1 Mini Camera Barlux PFCA
Charmy Homer No. 2 Pacific Kolt Happy
Click Jilona Midget Q.P Dale Sterling
Crystar Kassin Regent Real Mycro
CMC Kent Shalco Crown Globe
Colly Lenz Siraton Sun Walklenz
Diplomat Mee Mee Speedex Elite
Emson Midget Sputnik Baby Max
There are over 50 HIT-type models. Since ebay allows unlimited description space, I'll update this list as more cameras come through for auction. Last update 3/28/13.
TECHNOLOGY
The term '17.5mm Format' is misleading. The distance between the spool flanges, and the width of the backing paper is actually 17.74mm. In practice, you really wouldn't want to cut 35mm film stock in half, because unless you can respool the roll perfectly straight, the paper backing will bunch up and leak light around the edges. Then too, 16mm processing reels won't accept 17.74mm film. You'll be limited to using a dip-tank with clips. Whether you choose to slit your own film, or buy bulk rolls, it is far more practical to use 16mm as your working film width. The 14 x 14mm image will fall comfortably within the edges, there will be less wear and tear on your backing paper. And you can then concentrate on picture-taking rather than wrestle with avoidable darkroom problems.
There are additional pieces of equipment that in larger formats would be called 'accessories'; in subminiature are called 'furniture'. Many HIT-types like the Mighty, have a removeable U-shaped flange that secures the supply-side film roll, or both rolls, during picture-taking. Some cameras really need that accessory. Fortunately, most don't. Whether you have one or not, you can save yourself a lot of grief if you load and close your camera in total darkness or the very lowest light possible. Make sure the back is locked properly, come out to a bit brighter light to advance the winder to the first frame, then close the red frame-counter window. Digital cameras advance automatically to the next frame after making an exposure. Old habits die hard. Many film-using photogs' are in the habit of immediately resetting the camera shutter for the next shot. But HIT-types have hair-trigger shutters. I've gotten enough pictures of the bottom of my chin from the inside of my shirt pocket to recommend that you should always wait 'till you're actually going to take a picture before arming the shutter. It's just a suggestion, shooting styles vary. Other HIT items that were traded or plans traded in local camera clubs were: Flash synchronizers, disguised electronic flashguns, fold-up enlargers that could be hidden behind a refrigerator or in a hotel bathroom ceiling, 16mm dip tanks, and HIT-size tripod mounts. These were almost always homemade, so there's little chance you'll see them for sale on ebay. However, I list the plans for some of these items in my ebay store. (see Folding Enlarger, Minox Enlarger, Precision Stroboscope, and Flash Synchronizer. )
Many HIT-type cameras weren't made to tight specifications. BEFORE loading a roll of fresh film, you may find that the takeup spool in your camera doesn't track quite straight when you turn the film wind knob. You can correct this by making a small flange-size disk made of index card stock. Cut a notch in it so that you have a cardboard letter C. Glue the disc into the bottom of the take-up side chamber, with the notch pointing outward. Now insert an empty take-up spool and use the film winding knob to turn the spool a few times. Add additional thicknesses of card stock as necessary, until your takeup spool fits into the open end of the C, and winds without wobbling in the chamber. Trim as necessary to make sure the camera back will close without obstruction. Now you are ready to load film and enjoy your little camera.
TRADECRAFT
In the 1951 film "My Favorite Spy" starring Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr, their prize was a pair of HIT film rolls containing secret information. (The sharp-eyed may notice that the flanges on the spools were uncoated unlike real HIT spools. But, no matter.) It set off the first of many genial fire storms between rival Minox owners who scoffed that a HIT was incapable of reproducing a written document. Although the movie was fiction, there are actually two ways it can (still) be done. (1) Using one of the better HIT-types, and a slow ultra high-resolution film like Fuji HS-U Thin-Pak (rerated to E.I. 50), or Tech Pan, photograph a newspaper in bright sunlight at a distance of 4 ft. With a developer like Adonal (Rodinal), using a 15% longer processing time (for higher contrast) you'll be able to read every headline, sub-head and all the print on the whole first page! (2) There is a trick old 'spooks' called "Pinky Down." With your left hand, hold a magnifying glass over a document so that your extended pinky finger just touches the page. This should be about 3.5" (9cm.) above the paper. With your right hand, put the camera directly on the center of the glass. Frame carefully, make the exposure, and you can copy stamps, signatures, even fingerprints. If you use a 4-exposure matte box, you can combine 40 exposures of photographs, letter-size documents, and microdots on the easily-concealed 8-in strip of film. Later, while you're reading the 40 pages you'll smile at Minoxers who think that the HIT is a toy.
If you enjoy seeing subminiatures in the movies look for: "The Glass Bottom Boat" (Minox), "Roman Holiday" (Echo-8), "Mothra" (Echo-8), "The Lady Gambles" (Compass), "Walk East on Beacon" (Mikroma), "The Falcon and the Snowman" (several cameras), and "Elevator to the Gallows", where a Minox plays a pivotal role in the plot (score by Miles Davis). I hesitate to mention "Our Man Flint" or the James Bond films because the tradecraft is laughable. Professionals, if you get a chance, rent "O.S.S." starring Alan Ladd, you'll see a questionable piece of tradecraft: a strip of microfilm fixed first, transported in a sweatband, then processed. It works. See also "Ted Hall, the Boy who Stole the Bomb."
In the 50's, most wristwatch crystals were a thin easily-scratched plastic that could be removed with slight pressure applied to one edge. It was easy to attach a HIT negative loaded with information to the underside of the crystal, and then read it at any time by putting a drop of water (or spittle) on the outside watchface. The watch could make it through security checks (or a chemistry exam) because the microfilm was hidden "in plainsight". Nobody else could deciper those faint 'scratches' under your watch crystal without putting a drop of water on it. The camera itself would easily pass security because everybody knows that a serious photographer would never be using a HIT.
HIT-types are electronically 'quiet'. Mounted on a drywall beam, a HIT-type can still evade a professional sweep because it gives off less signal than the other penny nails in that row. And, because they need no batteries they can remain in place for an indefinite period until their shutter is triggered by your thread attached to a door, window, or desk drawer. If you'd like to see how this was done, rent a copy of the vintage film "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" (1938, Sidney Toler) For dramatic effect, his camera had a flash, and he used a white string which turned through three (ha ha) eyelet hooks from the desk to the shutter lever. In real life: You don't need a flash if your intended subject must turn on a nearby lamp. Black thread, or a long brunette hair are the connectors of choice. And you should never make a fragile connector turn through more than one eyelet. The idea is, you want the connector to break after tripping the camera shutter. Then, no relationship to photography would be suspected even if the connector is found.
REPAIRS
Call it Keep-It-Simple technology, constant usage, or careful handling, but I've put miles of film through my HIT-types and they never seem to break down. However, if you come upon a camera that has been sitting unused for decades and cycling the shutter 30-40 times doesn't loosen up the oils, or it has taken an unfortunate bounce, a firm called Photography on Bald Mountain gets high marks from everyone for good CLA (Clean-Lubricate-Adjust). www.baldmtn.com
HOME DARKROOM
If you are new to subminiature, the amount of cleanliness needed to be successful in this format will come as a shock. Moving film generates static electricity; it's a dust magnet. Old cameras are full of dust. Blow it out. In a temporarily converted bathroom you'll discover: all paper products, a recently flushed commode, hanging towels or laundry, even the shirt on your back will gladly contribute microscopic bits that want to land on your film. Be proactive. Take the time to wipe down your enlarger with a damp (not wet) cloth, particularly over the negative carrier. Wipe down the counter where you'll be working, as well as your scissors or other film handling tools. Lastly, wet your fingertips and let them air-dry. Use an inexpensive table-top water filter like Brita for all your processing solutions, including the rinse water. After processing, dampen your sponge, wring out excess water, then wipe the film just once. I cut new sponges into 1-inch strips, and as soon as they darken I toss them out. Don't allow processed microfilm to hang for days like some major hunting trophy. As soon as it is dry, all subminiature film should be in a plastic sleeve; even if you plan to print up 'right after dinner'.
HOME PROCESSING. Eastman Plus-X can be processed in any black & white negative processing chemistry: HC-110, Ilford ID-11, Ilfosol 3, Perceptol, Microdol-X, Neofin Blue, Dektol (1:10), D-76, X-Tol, Adonal (Rodinal) etc. Use at least 5% less time than the developer manufacturer's time recommended for 35mm. You won't be able to find a 17.5mm reel, and you won't need to. This is 16mm single-perforated film wrapped in 17.5mm paper rolls. The 14mm square image will fall just to the side of the perforations. If you see some perforation on the edge of one or two frames, they will be cropped out by your enlarger or scanner mask. A developer of choice is my MIXER a Technidol-mimic (at 1/10th the price): In 200 ml. water, add 21 drops HC-110 (stock), plus 19 drops Agfa Rodinal. Agitate 5 secs. every 30 for 19 mins. @ 68F.
D-76 BLACK & WHITE NEGATIVE FILM DEVELOPER
Water.................................750cc
Elon...............................2.0 grains
Sodium Sulfite, (des)..100.0 grams
Hydroquinone................5.0 grams
Borax, granular..............2.0 grams
Cold Water to make.......1.0 liter
For Plus-X, dilute 1:1. 8 mins @68F. Agitate 5 secs. every 30. 2 min water stop-bath. Fix per mfrs. instructions.
TO MAKE A SUITABLE NEGATIVE CARRIER, fold an index card in half, and draw a 14 x 14mm square in the middle. Trim the outer edge of the card so that it fits your 35mm carrier, and cut out the 14 x 14mm square with an Xacto knife. Use the trimmed scraps to make two 16mm film guides inside the folded carrier. Be certain that you allow enough 'wiggle room' to adjust frames that are off-center. Condenser enlargers will have to be refocused by putting a 2" spacer above the negative carrier. And you're ready to go. A great (cheap) spacer that will be as effective as anything made by Omega and last just as long, can be made by cutting a 2" ring from a can of powdered Kool-Ade.
COMMERCIAL PROCESSING This film can be handled by most Fox, or Ritz Photo outlets. Usually their B&W processing is done by hand, on location. Take the time to tell him/her "This camera has a square format. You'll see prints with a dark border coming out of the printer. Please go ahead and make the prints, I'll trim them at home." Put it in writing on the film bag. This lets the Sales Associate off the hook if a Supervisor sees prints with black borders coming out the printer. A dark border is unavoidable because no current commercial processor has a 14mm square mask. At best, they'll have an old 13 x 18mm mask for 110 film. I strongly encourage you to shoot at least one frame of a large sheet of paper with your name and phone number on it. It should be written in black marker..."THIS FILM IS THE PROPERTY OF_____" This little precaution ensures that your little film won't get 'lost' among the wider and more numerous strips of 35mm film found in commercial labs.
Subminiature lives!
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THE CAMERAS SHOWN ARE NOT FOR SALE
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TO SEE ADDITIONAL SUBMINIATURE FILMS PLEASE VISIT MY EBAY STORE: Search word FILM
CamBinox
Charm (single-exposure ring cameras)
Coronet Midget
Echo-8
Edixa-16
Gemflex (twin-lens reflex)
GF-81 (multi-exposure ring camera)
Goerz Minicord (reloadable cassettes now available)
HIT (and all HIT-types: Colly, Emson, Mighty, Speedex, Stylophot, etc.)
Kiev
Mec-16 (Whittaker Micro)
Mamiya-16
Minicord
Minolta-16
Rollei-16 (black & white only)
Septon Pen
Steky
Pigeon Camera (Girl Scout Anniversary, Hollywood, Univex Twinflex, A, AF-1, AF-2)
Yashica-16EE
Yashica-Y16 (reloads)
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