Darkroom Diaries: Mastering Microfilm with HC-110

Looking to shoot film on a budget?  How about this "All You Can Eat Buffet" deal of the film world! For the cost of about 2 rolls of film, you are supplied with enough film to make about 20 or more rolls of film! This film has a nice slow speed and fine grain to allow you to open the lens up on most cameras in full sun, and it comes free of perforations, making an ideal candidate to stock 828 cameras with film! 

So what's the downside?  Well, there's lots of contrast that needs to be tamed in order to get an image with a more pictorial feel.  And the lack of sprockets that makes this a great 828 film also makes it very difficult to use in 35mm cameras, with some models needing some degree of modification, with some other cameras entirely unable to use the stock.  

This bargain film stock is microfilm, a long established medium of Archivists for the preservation of print media. Though never manufactured for pictorial use, this fine grained stock can be adapted for use in 828 and many 35mm cameras with a few caveats.

The most inhibiting of these caveats is the lack of perforations (sprockets) in most microfilm stocks.  This is film that was designed to be fed through a viewer with direct wheel contact, rather than fed through a camera with sprocket gearing and teeth.  This works fine in an 828 camera, but will slip when fed through manual advance 35mm cameras.  Many of the more modern 35mm film cameras with auto advance use an IR sensor that counts the film sprockets in 35mm stock as it advances.  With non-perforated microfilm, these cameras have no sprockets to count, and will simply give up and return the film to the 35mm cassette after attempting to load it.

For manual advance cameras that use a toothed wheel to pull film onto the take up spool, an improvised solution is to apply a layer or two of painters tape to the this wheel to increase adhesion and avoid the slippage that would otherwise result.  Within two minutes of trying this with a Ricoh KR30SP that I have, I had a camera that readily accepted the Microfilm stock.

Two 35mm cameras that will accept microfilm without any modification are the Canon 10S and the original Voigtlander Vito.  Both of these use a contact wheel that lacks teeth to advance film onto the take up spool.

So this all established, what are the rest of the challenges to using this medium?  The first would be supply.  Microfilm isn't typically found in the same places that those of us shooting conventional film pick up our supply.  Neither B&H nor Freestyle sells it, but it can typically be found on eBay.  If lucky, one can find single (100 foot long) roll sales for under $20.  It may take some patience and scouring, but it is out there.

Somewhat less challenging is the process of preparing a length of microfilm for use in a camera.  With 35mm, this involves taking a reusable cartridge, and either loading it with a length of film in the dark, or using a daylight bulk film loader.  Either method should work, but I used the former method, limiting the length of film to about an 18 shot roll.

I also loaded some 828 rolls by simply doing the same process above, but instead interleaving it with 828 backing paper (that the film was taped to on its beginning side) as I wound it onto an 828 spool. It wasn't long before I had three rolls of film ready to use in a variety of cameras.

Shooting this film involves some additional challenges.  I found that rating the Kodak Imagelink 1461 film at about ISO 20 seemed to give the best results.  

I knew I would encounter the potential for a lot of contrast when developing, and elected to scale back my typical stand development time (using Kodak's HC-110 developer at a 1:99 dilution) from 30 minutes to only 16 minutes.  This resulted in some pretty thin negatives, but these scanned with no issues whatsoever.

Below are some samples from my first three rolls of microfilm - the "All You can Eat Buffet" of the photographic world. 

On a very sunny day, I ran a short roll of Microfilm through a Bantam f/8 828 camera.  This wound up working perfectly with the slow shutter of the camera, and delivered some particularly good images given the very limited capabilities of this basic camera. Contrast is a bit high still, but not in an overwhelming way.

A deep blue sky is well rendered by the Kodak Imagelink Microfilm.

Sometimes, the tamed contrast of the images would actually get in the way a bit.  Details of this photo tend to mush together a bit.

An extremely pleasing image and experience.  This roll of film likely cost me under 50 cents to make, and about the same to develop. 

Were there no modern cars and signs around, this basic snap shot might be mistaken for a vintage image.

Shadows in some scenes tend to get lost in the murk.

Another scene where shadow details get murky.

Some promise to be seen in these images, particularly when much of the foliage goes away, and some stark scenes can be recorded on this film.

The Ricoh was the most advanced of the cameras I tested the film in.  On an overcast day, the contrast works pretty well with this film, and the better lens handles shadows with less murk.

Shot wide open, this result lends to a nice blurring of the distant backdrop.

Stopped down, the sharpness of the film is excellent! 

Shallow depth of field is one of the main strengths of using such a slow film.

A quick street shot shows some excess contrast, but is still salvageable.

Wide open and full of bokeh.

Despite being nearly 30 years older than the Ricoh, and having a slower lens, a Kodak Bantam RF put forth some stellar images as well from the microfilm.  The slow speed allowed me to shoot most of the roll wide open even with the Kodak's meager shutter. This is one of my favorite results.

Another image on the Bantam RF. The triplet lens on this model really delivered nicely.

Shot into a bit of backlight, I managed some really nice results, sharp in the foreground and full of dancing bokeh behind. 

Yet again, the Bantam's lens delivers. The film offers a perfect amount of bold contrast. 

The Bantam RF worked handily through it's first roll of microfilm in a nice range of settings. 

For many scenes, such as this one, there is nothing amiss to the viewer to indicate this is anything other than normal photographic film.

Another close focused, shallow depth of field shot. Good tonality.

Yet again, this film puts forth a really sharp image.

It's nice to be able to shoot a camera with a modest shutter wide open by using such a slow film, and even nicer when that camera puts forth a great result. 

Background cannons painted black tend to blur together in this photo. 

A grab shot that is one of my favorites from the light playing off the various glass panes differently.

If the samples from this first roll is any indication, the Bantam RF will see this film often.

One final shot was badly overexposed, but was contained in post processing to make a barely salvageable result.

Despite a few trials and tribulations to discover a good speed rating for this film and to find a way to use it in a metered 35mm camera, I'm more than happy with the results delivered by this ultra affordable film medium.  I'll be trying future rolls of microfilm with other developers and will certainly post more results, given that I've only put a dent in the two massive rolls I've purchased!