120 Film Respooled = 620 Film!

When I was visiting my hometown this past weekend, my mom and I were talking about old cameras-- I was explaining to her how I'm planning to do some TTL experiments with my digital SLR and and old TLR camera. And she mentioned how much she'd like to actually shoot with her TLR camera. It's been probably 5 years since she did, and the thing worked really well then, surprisingly! Her boyfriend had procured some faux-620 film on ebay for her. It cost at least $10 a roll, I believe. As much as she wanted to experiment with that camera again, she couldn't justify that cost.

I told her I would try to track down some for her. Maybe since I work at a camera store, I'd be able to find somewhere to get it cheaper. After a couple minutes of researching, I realized that almost everything out there is actually respooled 120 film. Well, I have a pack of Kodak color 120 at home. If I could get my hands on a 120 spool or two, I might be able to make it work!

I found a great tutorial online at:
http://www.brownie-camera.com/respool/respool.shtml

Yes, they misspelled Congratulations, at the end... ;) But the step-by-step instructions and clear pictures gave me all the information I needed. After 2 read-throughs and a quick skim, I was pretty sure I had it down. I searched through a few of my store's display and recycle-bin oldie cameras and was able to come up with a few spools! Grabbed our dark-box, which we use to take film out of stuck cameras.


I had the first roll almost done, when I realized I had done it backwards. Oops! Don't know if it would've made a difference, but I started over anyway. I suppose this way the numbers on the paper backing will be in order! Sent a quick text to my mom to see if she'd like to have a roll of black & white along with the color roll, which she was really excited about. Bought a roll of Ilford 120 400-speed B&W film which can be processed C-41. That will enable me to take it to our store's lab for processing, instead of sending it out, and then I can make sure that I hang on to these somewhat-rare spools!


This is my finished product. The first 2 of maybe many! I know the processing and printing will run us a bit, but at least this part was pretty cheap and painless. Now she won't have to worry about being stingy with the film.

I need to take my own advice and get my Holgas out again!!