126 Day 2016

126 cartridge reloaded with Agfaphoto APX 400

Observing 126 Day yesterday, the opportunities for shooting between showers and rain were limited. I used the Kodak Instamatic 25 camera which was still loaded with a cartridge containing APX 400 from last year. Given that the light was generally poor, the 400 speed film was ideal for the conditions at the time.

126 cartridge reloaded with Agfaphoto APX 400

126 cartridge reloaded with Agfaphoto APX 400

126 cartridge reloaded with APX 400

A second cartridge loaded with Foma Retropan 320 was less successful. The Instamatic 25 has generally proved to be quite good at handling 35mm film reloaded into 126 cartridges - I had greater difficulty with the 300 model last year in Stockholm - but after reusing the backing paper in some of the cartridges a number of times, some of the rolls are beginning to deteriorate. The thin strip of paper along the outside edge of the long perforation holes has torn in places, and it may be this, in part, that caused extra resistance when attempting to advance the film. As can be seen from the results below, the overlapping frames are indicative of these problems, and the light leaks are due to taking the cartridge out of the camera mid-roll in order to advance a few frames by hand when it became too stiff to do so in the camera itself. Nevertheless, the design of the cartridge does ensure some protection for the exposed part of the film in this event.

126 cartridge reloaded with Retropan 320

126 cartridge reloaded with Retropan 320