MWF sent me this cute little thing:
It feels like a really high quality product. Over 50 years old, but everything fits perfectly, all exposure settings work (haven't timed them though). It's lacking a film cassette, which is a bit of a problem, as they were plastic and comparatively few survived. They often go for more than camera itself is worth on ebay :lol:
My solution: bought a Kiev Vega, soviet copy of the Minolta-16 with 2 cassettes
It's technically inferior (fewer exposures), but the cassettes are compatible. The focusing glass mount also broke off the Minolta, so maybe I can transplant it from the Kiev, will see.
Next issue is getting film to load into the cassette. Since 16mm is no longer made for photographic purposes, there are 3 options as far as I can see:
1. Cut up 35mm film.
Pros: Great availability, great selection. Got everything ready for developing.
Cons: Can only make a single stripe of 16mm because of perforations, so quite a bit of wasted film. Also need to make a cutter.
2. Microfilm
Pros: Very fine grain, very high contrast. In general has odd tonality, which can make interesting results. Much cheaper than regular photographic film, comes in 100ft rolls that cost 20-40eur.
Cons: Nominal sensitivity for the microfilm is between ISO 6-25. Pushing is difficult because emulsion layer is really thin. But it's doable to ISO 50 or even ISO 100 with care. It's risky, and needs special developers, perhaps even a custom mix starting with basic components.
3. 16mm cinema film
Pros: Versatile, easily pushable to high speeds. Pricing is similar to Microfilm, so really cheap. And Kodak still makes new B&W negative stock. Can develop with regular off-the-shelf chemistry.
Cons: Quite grainy, but that might as well be a pro. Always has perforations, which isn't a problem on Minolta 16 specifically, but may be on some other 16mm cameras.
At this stage I'm going with option 3. Ordered one roll, so 30m of film. That's like 80 reloads, 1600 frames, gonna last me a lifetime :lol: But I'm really curious about microfilm too, may try it after I figure out how to develop it.