Sprocket Hole Photography

Studying art in college, I suddenly found myself with a broken Exakta, 100 feet of 35mm film, no money, and a $12 Ciroflex.
It didn't even occur to me to borrow a camera. I just thought I had to make the 35mm film work in the TLR.

Since film is made in big sheets, then cut and punched, I figured the emulsion must go out past the sprocket holes, and that it ought to end up looking pretty durn cool.

A little work with a Swiss Army knife yielded a sweet little system that magically made Cool Looking Pictures.

There's a great movement of photographers taking art pictures with 120 toy cameras: Holgas and Lomos, Dianas. Many of them shoot 35mm film through them.

Basically, you cut the ends off a 120 film spool, plug them into a trimmed-down 35mm spool, and away you go:

This vintage 1965 35mm Tri-X is going to be modified to work in a 120 camera. It was the only roll I had around, and it's a case of either "use it or chuck it", and I won't try too hard to make great images, 'cause it's probably fogged. It's older than I am (and I'm pretty fogged).

Trim about 3/16" off the spool of the 35mm film you want to use. Modern spools have a little 'step' inside at exactly the right level: two nubs inside that don't go all the way to the end. Cut down to the tops of them.
Do the same to a reloadable film cassette spool to use as a take-up reel.
Make it even, but don't worry about getting it perfect. If you do worry, you could probably run it on a sanding block to square it up.

To make the adaptor plugs, cut the ends off two 120 spools. The ones with vertical rectangular "windows" work perfectly. Cut them right under the tops of the outermost windows.
Trim off the two outside vertical pieces and the thin window-fill. Taper the remaining two middle pieces a little to fit inside the 35mm spool.
Test them for fit. Loose ends fall off while you're loading the film, which sucks. I often wrap the plug ends with tape to make them fit securely after I've over-trimmed them.

This is the disassembled reloadable cartridge, the modified commercial film roll, and the four 120 spool-ends.
Note the little ears that make a 'step' in the reloadable cartridge spool.

Make sure the cassettes are mirror-images: modified long end on top, film exit angle reversed.
Tape the film to the take-up reel and assemble the reloadable cartridge around it by snapping the top on and plugging the 120 ends in.

Plug the 120 ends into the modified film spool, make sure everything's even and secure again, and put it into the camera.

Check to see how much winding it takes to advance the film one frame. I mark the film at the edge of the full cassette with a Sharpie and wind it forward until the mark disappears inside the take-up cassette. On the C3 it's one full revolution. I think.
That's why I check. I have a lot of half-overlapping double-exposures.

Don't forget to cover the window in the back of the camera with aluminum foil or electrical tape.