YASHICA ATORON X - film from 1970

Of all the vintage (and expired) camera maker branded film I have, it's all for subminiture cameras - with most being Yashica branded, and 1 box each of of Minox and a respooled Kodak stock from "FR Corporation", as one of their US suppliers at the time. The Unifilm carts in the box are slightly different than the single cartridge too. The boxed versions have no labels on the blackout container... just the "ASA 100D" printed on the orange sealing tape. From what I've been able to dig up, the Unifilm stock was only color print film, in 20 or 36 exposure rolls.



Considering the usual sources in the 50's/60's/70's, I wonder if major camera companies back then wanted to invest a massive amount of money to produce their own film stock in-house. Slitting, constructing cartridges, and packaging film under a maker's brand would be a different matter, and just like the "respooled by FR Corporation" 16EE film, it seems far more likely to me that Yashica would have contracted out for a 3rd party to produce their branded film from Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, or (more likely) Konica film stock. In a time when Japanese companies always preffered doing business with other Japanese firms, it's less likely it would have been primarily Kodak or Agfa stock, over someone 'local'. I also recall reading something quite some time ago, that Konica was a major film rebrander and wholesaler as far back as the early 1900's, and had a huge share of the 'white label' market for the pre-rolled bulk film bought by portrait studios, editorial shooters, newsrooms, and wedding photographers from the 1950's till the early 2000's.

Film box color schemes may have changed according to who was doing the packaging, but the inside-the-box items seem to be consistant when it comes to the mini burlap sacks and mailer tags. Logos may have been mandated by Yashica to match whatever their current style was, but colors on gear boxes seemed to evolve between successive model changes, and it's possible that film boxes may have followed the same trend.

The first "atoron" was in lower case letters, but that changed with the ATORON Electro model, where everything went to upper case, just like the CONTAX brands. It's possible that the upper/lower case change in model names, and the color scheme changed at the same time. There was no change in the cartridge itself that I know of, but they still may have prefered to distinguish the hardware differences with new, updated colors when new camera models were released. If that holds true biggles3 , then I'm guessing your carts may have been produced for the 1st model, sometime in the mid to late 60's. Is there an expiration date stamped on the box?

There's one exception to all upper case use that I came across, and that was in dealer literature. A 1970's set of pages from the distributor IMC (Interphoto) refers to the film stocks they'll sell by using proper-case, as "Unifilm f/ Atoron" on the last page, under 'Accessories'.

biggles3 ... You're correct about the printing on the Y16 film box. It is repacked Kodak B&W. Now I'm wondering about some things, and they may be dependant on the sales region, and not just Yashica's country of origin.

A little background.... I looked up the trademark for Unifilm, and it was registered (1966) and granted (1968) to a US company in Brooklyn. The company was founded by the inventor of a compact and patented all-in-one film cartridge, where the feed and take-up spool are inside a pre-spaced enclosure that drops into place. (Sound familiar?)

If Orests Berlings' cartridge is licensed by Yashica (I think that's a given at this point) - with dimensional modifications to work with the Y16/16EE, and the atoron/ATORON Electro cameras - and is filled by his company in N.Y. with either color or B&W Kodak stock, then it's a 2 for 1 deal that covers all of the Americas for any film fulfillment needs. If the cartridges are supplied to other 3rd party packagers to load with their own particular stock, then Unifilm could be a cartridge parts supplier, if Yashica didn't want to take on the task of manufacturing their own film cans from his design.

All the red and blue Unifilm boxes have a printed tag line about it containing either color or B&W film, with an area reserved for stamped details on film types and batch numbers. When outer boxes are ambiguous about what's inside, there's a possibility that Konica or Fuji could have provided their stock for the Asia Pacific region, and/or Agfa for Europe, so that each region could get familiar film stock in a pre-packed cartridge, and in factory fresh batches. There's also a question on where they get developed too. All of the Unifilm carts I have, that still have their mailers, have US addresses in New York for the lab they'll get sent to. Does your older atoron box still have it's little drawstring bag and/or label that can provide some insight on what labs are used outside the US? I can't imagine world-wide users sending every single roll to the US for development. Again - it's all speculation - but seems to be reasonable enough to consider.

On the ST-9...
I don't have a box for it, and I'm not sure if it has a model # stamped on it somewhere, but I do have a tabletop tripod and it's matching 90 degree flip bracket that's specifically built for the original atoron camera. It will fit either model, but it's finished in the same satin chrome as the original, but both cameras have identical placement of the mount hole so it works for both. I assume that's an ST-9 and it's adapter. I also have the copy stand for the Atoron Electro, but I can't imagine that would be the same part. That's not even listed in the dealer pages at all as a 'copy stand', so I'm not sure when/where it showed up in relation to the camera's release dates.

I have one more photo to add that's related to the topic of submin film, but I have to experiment a bit before it will be ready.