[Leica] reloading Leica cassettes

[TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com)]

In a message dated 1/27/2007 1:47:04 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
h_arche@yahoo.com writes:

OK, now  that I own enough of them to spare, I'm going
to say that the Alden 74 film  reloader beats Watson
100's hands down in being able to properly deal  with
Leitz cassettes. 

The issue is how well each manages the  cassette's
opening-closing mechanism. The Watson simply doesn't
grip the  cassette positively enough to reliably close
the cassette after you've  cranked on the film. The
Alden does it with no fuss, and you don't have  to
adjust an internal spacer.

Also, every Alden I've seen so far is  bakelite, and
seems to have hardly been used.
Hi!   
  I have found that the Alden works better too, but I mostly use  "digital" 
IXMOO cassette loading procedures. This means that I lock myself in a  dark 
room and pull out the film to the full extent of my stretched arms and cut.  
This 
gives me 37-38 frames. The Alden/Watson are not 100% secure when it comes  
to 
closing the cassette which is bothersome and can give you light streaks. 
They 
 also only take 100ft rolls and I tend to use Double XX for IXMOO's and that 
 
comes in 400ft rolls or longer. I usually lock myself in the darkroom for a  
couple of hours and load 75 cassettes (roughly 400 ft) and though it is a 
rather  miserable two hours it will then give me a month to 6 weeks of 
shooting.
 You also have to watch for IXMOO's that are stiff. With the loaders  the 
can 
snap the bakelite "pins" and shaft. Before using the IXMOO's I always go  
through them and check that they all open and close smoothly. If they are 
stiff  
it is usually because of corrosion or the two parts being squeezed "out of  
round". Corrosion you can clean up with some light polishing with steel wool 
and 
 then apply a very thin layer of Vaseline. Work the cassette back and forth 
until  it is smooth and wipe off any excess Vaseline.
 At the moment my IXMOO's are filled with Agfa APX 400 S, a film made  for 
surveillance work. The emulsion is on a thin polyester base which means that 
 
you have to cut the film from the spool as it will not tear off. The film 
came  
curtesy of a friend in UK who picked some up when Silver Image UK sold out 
their  stock for 5 Pounds/160 feet. I tried to order some but it was already 
gone 
by  that time. Nice tight grain, slightly rough texture but being a 
surveillance  film they were probably more interested in pictures of 
perpetrators than 
the  Zone-system!
Glad to hear that there is someone else who "rolls" his own.
Best,
Tom A
----------------------------------------
Tom Abrahamsson
Vancouver, BC
Canada
_www.rapidwinder.com_ (http://www.rapidwinder.com)