Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Get the Kinderman tanks and reels. They have a loader that is as easy as pie. Pete Su wrote: >For most of the 5 or 6 years that I've been back into darkroom work, I've used >either Paterson or Jobo plastic tanks and reels. For 35mm work, they are easy >to work with and durable. I had no problems. > >But, when I started branching out into 120, I found that they were just totally >unusable. > >Some background: I'm not the most dextrous person on the planet. I just can't >abide any scheme for loading that involves trimming the negatives with high >precision. Plastic reels *can* work well with 120 film *if* you can trim them >so the corners don't get caught on the reel and jam things. But I just can't do >this. > >It all finally came to a head when I turned the lights on and ruins 3 rolls of >film (from Paris no less) after having spent 45 minutes trying to get a last >roll onto the reel. > >So clearly the thing to do was investigate metal reels. > >Having obtained a Hewes 120 metal reel and a no-name tank from Calumet, I >proceeded to find that once you practice a bit, metal reels are incredibly easy >for 120 when compared to plastic. Just don't try and clip the film in the >middle of the reel. If you place the film in the right spot, and hold it there >with your thumb, it practically walks onto the reel by itself. > >But, one thing that bugged me was that the metal tanks fill much more slowly >than Paterson and Jobo tanks. So the next thing to investigate was that new >Jobo metal reels that work in their plastic tanks with the plastic center >cores. These are made by Hewes for Jobo, and I figured I'd try them to hold >onto the fast fill times when using a lot of developer (a liter or more). I >know at this point the metal tank fanatics are questioning my sanity. > >The good news: the 120 reels work great. > >The bad news: the 35mm reels are impossible. The rail spacing and thickness is >such that 35mm film gets caught on the rails very easily, and you end up with >crooked film. > >So after all this I've ended up back with Hewes 35mm reels and normal metal >tanks. The Hewes 35mm reels load almost as nicely as their 120 reels. So add me >to the list of people who will tell you to "just buy Hewes". > >I even learned how to double roll the film (double rolling 120 is fun), >although I don't know if I'd try it on anything I really care about. > >Summary for the archives: > >1. plastic reels for 35mm: good >2. plastic reels for 120: bad >3. Hewes metal reels for 120: great >4. Jobo 1566 metal reels for 120 in plastic tanks: good. >5. Jobo 1565 metal reels for 35mm in plastic tanks: bad. >6. Hewes 35mm reels: great. > >Pete > > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games >http://sports.yahoo.com >-- >To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html