Sandmann1978
I hope I’m not bothering the experts here, but someone was so kind to help me out yesterday. :D
When I want to develop a medium format film and therefore need to wind it onto a spool, what do I do with this strip of paper!?
As I said, I’m really quite clueless about this sort of thing. So sorry for the not-very-interesting question.
fotohuisrovo
I don’t get flustered that easily.
With roll film, you have to separate the paper and tear it off the film gently.
That way, you can feed the start of the roll film into the spiral. It’s a bit trickier than with K.B., though, because you have to find the loop on the spiral in the dark.
It’s not a bad idea to practise loading a roll film (scrap film) several times in the light, as you need to get a feel for it.
Good luck.
Best regards,
Robert
Roman
Take the fully exposed roll film (from the Duka or the changing bag) in your hands (you can remove the adhesive tape in daylight, but be careful that the film doesn’t unroll);
with the reel and canister ready to hand, start unrolling the leader with one hand – with the other hand, feel whether the film base is already coming into view (it’s hard to explain – I keep my left index finger feeling along the inside of the film roll, whilst with my right hand I unroll the leader – with the back facing me, unrolling upwards).
As soon as you’ve found the start of the film, hold it firmly in one hand and feed it into the reel; you can now let the backing paper fall away; now wind the film onto the reel completely;
at the end, it’s stuck to the backing paper with a strip of adhesive tape – I just tear it off; some people claim that this can cause small flashes of light, and that the adhesive on the strip is bad for development, so they prefer to cut the adhesive strip away.
Put the reel in the canister, and carry on as usual.
It’s best to practise this with a spare roll of film in daylight, otherwise you might wind the backing paper in instead of the film the first time (as I did with my first 120 roll... :D )
It’s actually not difficult at all; with the good A&P reels, it’s even easier than with a 35mm film.
uworischki
Here’s a tip: with roll films in particular, it’s a good idea to use a small pair of scissors to trim the corners slightly at the start of the roll. That way, the start of the film won’t get stuck halfway round the reel. What’s more, you can use the resulting film scraps to check the fixing time quite effectively...
Gast
Hello
I’ve repurposed an old Kiev film magazine as a film-loading aid and fixed it to a board.
This allows you to load two films one after the other.
Kind regards, Frank
Gast
Hello,
I can highly recommend the tip about doing a ‘dry run’ (test roll) in daylight – that’s how I learnt it myself.
Regarding the adhesive tape: I always remove it away from the start of the film (it’s a bit fiddly at times) and don’t cut it off, as an uneven cut – i.e. one that isn’t exactly at a right angle – makes it harder to get the start of the film onto the reel afterwards (especially with the Hewes stainless steel reels). The Paterson plastic reels work well too, but they must be completely dry.
Best regards! Johannes
Gast
P.S.: With the stainless steel spools, hold the film between your thumb and index finger and bend it slightly so that the convex side faces away from the spool core, towards the 'outside' – then it’s really easy and precise!
