120 Hewes stainless steel reel quality

I just purchased a brand new Hewes 120 reel which most deem to be the best. It’s taken me 15 years to get to this point. Until now I’ve used the Kindermann reels with the loader. Every once in a while the film would bind at the first turn and be a disaster to recover from since the film is inside a loader.

So I’ve decided to learn to load film the way I should have in the beginning, without a loader. I did a roll the other night in one of my Kindemann reels by hand and everything went fine. Afterward I measured my 4 Kindermann reels with calipers and found 3 of the 4 to be out of parallel over 1/16”. All of those reels were purchased used on eBay over the years. I was quite surprised. So I ordered a new Hewes reel from b&h and received it today and measured it immediately and found it out of parallel by about 1/16”. My question is if this is acceptable? I’m sure it would still work ok, however the reel cost me $50 and I want to return it while I still can.

I suggest wasting a roll of film and just practice loading the reels a few times in light. It won't take that many times, and then you'll know how to do it for the rest of your life. I can't really comment on the 1/16 out of parallel, but if you can load the reels OK, they're probably OK. If you have trouble, you probably should return the new one.

I find the hewes 120 reels easy to load, put a little pressure on the film clip so that it can kind of wiggle as you start to roll the film on. I tend to put the tape end -- with the tape -- in the clip, and I cut a little triangle off each corner at that end. It works for me for 20+ years. Play around with the lights on, you'll find something that works for you.

Hmm - my Hewes 120 reel is way easier to load than the unidentified reel I have from a decade or three earlier. Years back I tried measuring the spacing at four points around the reels. As I remember it, the Hewes was about +/-2mm and the no-name about +/-5mm. Alas, all I have is one sample of each, not a very strong statistical base! I also have not worked up the ambition to try gently correcting the sloppier one -- maybe it could be done.

mrosenlof said:

I suggest wasting a roll of film and just practice loading the reels a few times in light. It won't take that many times, and then you'll know how to do it for the rest of your life. I can't really comment on the 1/16 out of parallel, but if you can load the reels OK, they're probably OK. If you have trouble, you probably should return the new one.

I find the hewes 120 reels easy to load, put a little pressure on the film clip so that it can kind of wiggle as you start to roll the film on. I tend to put the tape end -- with the tape -- in the clip, and I cut a little triangle off each corner at that end. It works for me for 20+ years. Play around with the lights on, you'll find something that works for you.

Click to expand...

+1

Try using it. I have had great luck with Hewes products. The good OLD Nikor reels work well too. I currently have my fancy Kindermann stand loader on consignment at a junk store . Nothing wrong with Kindermann, those little ears that stick out to use with the winder just get in the way.

mrosenlof said:

I suggest wasting a roll of film and just practice loading the reels a few times in light. It won't take that many times, and then you'll know how to do it for the rest of your life. I can't really comment on the 1/16 out of parallel, but if you can load the reels OK, they're probably OK. If you have trouble, you probably should return the new one.

Click to expand...

Why waste a roll of film if he can load other reels. Try the Hewes with a roll of exposed film; keeping a light tight tank handy in case it doesn't go well. If not 99% sure it went on well, then perhaps test again with another roll to waste.

mshchem said:

Try using it. I have had great luck with Hewes products. The good OLD Nikor reels work well too. I currently have my fancy Kindermann stand loader on consignment at a junk store . Nothing wrong with Kindermann, those little ears that stick out to use with the winder just get in the way.

Click to expand...

So THAT'S what they're for. Never knew that.

By out of parallel by 1/16" you mean the gap between the left and right outermost spirals varies by 1/16" around the circumference of the reel, right?

That’s 1.5 mm. That sounds like a fair bit.

I have four 35 mm reels and two 120 reels (one of the latter is “Pro Co”), some bought new and others secondhand. Except for one 35 mm reel, their gaps vary by 0.2–0.3 mm around their circumferences. One of the 35 mm Hewes reels, that I bought new a couple of years ago and know was never dropped, varies by more than the others: about 0.5 mm. Gaps measured by Vernier calliper with light pressure so as to negligibly distort the gap.

That said, the gaps between my two 120 reels differ by about 1 mm. One is about 57 mm and the other about 58 mm. Similarly, the gaps in the four 35 mm reels span a range of about 0.7 mm.

I haven’t found any real difference in ease of loading across these reels. They’re all easy. One of my used 35 mm reels has a dent (that I ignored in the above measurements because I measured at the four (eight) radial support wires, and the dent is right in the middle of two of these supports). Even that one is easy to load.

All the same, I might return a new reel with a 1.5 mm wobble if I had that option. But I’m curious to know if it loads okay.

Thanks so much guys! I actually did practice with a processed roll in daylight for a while. Un-processed film is a bit harder. So the past two nights I’ve loaded up 3 films on two of my better Kindermann reels and processed with no problems! Turns out it was easier than I thought! I think my experience helped me pick it up immediately as I knew what was supposed to happen. I unrolled just to the film and then clipped it in and rolled it onto the reel as the backing paper was falling away (same way the film loader works). I still have not used the Hewes reel to process yet. I think I will email Hewes and ask them if the 1/16” (1.5mm) difference is within spec. If so I will keep the reel and use it. Thanks again guys. I feel so much better knowing how easy this really is.

When I switched from plastic, I went straight to Hewes so I can't compare to cheaper alternatives. However, I've been nothing other than happy with the reels. Only time I've had problems with their 35mm or 120 film was when some 35mm had crimped and torn sprockets that threw off alignment of the last inch or so of film. With 120 specifically, it is especially impressive because I cut my own 120 film and sometimes it's not quite within tolerance (+/-0.5mm), but never any problems on hewes reels unless it's way out of tolerance(+2mm/-1mm). With patterson plastic reels unless the film was exactly perfect it wouldn't load properly.

The other difference is that the hews reels are made of thicker material than the cheap ones I've had. And has a better clip. But the thicker wire gives it more space to hold the film. It doesn't go past the edge markings but I've noticed the difference.