24 exposure 35mm reels

[David Brown]

There just ended on Ebay an auction for a stainless tank and four 35mm reels. Two of the reels were listed as being 24 exposure, and the other two 36 exposure. From the picture, that is exactly what it looked like! The reels were all the same width, but two of them had fewer and wider spaced spirals.

Now, I am not totally omniscient, :rolleyes: but I've been doing this for, well, a long time, and I've never heard of 24 exposure reels.

Anybody else?

I bid mostly out of curiousity, so I didn't go very high (and didn't win, obviously).

Are there 24 exposure reels? Seems they would be easier to load. However, I don't have trouble with the standard reels, but I do use mostly 24 exposure film.

And, if they are very old, they could be 20 frames, not 24, since that's the way film used to come IIRC! With a 24, you'd have about 6 inches too much film.

Or, are they 126 reels?

Inquiring minds want to know ...

Cheers y'all.

David

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Bizarre. You might have some interesting collectible photographica on your hands.

I vaguely remember that there was a 72 exposure reel and tank during that brief period in the heyday of the high speed motor drive, when Ilford was selling HP5 on a thin base in 72-exposure rolls. It never really caught on. Maybe it was the special reels. Maybe it was that the thin film base didn't stand up to the motor drive.

 

[Lee Shively]

There used to be 20-exposure 35mm reels because 35mm film was sold in both 20 and 36 exposure lengths. The 20-exposure 35mm film was changed to 24-exposure years ago. I don't remember there ever being a 24-exposure reel, however. They are probably 20-exposure reels. They were pretty common.

 

[David Brown]

They are probably 20-exposure reels. They were pretty common.

Thanks, Lee.

This is what I thought: 20 exposures. And I was a little leary of getting the extra 6 inches on the reel. I didn't win the auction anyway.

I didn't know about them before! That is interesting.

Cheers

David

 

[rbarker]

What a silly seller. The 20-exposure reels are obviously rare collectibles, and should have been sold as such at a much higher price.

 

[dancqu]

... rare collectibles, ...

Speaking of rare collectibles, what of my Omega C
3 1/4 x 4 1/4 enlarger. I got it off eBay. I think the
S&H ran as much as the C.

I've done a lot of eBay shopping for Omega gear
but have not since seen another C. Dan

 

[Monophoto]

Collectables?

Nonsense. I use mine.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I have one of those reels, too -- it is significantly over capacity for 828 Bantam film, which is about the same length as 12 exposure 126. The 126-20 would certainly fit. A 24 exposure roll of 35 mm might, depending on your comfort level with cutting the leader and tail at loading time instead of waiting to see where the actual exposed frames are.

For 35 mm, however, even when I cut a half roll in the changing bag to pull test shots, I just use the regular 36 exposure roll.