4x5 film separation sheets?

I've been working through some old (really old!) 4x5 film I've gathered along the way, and ran into something that was new to me. It looks like up through the 60s sometime, 4x5 film used to come with a piece of soft-but-stiff black paper in between every sheet of film. Sort of like American cheese slices! I assume to keep the sheets from sticking together or scratching each other? Why did they stop doing that? Did film emulsions get sturdier and less prone to damage? Frankly it's a bit of a pain to try to make sure that paper is not stuck to the film on either side, before loading it in the film holder, so I'm quite OK with them no longer doing that!

And like with 35mm canisters, I'm now building up a supply of these sheets of paper. Anyone know of any fun uses for them? (Or is that a question to be researched in some 1950s photo magazine?)

Duncan

Ilford Ortho comes with paper between each sheet, as do some of the eastern block films. I must admit I do like the bits of paper and can find a variety of uses for them.

Some Efke films and Classic Pan came with the paper sheets as well. I think ilford xp2 had the paper too but I haven't loaded any of mine in a while. Not sure if it's really necessary. I wear nitrile gloves when loading film.

The Kodak film I have has interleaving sheets.

PE

Yes, back in the roaring 1960s when I first got entangled with 4x5, such interleaving was pretty common. (But I no longer remember who had it and who didn't. :confused: )

The Ilford FP4 5x7 that I loaded in to holders this morning came with white interleaving sheets. So I will have a 50 sheet notepad shortly.This came from a box of film that was packaged in 1991.

Good Afternoon,

I've used mostly Kodak sheet film and can recall the separation sheets being in at least some of the boxes. It never seemed to be a problem.

As a couple of previous posts have already mentioned, the sheets can be handy for various non-photo purposes. I hope no one objects if I diverge somewhat; this thread has reminded me of a tangentially-related incident from the past. When I was a college freshman, one of my professors was a rather elderly and somewhat doddery gentleman who was just about at the end of his career. I don't recall a lot from the class, but one thing stands out. The professor was a smoker, and one day he expounded on how handy the white paper lining used in most cigarette packs was for note taking! He actually spoke at some length on the topic. As a non-smoker, I never had the opportunity to follow his advice, and I can't recall that any of my fellow students who smoked did either. For some reason, most of us just stuck to spiral-bound notebooks.

Konical

There was one Kodak product that had two sided interleaving sheets. These sheets were protecting both the back and front.

PE

Ilford sheet film used to come with those sheets. I used to use them as note paper.

Mainecoonmaniac said:

Ilford sheet film used to come with those sheets. I used to use them as note paper.

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same here !

I'm from a generation

jnanian said:

same here !

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That didn't waste anything. Also, we didn't buy anything if we can help it. I'm still blown away by people spend $5 on a latte.

Well, that would be less than 50 cents in currency in the '50s.

I was shocked to pay $1 for a hamburger in Denver in 1959. They were $0.25 at home in PA.

PE

i'm shocked now that gumballs aren't 1¢ but 25¢