All Quickloads, R.I.P

Ian Grant · Dec 22, 2009

Rick, I have a feeling that the Film holder I have in mind would be better suited to the people making Custom Darkslides, which I think Sandy King is involved in.

Tomorrow I take some photo's of the advert and review of what prompted me, (I've no scanner here in Turkey & it's late evening now ). I think it needs a radical approach away from Readyloads & their limited range of films available anyway.

It may be film packs could be revived in some form or one of the other older systems, but they go way back over a century and there were numerous approaches.

Ian

David A. Goldfarb · Dec 22, 2009

I've seen a few one-off or small production bag mags (Glennview has had them occasionally), which are a very compact way of carrying a lot of film and don't require as much precision manufacturing capability as a Grafmatic.

Ian Grant · Dec 23, 2009

Adams Automatic Changing Magazine

Here's a couple of images with the details of this 1927 offering. I've no idea how it worked but it's worth looking at, as are similar ideas of that era.

Ian

David A. Goldfarb · Dec 23, 2009

Ian Grant said:
Here's a couple of images with the details of this 1927 offering. I've no idea how it worked but it's worth looking at, as are similar ideas of that era.

Ian

From the description it sounds like it works pretty much like a Grafmatic. After the top sheet is exposed, the user pulls out the film drawer containing the other septums, and springs press the exposed sheet or plate to the back of the box, and then the drawer is returned to the box with a new sheet of film on top of the stack as the sheet just exposed slips into the drawer in the back of the stack. Unlike a Grafmatic, the darkslide is on the opposite side of the holder from the film drawer handle, so changing film would have to be done with the holder out of the camera, unless the holder attaches in place of the groundglass panel like a Graflok back, giving access to both sides. On a Grafmatic the darkslide also plays a role in holding the active septum flat, which doesn't seem to be the case with the Adams filmholder, though it wouldn't have been so important in the age of plates.

Another multi-sheet filmholder is the Kinematic, made in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. They are fiddlier to operate and not quite as reliable as Grafmatics, but they hold ten sheets instead of six and are only slightly thicker. I have two of them, and it's handy to be able to go out with twenty sheets of film in the space of about four or five regular filmholders.

Joanna Carter · Dec 29, 2009

rpsawin said:
The last post I saw from her, maybe 2 months ago, was that she was dropping the idea as she had talked to some attorneys about legal costs (patent costs I think) and they would be at least $10,000 USD. She could not afford it. There was some discussion about "investors" but I lost track of the thread.

I did not drop the idea because of patents; I am simply going to have to rely on people not to steal the idea. Come the New Year and in the light of Fuji's announcement, I am hoping to take the idea further.

jd callow · Dec 29, 2009

Joanna Carter said:
I did not drop the idea because of patents; I am simply going to have to rely on people not to steal the idea. Come the New Year and in the light of Fuji's announcement, I am hoping to take the idea further.

Good Luck to you.

Oh and welcome to APUG.

gr82bart · Dec 29, 2009

SWphoto said:
Fuji is very poor at consumer relations <snip> They've lost me as a customer, along with many of my friends.

This is quite refreshing to read on APUG - a site known for it's many pro anything but Kodak individuals!

Regards, Art.

jd callow · Dec 29, 2009

gr82bart said:
This is quite refreshing to read on APUG - a site known for it's many pro anything but Kodak individuals!

Regards, Art.

Yeah I was surprised to read this as well.

With regard to customer relations and communication I have always found Kodak to do an excellent job of making information readily available and through multiple communication channels -- channels the naysayers seem to never use. OTOH I have never needed much from Fuji so I can't say whether or not they are good, bad or somewhere between the two. I was made aware of the demise of NPL and RPT well in advance of their discontinuance which were the only emulsions Fuji made that impact my photography. I do think that Fuji has an unusual marketing approach with regard to E6 emulsion naming and Japan only products.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 29, 2009

jd callow said:
Yeah I was surprised to read this as well.

With regard to customer relations and communication I have always found Kodak to do an excellent job of making information readily available and through multiple communication channels -- channels the naysayers seem to never use. OTOH I have never needed much from Fuji so I can't say whether or not they are good, bad or somewhere between the two. I was made aware of the demise of NPL and RPT well in advance of their discontinuance which were the only emulsions Fuji made that impact my photography. I do think that Fuji has an unusual marketing approach with regard to E6 emulsion naming and Japan only products.

Fujichrome Astia 100F in 135 format has been discontinued in the UK, but as far as I'm aware the product simply vanished from price lists without explanation. However, in the interests of fairness, Fuji UK did respond to my e-mail to confirm.

Tom

Pupfish · Dec 29, 2009

Just got my order of 5 boxes of QLs delivered today from Adorama. The boxes of Pro 160S have a use-by date of 11-2011; guessing the manufacture date of these would have been fairly recent, no?

I'd sure hope they remain available for a number of reasons. I'm finding QLs tremendously less inconvenient by not having to unbox and load, then unload to box film back up to deliver it to a 3rd party lab.

Haven't flown since the latest incident, but when traveling by air, TSA folks would hand inspect QL in ziplock bags. Even though they'd explosive sniff them it still seemed less risky to the film than someone either accidentally opening an unsealed box of exposed film, or the cumulative effects from insistence on running boxes through an Xray machine.

mark · Dec 29, 2009

This just sucks. I always got scratches on my slides before I used Quickloads.

David Callard · Feb 13, 2010

This is surely bad news to many of us - it certainly is to me. I am wondering: Why must Kodak and Fuji just chop us off cold? Could they perhaps work on an indent basis, where interested groups of photographers, e.g. such as may exist here amongst the APUG membership, club together and undertake to place orders, on a 6/12 monthly basis? I guess we get what we deserve; if we don't buy these products then we can hardly expect manufacturers to go on producing them. I can only say that I am prepared to repent and I just wonder if any others feel the same? I find the Quickload/Readyload filmpacks very useful - no need for a darkroom or changebag and perhaps even more important no need to send off our film holders to outside labs where with the best of intentions one can never be sure of getting the same holders back. Over...

SWphoto said:
from LF Forum, this report from British Journal of Photography, confirmed by release from Fuji, all Quickloads discontinued:

http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=872222

DanielStone · Feb 14, 2010

David Callard said:
- no need for a darkroom or changebag and perhaps even more important no need to send off our film holders to outside labs where with the best of intentions one can never be sure of getting the same holders back. Over...

David: I purchased a pack of 1/2"x2.75" white AVERY labels, the ones designed to be printed on with an inkjet home printer. Made some labels in Mic. Word with my name and telephone number, along with city and state(US), I only send out my color film now to a lab, but using a changing TENT(harrison) helps to minimize the dust issue with loading film holders.

since I switched from a changing bag to the tent, my dust issue is practically nothing compared to the bag, even with vacuuming, compressed air blow-outs, etc....

but I do agree with you though, QL's and RL's are extremely convenient, especially to the backpack 4x5 photographer.

-Dan

p.s. watch craigslist for used 4x5 holders, I just scored another 25 for $40, so the deals are definitely out there, you just might have to wait a bit to get some at a cheap price.

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