Cirkut film paper leader replacements?

hirudin · Oct 1, 2021

Hi all!

I'm wanting to roll my own rolls of #10 Cirkut film, but in preparing I've done some deep diving into possible replacements for the black paper leader for home-rolled film. I saw there was a few links for Exeter paper, but the links are dead and it's not clear which product is useful. Ilford offers paper for their ULF run, but it appears it's already cut to 120, which is useless for 10" film. I also see that folks use plain paper grocery bags and black plastic.

Can any modern Cirkut users in 2021 weigh in on what paper/material to use as a suitable leader? Or am I left to scour the internet for old, 20th century rolls that I can pilfer the paper from or cut down black plastic from my photo paper?

Thanks in advance!

-Jesse-

tlloydau · Oct 13, 2021

Hi Jesse
I spoke with David Firman via email about the subject a while back. He's a previous Cirkut user who had to DIY a lot of his setup as well. This was his reply:
"The black leader paper was, I think, just regular construction paper from an art supply store. To load and remove the film from the camera, I would use a large change bag just to be sure there was no fogging. I’m not sure about any film problems this paper or the electrical tape or Christmas rolls or black poly might cause but I did not notice any problems for the month or two a roll might be stored this way."
Hope this helps

hirudin · Oct 14, 2021

Thank you so much for your reply... I've used black construction paper for masks in the darkroom, and I sometimes notice pinholes.... I guess I need to look for a premium paper and inspect for pinholes.

tlloydau · Oct 14, 2021

Yeah, he mentioned checking for pinholes at the art supply store but I think if you load in a darkroom/changing bag and otherwise store rolls in a darkbag it should largely negate worries around how good or bad the leader material itself is. Assuming the paper is moderately light tight, a few turns of it should help cover random pinholes in any one section of paper. I've not had the chance to put this into practice though so I can't say for certain.

jimgalli · Dec 23, 2021

I confess that I haven't made any daylight loads. I load the film in the dark and remove in the dark after the shot. No leader or follower at all. But today I made up 2 6" rolls for my No. 6 non outfit camera that must be loaded in daylight after you focus. I just bought a long roll of brown craft paper on ebay, 6" I made a 30" leader so it's got lots of layers of brown paper before the film and it seemed to fit nicely on the spools for that camera. I'll have an answer soon on how that goes. But tonight I just bought some of the same stuff but 10". Easy to work with, but again, as of now, untested.

hirudin · Feb 15, 2022

jimgalli said:
I confess that I haven't made any daylight loads. I load the film in the dark and remove in the dark after the shot. No leader or follower at all. But today I made up 2 6" rolls for my No. 6 non outfit camera that must be loaded in daylight after you focus. I just bought a long roll of brown craft paper on ebay, 6" I made a 30" leader so it's got lots of layers of brown paper before the film and it seemed to fit nicely on the spools for that camera. I'll have an answer soon on how that goes. But tonight I just bought some of the same stuff but 10". Easy to work with, but again, as of now, untested.

Thanks for the info, Jim! I'd love to know how your experiment went, and how successful it was.

hirudin · Feb 15, 2022

tlloydau said:
Yeah, he mentioned checking for pinholes at the art supply store but I think if you load in a darkroom/changing bag and otherwise store rolls in a darkbag it should largely negate worries around how good or bad the leader material itself is. Assuming the paper is moderately light tight, a few turns of it should help cover random pinholes in any one section of paper. I've not had the chance to put this into practice though so I can't say for certain.

Thanks for the info! I've been looking for old rolls of film, hoping to use the leader... but I've been keeping an eye out for a nice, opaque, high quality black paper.

jimgalli · Feb 15, 2022

hirudin said:
Thanks for the info, Jim! I'd love to know how your experiment went, and how successful it was.

Still waiting for good weather and spring fever to hit. We came close last week but today the snow is going sideways again and I confess to being a "fair weather" photographer. Soon I hope. The 10 inch paper was a good tight fit on the Kodak spools. Just what you want. The paper rubs the spool sides and very slightly curls to fit. Should work well as long as 3 or 4 wraps is actually light tight.

jamie young · Mar 27, 2022

I haven't really been following the threads here much. For leader paper, really any material that completely blocks to light and is flexible, works fine. If you use black paper, make sure it bends easily as lack of flexibility can cause banding. Someone sold me some film he spooled once, with black completely opaque plastic sheet, like one might find in a box store for gardening or other uses. maybe 4-5 mil. certain areas might have a pinhole or two. Just inspect what you are using. I've switched over to the plastic for most of my spooling

Don_ih · Mar 27, 2022

What about parchment laminated aluminum foil?

jimgalli · Mar 27, 2022

jimgalli said:
Still waiting for good weather and spring fever to hit. We came close last week but today the snow is going sideways again and I confess to being a "fair weather" photographer. Soon I hope. The 10 inch paper was a good tight fit on the Kodak spools. Just what you want. The paper rubs the spool sides and very slightly curls to fit. Should work well as long as 3 or 4 wraps is actually light tight.

I can report that the ordinary craft paper worked perfectly well.

gmorris · Mar 28, 2024

I have Exeter paper rolls that are 26" wide. Opaque on one side and glossy on the other. How long are the leaders and followers for Cirkut Camera film?

drew tanner · Mar 29, 2024

gmorris said:
I have Exeter paper rolls that are 26" wide. Opaque on one side and glossy on the other. How long are the leaders and followers for Cirkut Camera film?

In preparation of cutting my own leaders for 9.5” aerial film recently, I measured the 10” leaders I have at 22” long. Followers were 28.” For my purposes, I just cut a batch of brown craft paper leaders measuring 18,” which is the max my Dahle paper cutter handles. It still gives plenty of wraps around the 3/4” diameter spools. I skipped the followers and just taped the end of the film directly to the spools. I’ll find out this week when I do some developing if they did the trick.

Mark Crabtree · Mar 29, 2024

It's nice to see you here Drew. Now I can keep an eye on what you are up to.

I might turn up another box of spools and leaders somewhere. I must have given away well over 100 by now, and of course if the roll has both you can make two leaders with no tail like you are doing. I preferred that if film cost wasn't sky high since that way there is no danger in accidently shooting on the tail and missing some picture.

MCB18 · May 16, 2024

I have been looking for backing paper for 120/220 film, and have not ever found any. However it seems like Cicuitt cameras are MUCH more forgiving, so I’m glad to see that you guys found a solution. I am still searching for one.

Cirkut film paper leader replacements?

hirudin

tlloydau

hirudin

tlloydau

jimgalli

hirudin

hirudin

jimgalli

jamie young

Don_ih

jimgalli

gmorris

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