Emulsion in or Emulsion out on developing reels?

IN OR OUT? What's your emulsion position choice on a spiral developing reel?

  • Emulsion IN

    Votes: 35 89.7%

  • Emulsion OUT

    Votes: 3 7.7%

  • Drop it on the floor several times and then jam it in any old way...

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Total voters
    39
  • Poll closed .

Kino

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This should be good for at least several hundred comments that range wildly beyond the subject matter and eventually kick this thread into the Soap Box, but here goes anyway.

Are you an INNIE or an OUTIE?

Load the emulsion inwards on a spiral reel or outwards?

Let the bickering begin...
 

AgX

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Yes, my very first thought was that it is fit to become a "religious" topic.

If I may utter a wish: Please, can someone approach this issue from within quantum physics?
 

AgX

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But we are people rooted in practical life:

I follow just the spin of the film strip. Thus emulsion in.
This also has the benefit in case of 36+ exposures to have the emulsion of the piece already off the spiral off the tank wall. I think this is a benefit, but one may even argue that this piece of film better be turned with its emulsion outwards, as the plain tank wall yields lesser risk of scratching than the reels. Up to today I did not gave this a second thought as so far it worked out for me.
 

grat

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For 120, I definitely load the film emulsion in. I probably do the same with 135, but so far, I've only developed one roll. The cat is no longer allowed in the room where film is hanging to dry, as the last time a piece of film slipped out of it's clip, the cat "rescued" it.
 

Europan

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Emulsion out is better. No religion, physics. The photographic coating, consisting of gelatins, swells much more in water than the base plastic, therefore it has more allowance to take room when being on the longer stretch. The film has less tension in it that way. I have processed cinematographic and photographic films in spiral reels (large ones) on a commercial base for years, believe me everybody, that’s no question.
 

Trey

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Typically facing in, but when I do two rolls per reel I have one facing in and one facing out.
 

reddesert

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I load emulsion side in, because it usually matches the curl, especially if the film is old. But the next question is, which way do you put the reels into the developing tank? I feel the spiral should go counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere, but if you load emulsion side out, maybe you want to do the opposite.
 

AgX

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Europan said:
Emulsion out is better. The photographic coating, consisting of gelatins, swells much more in water than the base plastic, therefore it has more allowance to take room when being on the longer stretch. The film has less tension in it that way.
Click to expand...

Well, but the film then is dried, at us still photographers, in a straight manner, which would counteract anything gained in processing emulsion-out.
 

MattKing

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Based on incomplete data, I wonder if this question is more likely to be answered one way by those who develop longer (Cine?) rolls of film, and the other way by those who develop shorter rolls of film?
It may also be dependent on types of reels - with it mattering little with steel reels but mattering more with plastic reels.
Personally, I doubt that I would have much luck loading 120 into plastic reels with the emulsion out.
 
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Truzi

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I keep the emulsion in except with stainless 16mm/110 reels, since they only have a spiral on one side. I find its easier emulsion out on those.
 

Nicholas Lindan

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I can never make up my mind and so I give the film a half-twist every turn of the reel.

But a better solution just hit me -- make the film into a Möbius strip before loading. The film now only has one side. Then it can be emulsion side inside and emulsion side outside at the same time.
 
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cmacd123

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the lomo Movie tanks are intended to load emulsion out, other than that follow the curve of the film.
 

AgX

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These are soviet tanks . The Soviets made a lot of things different, just for the sake of it.
 

cmacd123

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AgX said:
These are soviet tanks . The Soviets made a lot of things different, just for the sake of it.
Click to expand...

the lomo movie tanks are about the only system that was intended for home processing of 100 ft rolls of Movie film even tanks like the Morse were for small scale commercial use.
 

Craig75

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Micro contrast is disrupted in a convex turbulence but the effects can be mitigated using a presoak to remove the microns thick coating detergent and then offsetting the tank turbulence by cutting the film into 10 frame lengths and loading alternately emulsion in then emulsion out.
 

Don_ih

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I use a Jobo and used to load the film emulsion side in. If there happens to be any grit in the tank while developing or fixing, it can sit on the emulsion and make long scratches if the emulsion faces in. I filter everything but it happened anyway - so I started loading the film emulsion side out. There have been no such scratches since then.

If I was not using a rotating developing device, I wouldn't bother to have the emulsion face out.
 
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