Identify this bulk 35mm reel?

frobozz · Jun 7, 2010

On a hunch, I snagged this obviously longer than normal 35mm stainless reel dirt cheap on That Auction Site - sure enough, it is big enough to handle my Canon 100-exposure bulk rolls with a few turns of the spiral to spare. No way it would handle the older 250-exposure back cartridges though. It's like it was made specifically for the FN-100 back. It came without a tank but I think if I replaced the center stalk in my Jobo 3033 tank with one slightly smaller in diameter it would actually work in there. The center clip is very reminiscent of the long-roll (250 exposures easy!) Nikor reel and tank I had way back when. But there are no markings on it anywhere to tell me who made it.

SO, anyone recognize this thing? There's a picture showing it next to a standard Hewes reel (showing that the spoke wires are about that same thickness) and then a picture of the center clip. The diameter is about 6.5 inches, while the Jobo tank is about 7.5 inches (and those old Nikor bulk reels were nearly 12 inches!)

Duncan

ann · Jun 8, 2010

years ago ilford made hp5 in 72 exposure rolls and one had to have a special over size reel and tank for development. I don't remember it having that ring with screws in the middle but it was certainly oversized. It also had a special loader to help get the film on the reel as it was very thin. I found that to be a waste of time, as it just took a bit of practice to learn how to handle the thinner base.

frobozz · Jun 8, 2010

I thought of that, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the Ilford reels in the past and they were not this big. I load 108 exposures in my FN-100 carts (3*36 exposures) plus generous amounts of leader, and this thing easily swallowed up a test strip of film with lots of room to spare...so it would be significant overkill for 72 exposures.

(I have definitely shot and hand processed the 72 exposure rolls of HP-5 back in the day, but can't for the life of me remember how, on what equipment... since "the day" was so far back!)

Duncan

frobozz · Jun 8, 2010

Hmmmmm... B&H currently has one of the Ilford 72-exposure stainless reels for sale in their used department (but no picture on the web page). Is it worth paying $19 plus shipping to settle this question?

EDIT: I've sent them a query on their web contact form, asking the diameter...

Anyone out there in APUG-land have one of the Ilford reels, by any chance? I've found references online which says Nikor made one with thinner wires that fit in their standard tank. (That matches my near-nonexistent recollection of what I used.) And one with normal wires that fit in their older 4.5" tank.

Duncan

frobozz · Jun 8, 2010

That was fast! Their (imprecise) answer is "You will need a bigger tank 220 tank" I'm going to take that to mean the older Nikor 4.5" diameter tanks, rather than it being an outrageously bigger-looking 6.5" reel like I've got here. The mystery continues...

Duncan

frobozz · Jun 22, 2010

There's a Kindermann 70mm long-roll developing tank and reel set on That Auction Site right now, and of the 3 reels included one of them looks to be constructed exactly like this. Every other picture I can find of Kindermann reels does not look like that, though, so I suspect it's someone else's reel that just happens to fit the Kindermann tank.

While I was doing a google image search on Kindermann though, I came across this picture that is captioned as "Nikor 70mm reel"

Dead Link Removed

So maybe more recently Nikor made some long-film reels that were smaller than the monstrous ones they made back in the 50's... Time to start stalking Nikor references more closely!

Duncan

PhotoJim · Jun 22, 2010

The Ilford reels were plastic and, if I recall correctly, fit into a Paterson tank but were spiral load like stainless reels.

c.louis · Jun 24, 2010

Try tray develpemnt same way as 4x5 if you have a place with total darkness.In this way, you don't need a tank at all.

c.louis · Jun 24, 2010

hmm my reply didn't show up... You can try tray development with tray if you have a place with total darkness. You can save soem money.

frobozz · May 12, 2011

OK, another clue! It's definitely Nikor, as I have now come across another couple of reels, complete with two tanks and a lid. Weirdly, even though I got all these together, the lid does not fit either tank. (You know how stainless stuff is matched when made and you can never mix them up? Apparently doubly so for this big stuff, the lid will not even remotely fit over either tank; it's basically the same diameter, instead of being a hair bigger...) So I'm still on the lookout for these parts. Anyone ever seen this stuff before or know where there's a cache of it? Along those lines, anyone ever seen a Nikor catalog, so we could know definitely what they made?

Duncan

gordrob · May 12, 2011

Nikor also made a loading machine for 28, 50 and 100 foot lengths of 35mm, 46mm 70mm, 3.5" and 105mm film so these are the different dimensions of Nikor reels that are out there. I think there was different sizes of reels and tanks depending on whether you are processing motion picture films, filmstrips or micro film versus standard long roll films. The reels used for 35mm motion picture films were 9" for 28' and 16" for 100' of film. I am still looking to see if I have any information on the smaller sizes of reels for 35mm film that fit the smaller 7" nesting tanks.
Gord

SkipA · May 13, 2011

I'd love to have a Nikor tank and reel like that for 8mm and 16mm movie film. I use a Lomo reel right now, but it is starting to develop some brittle edges.

Simon R Galley · May 13, 2011

I am 99% sure the ILFORD 72exp processing reels were stainless steel.

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

frobozz · May 13, 2011

gordrob said:
Nikor also made a loading machine for 28, 50 and 100 foot lengths of 35mm, 46mm 70mm, 3.5" and 105mm film so these are the different dimensions of Nikor reels that are out there. I think there was different sizes of reels and tanks depending on whether you are processing motion picture films, filmstrips or micro film versus standard long roll films. The reels used for 35mm motion picture films were 9" for 28' and 16" for 100' of film. I am still looking to see if I have any information on the smaller sizes of reels for 35mm film that fit the smaller 7" nesting tanks.
Gord

Do you have a picture of your nesting tanks? Are they just a smaller version of the big ones? That's interesting that you mention they made a 46mm version. I have a 46mm 100 ft reel (advertised as 35mm :-( :-( ) that looked to me like it was very professionally cut down from a 70mm reel... but I suppose it could have been Nikor doing the cutting from their stock of 70mm parts. I have two loaders, a set of the big (100 ft I think) nesting tanks, the 46mm reel, and a 16mm reel. Still looking for a 35mm reel. Long ago I had the (50 ft I think) nesting tanks and 35mm reel and unwisely sold it all.

How about some informative pics and stuff:

My old tank set and reel (my new tanks look just like this but bigger, but I haven't taken pics yet):

A loader and 46mm reel:

...and I've scanned in the instruction manual for the long reel stuff, but I don't seem to have put it up on my website yet so I'll have to look for that later and post a link. At least when that was printed, there was no mention of 46mm being available.

Duncan

gordrob · May 13, 2011

I try and get a couple of pictures of my tanks posted on the weekend.

Gord

Scheimpflug · Jul 8, 2011

Simon R Galley said:
I am 99% sure the ILFORD 72exp processing reels were stainless steel.

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

Not all of them... I have two, both are black plastic. I was actually looking for a stainless one when I bought these.

They're interesting reels, as they are the same size as standard 35mm reels, and fit in normal tanks... they just have much finer grooves. I don't think I would pick them for regular use though, as they seem a bit delicate, and don't have the loading conveniences of the "regular" reels. The instructions also say that development should be extended by 10% and agitation doubled, so I suspect that the chemicals don't flow through the grooves as easily as with standard reels...

frobozz · Sep 28, 2018

Hey, sorry for the 7+ year delay here, but thanks to an inquisitive APUGger (Photriot?) I realized I never followed through with the scan of the manual for the Nikor long reel equipment.

Here's the high-res version which is 8MB: http://backglass.org/duncan/apug/nikor_long_reel.pdf

Here's a lower res 1MB version: http://backglass.org/duncan/apug/nikor_long_reel_100.pdf

Sorry to all you collecting completists out there: I just added a couple of completely unobtainable items to your must-have lists. That wash tub is pretty slick, as is the motor drive for the loading stand.

Duncan

pentaxuser · Sep 28, 2018

Nice of you to do the follow-up, Duncan. A lot of folks would not have bothered.

pentaxuser

removed account4 · Sep 28, 2018

pentaxuser said:
Nice of you to do the follow-up, Duncan. A lot of folks would not have bothered.

pentaxuser

+1
and to think i thought the only way to process 8mm movie film was that weird umbrella looking thing i never could find !

roycross · Aug 23, 2019

Sorry to all you collecting completists out there: I just added a couple of completely unobtainable items to your must-have lists. That wash tub is pretty slick, as is the motor drive for the loading stand.

When you say "completely unobtainable" does that truly mean this is not available anywhere?

Thanks,

Roy in Montreal, Canada

Identify this bulk 35mm reel?

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