I shot about 10 feet on Saturday- 3 130 degree shots of the same thing, my house and yard. J&C works very well. Now to get the rest of the bugs out. The camera was motorized by others and I spent Friday afternoon getting it going- a minor wiring glitch.
I had one spool/leader/film that had some writings like "good '98" but no hint as to speed. It may have been a reload with 400 or maybe VP.
I tried it ( what the hey) just to see if it would run with film etc. I looked up developing Aero by reel to reel and VP small tank, corrected for windage and outdated film, tried HC 110 in a tray for 15 min and got boiler plate, but an IMAGE. So I tired another cutoff at half that and got a printable, if dense and lots-of-fog, sharp image.
I lost a third due to ripped film, I suspect from the "hole punch"
Then I shot 3 130 degree shots on some J&C that I reloaded onto the spool with great difficulty, taped the leader but no trailer. By this time it was noon light.
I still don't understand how to compensate for the paper leader- I over compensated by taking a narrow exposure- a little too much as the tail end hanged up and gave me the only band at 2'' from the end of the 3rd exposure.
I cut the film 1/3 and 2/3 and was not able to detect a mark of any kind that is supposed to be made by the "cut button". "1/3" was easy to "see-saw" in the trays, but the "2/3" had to be rolled from hand to hand.
The J&C has little or no tendency to curl, so it was difficult to keep the film rolled and the cut ends tended to scratch the image. Also, handling 10 inch by 9 feet or so of film that wants to be flat makes it easy to pick up lint and other detritae. Plus all those fingerfumble marks can't be good. I have detected no fingerprints on the negs but I do remember loading a daylight tank for a fast start at the next session. That session didn't take place tfor a week or so, meantime my fingers had promoted fungal growth on the film- so I'm concerned about a 2-3 week time between loading the camera and processing.
To do
Make a loading rack so I can keep my cottonpickin fingers off the film
Check actual exposure to assure enough- In the harsh light I didn't get enough exposure in the shadows, but enough in the highlights.
Figure out how close I am to the right development if I use a Morse Aerial outfit and Clayton F-60
OR fix the "cut button"
Get another spool!
Get my own magnifying cosmetic mirror to see under the camera to check the gear mesh since I hate that creaking sound when I try to bend over and upside down.
I contacted one of the negs on 8x10 sheets of EK Polymax- no sign of banding!!
I too am very interested in a slitting solution - to make 122 film.
I have a couple hundred feet of sheetfilm stock cut to width . I tried one shot in a Kodak Panoram. It worked if loaded and unloaded in the dark, but it's too thick to roll properly on a standard 122 spool. The 3/4 inch diam of a Cirkut spool probly will work better- maybe even using minimal film lengths on a say 1'' rod?
Last query- Has anyone tried spooling long film lengths? I surmise I could probly get 40 feet on a spool plus leader and still have sufficient freeboard for light protection.
AND there is nothing like seeing a 10x30 neg come out of the fix!! It's almost ULF Fever.
