Kodachrome 64 trimmed to fit Barnack Leica or?

darkosaric · Jun 7, 2013

So,

On flea market I found old Kodachrome 35mm film, so I paid 1 euro and got it just that it does not sit there in the dirt (maybe I will shoot it and develop in B&W). I opened and I see that film has longer leader, just to fit Barnack Leica. Is this made for that, or some other reason for this in kodachrome?

Interesting is also that film expired in 1977, and price was 15.90 DM (deutsche mark), developing included.

regards,

cliveh · Jun 7, 2013

Interesting, as I never knew Kodachrome made films with a leader for those leicas.

nickrapak · Jun 7, 2013

Many older Kodak films were cut with a "Leica" leader. In fact, I have seen newer films that had a template for the longer leader printed on the back of the instruction sheet.

summicron1 · Jun 7, 2013

until the 70s sometime ALL film was cut with a leica leader like that. They quit when they started selling all those point and shoot cameras with auto-load that didn't need a long leader and might not even work as well with one, since they usually needed both sides of the sprocket wheel engaged to drive the film properly.

By then LTM leicas were pretty scarce, relative to the zillions of other cameras out there, and weren't a factor in the eyes of film makers. The few still using them could fix the problem with a pair of scissors.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 7, 2013

Spiratone sold a nifty little metal jig to help cut the Leica leader. I have one but its easier just to eyeball it.

okto · Jun 7, 2013

Leitz did too.

summicron1 · Jun 8, 2013

okto said:
Leitz did too.

and they all sucked -- i have one now and when you try to use a penknife to make the cut you end up with a jagged edge after taking two minutes to get the film properly aligned in the jig.

I just use scissors to cut it -- precision does not matter, only an approximately correct length and the final curve to the edge being smooth. Takes 2 seconds.

ct

John Shriver · Jun 9, 2013

The shorter leader tail probably made every roll an inch shorter -- more profit for Kodak. But I think it was also part of standardizing 35mm film for autoloading cameras.

GarageBoy · Jun 10, 2013

Why is the long leader needed? I remember loading a IIIa without needing to trim, but was it because I'm lucky?

StoneNYC · Jun 10, 2013

What garage boy asked, I don't get it... Also...

OH is that what that's for?? My tech pan has that and I wondered why it was so long...

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Kodachrome 64 trimmed to fit Barnack Leica or?

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