Loading 2×120 on a reel

poutnik · Nov 27, 2006

Hello again,

I have a rather stupid question, but how do you manage to not overlap when loading 2 roll films on a reel? How do you make sure (in the dark) you do not have the 2 films over one another?

I use Jobo tank with Jobo spiral, and of those occasions I loaded 2 rolls on the reel, 75% of the time the films did overlap ruining at least one shot on the rolls (yesterday one of the rolls was OK - probably by chance facing emulsion outwards - on the other a half of a nice shot was ruined). As the result, I do try to avoid processing 2 rolls at the same time, but once in a while the time is short...

Thanks

Jiri

Stoo Batchelor · Nov 27, 2006

Hi Jiri

Try a search on the subject and you will find many usefull tips on this. The option I favoured was to use the small piece of tape at the end of the first roll to join the second roll to it. Its a bit fiddly in the dark but with practice it works a treat, and will solve your problem.

Regards

Stoo

poutnik · Nov 27, 2006

Thanks Stoo for the tip with the tape, I'll try it.

I tried searching but got nothing useful - probably wrong wording of the search question...

matti · Nov 27, 2006

Use the tape that is already there. When I rip off the backing paper from the film, the tape always stays on the film. That makes it easy to use this tape to attatch the second film on the same spiral. Works fine for me anyway.

/matti

hka · Nov 27, 2006

Normally JOBO reels have an red, let's say a sort of indicator, on one of the sides. After loading film #1 push the red indicator inside the rim and load the second film. That simple...

Ed Sukach · Nov 27, 2006

"hka" is correct - there is a little, red, hinged "tab" near the "halfway point" of the spiral on the outside of one of the reel "halves". Its function is to limit the travel of the second film in loading so that it does not overlap the first.

To use the reel for two films: First, pull out the "red tab". Load the first film to the center of the spool and press the tab in (practice this with a dummy roll of film in ambient light, until you get the "feel" of it). Then, load the second film - not too energetically, until the end of the film is beyond the start of the spirals ... it should stop against the red tab.

I do this regularly - and my frequency of overlapping is something on the order of once in 200 - 300 films.

Bob F. · Nov 27, 2006

If you have lost the little red tab for the Jobo reel, or your reels do not have it, you can use the tape method suggested above. To make sure the two rolls align exactly, I spool the first film on until the end is about 3/4 of the way around the reel and then start the new roll on until it butts up to the first roll and tape them using the tape from the end of the first roll. I peel this off when loading the first roll as it is on the under side and can roll back and stick itself to the film underneath (not good!) and put it aside for use here.

Using either the Jobo red tab, or this method on Paterson reels, I've not (yet) had a problem.

Good luck, Bob.

Blighty · Nov 27, 2006

This sounds like a really good economic way of doing 120 but, will it not affect development in any way? What I mean (by way of example) is, if I develop a roll of 120 in my Paterson tank and use 500ml of developer will the addition of an extra roll of film in the same 500ml of solution make it exhaust more quickly? Just got me thinking, that's all.

Bob F. · Nov 27, 2006

Follow developer manufacturer's recommendations for the amount of stock needed to develop each roll. According to the datasheet for DDX you require 62.5ml of stock per roll (16 rolls per litre of stock) so as long as you have at least 125ml in the tank you are fine (in a 500ml tank you will in fact have 100ml at 1+4 which is obviously a bit under but will probably be fine in practice as they will be erring on the safe side).

This assumes you use developers one-shot, which most people do at home. Ilford datasheets (and others) detail how to alter times when re-using developer.

Cheers, Bob.

poutnik · Nov 28, 2006

Blighty, I use R09 most of the time in the dilutions of 1+25 to 1+60, so in a 500ml tank I have at least 8ml of R09. And from what I have read, around 3ml should be enough to develop a roll... So most of the time I'm actually wasting my developer

Loading 2×120 on a reel

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