Loading the spool with 35mm film

[Diapositivo]

I extract the tail with a tail extractor, cut the tail and put if for a few centimetres on the reels. Only then do I put the reels in the changing bag and do the rest of the operation.

IMO there are some advantages in so doing:

- if something goes wrong it's easier to rewind all the film inside the cartridge;
- the film is not touched with the hands. When the film is entirely extracted from the cartridge before loading it into the reels there is a lot of film trying to gather dust or sweat from inside the changing bag.

The disadvantage of this kind of operation is that if there is some grit on the velvet of the canister extracting the film might cause some scratches to appear all along length of the film. The problem is potentially made worse when using bulk loaded film (reusable cartridges).

If using reusable cartridges velvet can be kept clean by brushing it with some scissors or by sticking and un-sticking some post-it to it, the adhesive surface should take away the dust particles.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

With the advent of twist-off caps, church keys have been very hard to find. But they seem to work better than devices specifically made to open cassettes.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I just pour my chemicals into the canister.... (just kidding!)

Actually there was a small developing tank made to allow you to do this. The leader was taped to the outdide of the cassette and the cassette placed in the tank which was not much bigger than a standard film can. Agitation was obtained by continuously winding and unwinding the film within the cassette. It worked for short loads of 10 to 12 exposures.