Questions: Two 120 Rolls On One Patterson Reel

Hello everyone.

I have a few questions for those of you that often develop two 120 rolls at once on a single Patterson reel:

0. Do you use inversion, the twiddle stick, or a processor of some kind?

1. Do you tape the rolls together or do you just insert one after the other? Has your approach changed over time?

2. Have you observed uneven development, incomplete development, or other any other flaws thanks to doing this?

3. How often, if ever, has one roll of film covered frames on another roll on the same reel? Was it a disaster for you?

4. Did you change any of your stop or wash times to compensate for the additional film?



My answers:

0. I use a processor most of the time. I invert otherwise.

1. I tape them. The process of taping them in the dark can be annoying, though.

2. No, with one caveat. I have observed strange results on a few frames. They're all from the same camera. My theory is that I may have a lens defect on that particular camera body. I'm planning to make a post later to ask some questions.

3. This only happened once when I avoided using tape to join the two rolls. Strangely, the negatives were fine. I am hesitant to go back to skipping tape, though.

4. I have not. However, I wonder if I should.

0. Inversion.

1. I leave the factory tape on the film, it helps keep the film from sliding around in the reel.

2. No. No.

3. Never. N/A.

4. No.

I haven't done this in decades. I found it very difficult. IIRC I had the best luck by getting the first one the reel, winding it in a bit hen starting the second, but the films end to end and applying a bit of tape to splice the to films together.
Personally I would pick up a different reel, like an AP, or better go Jobo. I love Paterson but Jobo is much easier for what you are doing.

I do it regularly, using the AP version of reels that fit the Paterson tanks.
I don't use tape, other than folding over the existing tape to stiffen the leading edge of the film before loading. I load and advance the first roll as far as it can go into the reel. For the last part of that, I just push the film along, using the flat part of my fingernail on the edge of the film. It moves easily, and I can easily feel when it reaches the end. After that I load and advance the second roll only as far as necessary to clear the ball bearings. That leaves a decent gap between the rolls.
I use the following agitation regime:
1) continuous reversing rotary agitation for the first 30 seconds in the developer;
2) inversion agitation of 5 seconds every 30 seconds for the rest of the development time;
3) continuous reversing rotary agitation for the rest of the procedures.
If I use continuous reversing rotary agitation for the rest of the development time, the films seem to move a lot within the reels, and are vulnerable to ending up overlapping each other. I guess they must be slipperier when in the developer, because using the rotary agitation for the rest of the procedure doesn't result in issues with overlapping. I could elect to use all rotary agitation for single reel rolls, and the aforesaid mixture for dual roll reels, but I prefer to standardize on a single approach.
Using the specified regime, I get the same results as doing single rolls. I use replenished XTol as a developer, and in order to maintain consistency, I always use a full litre of developer in my 1 litre capacity tank. As the other steps in the procedure are done with my tank rotating on its side, I am comfortable using a smaller amount of those other chemicals - 600 ml works well.
I don't possess the necessary two handed dexterity to be able to reliably tape the two rolls together.
My two 120 reel Paterson Super System IV tank works great on a Beseler rotary agitator.
I don't modify any times in the rest of the procedure, although I obviously calculate capacity and replenishment numbers based on the number of films developed.

In Movie film processing labs more than 40 years ago, I learned this trick.
Just staple it.
This kind of stapler has very handy shape to connect 2 rolls of 120 film and uses a bit smaller staples than regular, 10mm wide.
Usually I leave paper tape on the film, with clipped corners, to go first then I staple back part to back part.
You will feel a bit more resistance while moving film with usual Paterson twist until stapled film pass the balls in channels, at beginning.
Don't force anything, just gentle moves.
Twist reel normally until whole film is in. Never had any issues.
I use this way when developing shorter pieces of 35mm on the same reel too.

gorbas said:

In Movie film processing labs more than 40 years ago, I learned this trick.
Just staple it.
This kind of stapler has very handy shape to connect 2 rolls of 120 film and uses a bit smaller staples than regular, 10mm wide.
Usually I leave paper tape on the film, with clipped corners, to go first then I staple back part to back part.
You will feel a bit more resistance while moving film with usual Paterson twist until stapled film pass the balls in channels, at beginning.
Don't force anything, just gentle moves.
Twist reel normally until whole film is in. Never had any issues.
I use this way when developing shorter pieces of 35mm on the same reel too.
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This is a great idea and I'll try it when there's time.

I've done the tape method and its a pain in the ass to get both films' edges to align in the dark. I used a AP reel but removed the ball bearings because it was scratching my film after black and white reversal processes.

One thing I noticed when loading two 120 films with tape is that after processing, a lot of the sticky residues from the tape gets inside the grooves of the reels. So just clean them with running hot water and dish detergent and they'll be fine.

Stapling is genius!
The first two times I tried taping two together it worked really well. The next half dozen times it didnt and eventually I gave up. The stress and fiddling usually ended up with me buckling somethign end ended up with the fingernail things.