sharpie on film

[BetterSense]

I have started bulk loading. To avoid writing on my cassettes, I wrote on the film leader with blue sharpie marker. Will this cause any problems in the developer tank? Do other people do this?

 

[Athiril]

It might come off the film easily. I know LumoColor pens stay on the film in B&W, C-41 and E-6 though.

 

[bdial]

I use a sharpie to mark exposure and filtration on the back of my test prints (RC paper). Works fine for that and no problems with the chemistry that I've seen.
It should work about the same with film.
You can also just cut that portion of leader off when you process, if you have doubts.

 

[IloveTLRs]

This reminds me of an interesting article about Henri Cartier-Bresson, and how he labelled his bulk-loaded film ..

.. From each cassette there protruded a three inch tail of film. He took each cassette and trimmed that tail to half width making about a 3” skinny tab ready to be wound onto the camera spindle when ready. He licked his index finger and wet the emulsion on the tab. With a pen-like tool with a sharp metal end he scratched the wet emulsion and wrote the month, year and the number of the cassette. ..

The article is an interesting read: Dead Link Removed

 

[summicron1]

I have started bulk loading. To avoid writing on my cassettes, I wrote on the film leader with blue sharpie marker. Will this cause any problems in the developer tank? Do other people do this?

I do that, but it's always just on the trimmed tongue which gets cut off before loading onto the reel.

I suspect sharpie is pretty inert, chemical-wise anyway, but if you are worried, write on the trimmed tongue and snip it off like I do.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

I just use a label on the cassette.

 

[removed account4]

don't you trim the leader, if so, how will you even see the sharpie ?

 

[ignatiu5]

I use a Sharpie on the non-emulsion side. I haven't seen any issues in B&W chemistry. It's sometimes difficult to read it after processing (blue ink against opaque black exposed leader), but it's still possible to make out what I've written.

 

[gzinsel]

IMO, or here's a a way: Label permanently, each "cassette" 1,2,3,4, . . .etc. In a notebook make notes for each roll of film as you go. Now you have good information for potential: changing times, temp, developer, etc. . . Once you have developed, transfer date and titles to neg. sleeve. keep the original notes from the notebook in a binder. That way you can always go back and cross reference, Without every time changing the "label" on the cassette.

 

[cmacd123]

FWIW, I dolabel the cassettes with film type.

when I shoot a roll, I make notes including date and subject, which get wrapped arround the roll in the plastic can.

When I load the tank, the note and the film get a Twin Check sticker. so each roll has a (almost) unique number.

Easy to match them up when putting away the negs. I normally copy the date and such to the negative file page at that point.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I have started bulk loading. To avoid writing on my cassettes, I wrote on the film leader with blue sharpie marker. Will this cause any problems in the developer tank? Do other people do this?

It will not cause a problem as far as I know.

 

[cmacd123]

BLACK sharpies are fairly standard to identify the titles on Movie film leaders. I suspect that they wioll not fade as much as the coloured ones if used to write on film before processing.

 

[rdg]

What I did at one time was to buy a roll from a photofinisher that had duplicate sticker numbers. These are the same that are used in any photolab to identify client rolls of film. I would place one sticker on the roll to be processed and the second on the cassette, which would have all of the information about the roll of film that I had shot. After processing the sticker form the cassette would then be put onto the leader of the roll when I catalogued it and stored it.

The roll was fairly cheap and had several thousand numbers on it so it will last a very long time.

Richard