Splice a leader onto 35 mm film?

[Donald Qualls]

I'm slowly working up to having a well-working method of shooting 35mm in a 220 film back on my RB67, and part of the process design is to run the film from cassette to cassette, to allow unloading in daylight and, presumably, loading another roll (I expect to process all my own film for the foreseeable future).

To do this without fogging the last one or two already-exposed 65mm long frames when the film comes taut at the end, as well as to reduce the wastage at the beginning, I plan to splice leaders on my film. I have a roll of 35mm cine leader stock in hand, and have worked out a method of putting the leader on the tail end of commercial film (hint: the dark slide on the film magazine is your friend), but I need a way to accurately splice the leader. Sprocket spacing doesn't matter in this case, since the film is wrapped on smooth rollers and drives the fame counter by friction, but I need the splice to be correctly aligned (i.e. leader parallel to the film) and I need to be able to make the splice accurately and reliably in the dark (to avoid exposing the film tail).

I've thought about making up an alignment tool from poster board or mat board -- but if anyone knows of a better way to do this, I'd love to hear about it.

Also, am I correct in recalling that most 35mm films can fit up to about an extra foot (8 or so standard frames) of film into the cassette? The leader can hang out prior to loading, but there needs to be room for the tail inside the cassette.

 

[Kino]

Griswold 35m cement splicer. Common as sand fleas and with a bit of practice, easy to use in the dark. Of course, you will have to use tape unless you want to order Kodak film cement...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Griswold-M...963528?hash=item1a9101cb08:g:wh8AAOSwEVtb5OKt

 

[Donald Qualls]

Griswold 35m cement splicer. Common as sand fleas and with a bit of practice, easy to use in the dark. Of course, you will have to use tape unless you want to order Kodak film cement...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Griswold-M...963528?hash=item1a9101cb08:g:wh8AAOSwEVtb5OKt

Excellent! Tape is what I want, as I want to be able to reuse the (cut to precise length) leader and tail pieces.

 

[BAC1967]

I use a Griswold to cut my 35mm negatives before I put them into sleeves. It works great to get a good cut between frames. Urbanski film has 35mm leader and splicing tape, that's where I get a lot of my cine film supplies.

http://urbanskifilm.com/supplies.html

Griswold Film Splicer R-2 by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've got leader material at present, but I ordered it from Russia because I didn't find a US seller on eBay. Looks like Urbanski has as good or better price in short lengths; I've saved the link. And a splicer like that Griswold is exactly what I'm after -- nice, clean, straight cuts, even if I don't care about sprockets matching (no harm done if they do, though). Saturday's payday...

 

[BAC1967]

I've got leader material at present, but I ordered it from Russia because I didn't find a US seller on eBay. Looks like Urbanski has as good or better price in short lengths; I've saved the link. And a splicer like that Griswold is exactly what I'm after -- nice, clean, straight cuts, even if I don't care about sprockets matching (no harm done if they do, though). Saturday's payday...

My Griswold doesn't have the nubs for the sprocket holes which make it hard for doing cine film but great for when I'm trying to cut my negatives between frames. Different cameras line up the frames differently with regards to the sprocket holes. I think there are other Griswold models that have the nubs for sprocket holes.

Urbanski also sells the tape but it sounds like for what you're doing Scotch tape may be a better option, especially if you want to take it apart easier.

 

[Donald Qualls]

In my case, I don't care about sprockets one way or the other -- there are no sprockets in the RB67 220 film back anyway. If the one I ordered has the nubs, it'll be a little easier to use in the dark, if it doesn't, that'll be okay too. Cutting negatives is a bonus, and I bet I can make an insert to guide the film over the nubs if they're present.

 

[abruzzi]

I used a Guillotine splicer for years. It was heartily abused every week when I was a projectionist and I was splicing reels onto a platter. It was solid and heavy, and the pins and built in cutter made fast work of any splicing. It also had a place for the spool of splicing tape. It was very nice, but since I left, the theater has converted over to entirely digital.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I bought the linked Griswold off eBay, and it arrived yesterday. That's one heavy piece of kit! Next up is to shoot through the roll currently loaded in my RB67 back (or unload it, though then there's 8 inches or so of fogged film from loading to account for), and measure exactly how much leader I'll need at each end of the film, so I can cut and mark a few pieces of leader stock of each length, and do a couple preloads.

 

[Kino]

I used a Guillotine splicer for years. It was heartily abused every week when I was a projectionist and I was splicing reels onto a platter. It was solid and heavy, and the pins and built in cutter made fast work of any splicing. It also had a place for the spool of splicing tape. It was very nice, but since I left, the theater has converted over to entirely digital.

Great splicers but they are still very expensive!

 

[GarageBoy]

Is the Griswald illuminated? How do you see where the frames are?

 

[grahamp]

I designed a twin cassette container to hold two linked 35mm film cassettes for the odd times I use 35mm in a 120 camera. The two cassettes sit light-trap to light-trap, with an offset on one end to allow for the center core projection. This makes it easy to carry the linked units. It 3d prints OK.

I had not thought of adding a leader, but then using 135-36 in a 120 camera leaves a fair bit of unexposed film anyway. I am not sure if the adapters I used will allow me to run this arrangement in a camera with a 220 setting. Now I can get some more outdoor time, I may try it.

 

[koraks]

I have experimented quitw a bit with 35mm in a 6x12 back. I just taped the leader of the 35mm onto a piece of 120 backing paper. Unloading the film needed to be done in a darkroom or changing bag. It sort of worked, but there were severe problems with the film curling longitudinally making for annoying reflections around the sprocket holes / along the edges of the film. The problem is significantly less with smaller gate openings such as 6x7cm.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Is the Griswald illuminated? How do you see where the frames are?

No illumination there, or needed. This would be used in a lit room, to add the leader to a new 135 cassette. The leader is connected to the spool in a takeup cassette (for mechanical reasons, this cassette has the spool inserted upside down). I'd then go dark, wind all the film into the takeup cassette, and turn the lights back on to splice a leader material tail at the end of the film (or, if I'm bulk loading, load the tail and splice on the film before loading the film into the cassette). Finally, if I've spliced a tail into commercially loaded film, go dark again and wind the film and leaders back into the original cassette. Now I'd have a pair of cassettes that I can field load into my 220 back.

The leader will get a start mark like the one on a 120/220 backing paper header so the film insert can time the start properly. Done this way, I should be able to get 17-18 24x67 exposures on a 36-exposure 135 roll, and have the last one protected inside the takeup cassette when the film comes tight, allowing field reloads without a changing bag.

 

[koraks]

Looking forward to seeing the results! Sprocket hole exposures can be fun and the panoramic format of 35mm in a medium format back is quite nice.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Looking forward to seeing the results! Sprocket hole exposures can be fun and the panoramic format of 35mm in a medium format back is quite nice.

In the end, I plan to build a mask to, at least optionally, cover the sprocket holes as well as a drop-in mask for the waist level viewfinder to aid composing for the format. Mount a 50mm lens, and I've got a big, heavy, but relatively cheap Xpan equivalent (24x70 with 50mm isn't at all far from 24x72 with 45mm -- and there's a 65 for the RB67, as well as the 90 I've already got).