Steel Reels....Real Hard? MF film

[BWGirl]

Thanks Tammy! haha
Help is on the way in the form of a fellow APUGer who has a greed to give me a hands on demo! Ah!
I am such a visual learner (my daughter insists that I'm tad ADD) that written instructions usually take the form of "Now take the blah blah..." I try! Augh!!
Thanks for the instructions and tips, and moral support!!

 

[VoidoidRamone]

I use both steel and plastic reels, for me, steel is harder to load with both, but easier for MF than 35mm. Something I would recommend looking into is the Arista premium plastic reels- I think they are actually Beseler, but sold by Freestyle under the Arista name. These have plastic "guides" that go across the reel to help "facilitate loading", I've never messed up a roll using these- and I'm pretty sure they are cheaper than almost any other reel.
-Grant

 

[dancqu]

...trying to get the "_______!!" end of the film in the "________!!" retaining clip!
Chuck

As disconcerting as it may sound, you must face up to
a fact of life. Some manufacturers turn out lousy gear.

I am, after many years, still under the impression that the
Nikor SS tanks and reels were the first of that type marketed.
Those tanks and reels were likely well made and with a little
practice, easy to load.

I've a Hewes and two Kindermann reels at my side as I
type. The Hewes is of lighter gauge SS and uses a spring
wire clip. The two Kindermanns are of heavier gauge. One
uses a lift sheet spring and puncture and the other a slip
in, wrap over and puncture, method of attachment.

Those two brands are the only ones I can recommend. Dan

 

[Mark Layne]

Loading Reels

The way to learn the art of loading SS reels is with a 127 reel and a roll of Efke 100. If you can load that you can load anything.
I have never been able to get one of these onto a plastic reel (which I often use)
Mark

 

[rbarker]

Oops. One other potential gremlin I forgot to mention earlier. When you're first placing the leading edge of the film under the retainer clip, some films, particularly those with a thin base, will tend to curl down, toward the emulstion side - rather like a towel draped lengthwise over a peg. That droop may cause the film to miss the throat of the loading spiral, and may cause a kink in the film as you proceed to load (one source of those niggly little half moons).

The key is to be sure that you can feel both edges of the film through the center space of the reel. If not, you may need to reach underneach and lift the corners into place before you start to load - again, making sure the film is centered.

 

[k_jupiter]

The way to learn the art of loading SS reels is with a 127 reel and a roll of Efke 100. If you can load that you can load anything.
I have never been able to get one of these onto a plastic reel (which I often use)
Mark

I can load that.

The only reason I got a Patterson tank was because of the inability to find 127 steel reels, but that has been rectified. Nothing worse than 127 Efke on plastic reels. (Except 120 Efke on plastic reels)(curl baby, curl!).

tim in san jose

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

This might be slightly irrelevant at this point but.. The advice to listen while you load the film is absolutely invaluable.. Crinkling/binding/bending and nasty noises are no good. I find it easier to load 120 on stainless as opposed to plastic and the easiest stainless reels for me are the Hewes brand.

Once you learn how to load a Hewes, you can load just about anything..
Just my $0.02 as i've smashed many a plastic reel...

 

[Dr.Kollig]

Kindermann used to sell tools for loading their SS reels, one for 135 film, one for 120 film, I do not know, if they still do. These days I do all my 120 stuff in the big Jobo 2500 reels, they are MUCH better than the 1500 reels. In the 1500 tanks I use Hewes reels for 135 films.

Regards,

Wolfram