Trimming film edges before loading them into the reel

I often use the 1500 series Jobo reels, and find that film cut off stright works best. (In 35mm that means an extra trim if the first cut crosses a perforation.)

The trick is to use the section of the reel that has a depression on the outside so you can touch the edge of the film. By tapping lightly on the edge of the film with your finger tip you can normally get it unstuck if it hangs up on one of the reel spokes. I find that after about 3 or 4 turns have been inserted, the film is held straight enough that getting stuck on the spokes is no longer possible.

The Jobo reels are so "slick" that I can generally just push the film in a foot at a time without having to rock the flanges back and forth.

The Patterson system is NOT interchangeable with the Jobo, and there have been several variants of the Patterson reels over the years. The A-P clone tanks are also made in a couple of variants, but the reels interchange freely. I dislike the modern Patterson tanks with the Giant cap that I find hard to get a good seal with quickly when I poor in the developer and want to quickly invert the tank, so if I were to get another patterson style tank it would probably be the AP-Classic style, but those seem to no longer show up in the 5 reel size

I've used Jobo reels since 2000. With 1500 reels I've always found it helpful to cut radiused corners and to roll the front edge of film the opposite way.
Using the larger 2500 reels/tanks helps as well, but obviously use more chemicals.

Thomas Bertilsson said:

You can't tell others to behave if you don't lead by example.
First you complain how much it hurts to be thrown rocks at, and then go ahead and throw rocks yourself.
WTH does organic food have to do with loading film reels?

Plastic reels can be problematic, and I like the suggestion of clipping the corners. It helped me a lot when I used Paterson style reels.

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I am on board with crop duster man.

I use both Jobo and Paterson tanks/reels. As mentioned, the Jobo system is smaller than the Paterson one. It seems that the Jobo chemical volumes are about the same as most metal tank systems and the Paterson ones are a little more -- this can be useful if using 1:50 Rodinal for example, in order to maintain developer volume per roll.

The Paterson reels load using a ratchet system consisting of a couple of small ball-bearings and a sloping plastic surface, against which the bearings and film are pressed during rotation of the reel-halves. The Jobo system has no built-in ratchet system, instead one uses finger pressure at the edge of the film to squeeze it against each reel-half in turn while they are partially rotated. Both systems work.

The various 'third-party' reels and tanks I have seen, use the Paterson sizes for reel and core diameters and a similar ratchet system. Some of the reels have a wider 'lead-in' flange, at the start of the spiral, which can make it easier to load 120 film - especially if the user has limited finger dexterity for some reason.

The idea that one should cut 120 film off the backing paper has never occurred to me before and I can think of no advantage in doing so. The film loads without problems using the factory-cut ends to the roll, in my experience. On the other hand, when using 135, I am careful to feel-and-trim the lead end of the film into a smooth shape to avoid any partially snipped perforations snagging anywhere.

Even though I am a proponent of SS reels and readily expound on their virtues, I do have an occasional need of plastic reels for 220 film(I started with plastic 50+ years ago). The one thing I have found that matters more than anything, is clean and dry reels work best, no matter what you do to the film. The ratchet balls must be devoid of any build up of chemicals and move freely in the slots, or you will not load film. Oh yeah, forget loading in a changing bag, that never worked for me. True, some films do give problems loading, but that is more a problem of them being left in camera for too long a period(usually), even "thin" based films load easily if you take your time, and practice good house keeping with your gear. My dark room(actually photography in general) is probably the only area in my life where I remain OCD (I'm retired and relaxed-finally) , I'm a bit helter-skelter with everything else in life now days.

My Jobo reels are from the early days and I never have a problem with loading. I would use them for color and sometimes B&W although I prefer SS for that. I never let photo flo or anything else touch my reels after the fix step. I would just seasaw the film in a bowl instead. Some of the older plastic reels, before I got into the Jobo system, yes, had to clip corners.

momus said:

I clipped the edges for years w/ 120. It works OK, but it makes it hard for my fingers to find out where the film edge actually is when starting to load it on the reel when it's all inside the change bag. Now I bend the film back against the curl the first few inches or so, and it works better. I found that it wasn't necessarily the edges that were the problem, it was the curl (especially w/ films like Shanghai GP3 that are really curly).

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I do something like this with 120 film too. Bending the film back at the two corners so they end up more or less straight makes all the difference. Just about 20mm is all it takes. And as previous posters have said, dryness is paramount. This can vary with the weather, so some people don't know what the problem is, not because of any special skill but just luck with the climate.

Thanks for sharing the idea of using nail clipper.

Bests,
Ashfaque