Which 35mm reels are most foolproof?

Sirius Glass said:

Left handed people are the only ones in their right mind.

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I absolutely agree.

MattKing said:

There

There is at least a possibility that a nearly 50 year old reel might exhibit some issues that a newer one would not .
And vice versa.
If the reels are damp or are dirty, have a residue on them or for any reason aren't smooth, it is much more likely that the film will stick to them.
All that being said though, once in a while the only rational explanation for a recalcitrant film and reel is that they have been hexed!

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Lol that's definitely true! The reel looks clean and without any signs of wear or damages though, plastic feels like new (not brittle or anything) and the metal balls are in perfect condition as well. I've thoroughly cleaned them with hot water and dishwashing detergent before starting to use it myself, just to make sure.
I always make sure the reel is completely dry before I spool the film, as I have experienced (and probably everyone else already knew) that moisture can make spooling the film very difficult (eg my sweaty hands inside the dark bag).

Next time I'll make sure that I cut off / straighten the strongly curved part at the beginning of the film (thanks @grain elevator), that could be something which I didn't pay too much attention to before.

Loading a bent or badly made stainless reel is a pain. All my 35 was Nikkor Stainless and most 120 was King Concept.I disagree about buying used. Lots of them in estate sales or people leaving film. Just dropping a quality reel won't usually ruin it but I've had really bad cheap new ones.

Practice in daylight. Close your eyes and open them to see why you're stuck. If it just won't go you have the reel backward. LOL With just 1 piece there is nothing to go wrong.

Gabriel, wire reels probably take more practice but I find faster to load. Wire reels require getting film lead centered and is probably 80% of the learning curve. Loading wire reels you can crimp the film on the first shot but after time and practice this is minimal and is usually on the film leader. Buying used reels is a crap shoot, I have a about 20 reels 35mm and 120 I bought used I would not give away. Hewes in my opinion are the best wire reels. I did use plastic many years back and did not like them. A lot of good advice here from everyone, good luck finding what works best for you.

A newbie tidbit: I was struggling to learn how to load a Paterson reel, using a very old junk roll of 135 film.
Horribly disappointing, after all the reading I had done on the technique.

As some point I gave up practicing, and got to load some fresher stock (still a few years old).
It loaded effortlessly, to my amazement!

My ancient practice film was working against me in making the reel work properly.
Or, it may have forced me to have more discipline, so that, eventually, my technique applied to good stock was better?

The way the reel is held also seems to matter. I copied a YT video hand position, which gave me better control.

We had a varied collection of 35mm SS reels for the students -- inexpensive ones from Freestyle. Worked fine once the students got the hang of them. I'd go through them regularly, straightening out the ones I could, toss the ones I could not. Buy a bunch more occasionally. Then the quality control started to slip and I was rejecting new ones.

We finally spent the bucks to get 24 Hewes 35mm reels and student frustration went down and success rate went up.

The reels by far that I find easiest to load are plastic ones for Patterson tanks. But ones I like they are not made by Patterson, but by Samigon and are sometimes referred to as autoload reels. The critical difference is that in the area the film is inserted into the reel the lip is longer and it makes all the difference. As far as I am concerned this is how the plastic reels should have been designed in the first place, they are almost fool proof. I have not used them, but photos of AP reels seem similar. I have used metal reels and they are not bad, but would still occasionally encounter a problem with them especially with film that has a thin polyester base like Rollei IR 400. An advantage of plastic reels is that they can be adjusted to accommodate different film sizes. A weakness of the plastic reels is that they have to be completely dry.

Easiest to load is not not a reel, a Kodacraft film apron, tanks and aprons show up on bay. When developing 2 or more rolls there is a metal spacer that separates the rolls. We used Kodacraft in high school, fool proof.

Paul Howell said:

Easiest to load is not not a reel, a Kodacraft film apron, tanks and aprons show up on bay. When developing 2 or more rolls there is a metal spacer that separates the rolls. We used Kodacraft in high school, fool proof.
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A former teacher gave this very setup (with its printed instructions!), but as I am new to developing I did not get the nerve to use them yet!

It's been 50 years, but very easy, just roll your film up, but the apron in the tank, fill it with pre measured developer put the lid on. As I recall did not come with a cap for inversion agitation, just slouch the developer around a bit. I would use a developer a little on the long side like D76 1:1 as it will take a bit longer to drain when completed than a Patterson tank, about the same as most stainless steel tanks.

Vaughn said:

We had a varied collection of 35mm SS reels for the students -- inexpensive ones from Freestyle. Worked fine once the students got the hang of them. I'd go through them regularly, straightening out the ones I could, toss the ones I could not. Buy a bunch more occasionally. Then the quality control started to slip and I was rejecting new ones.

We finally spent the bucks to get 24 Hewes 35mm reels and student frustration went down and success rate went up.

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Hands down my favorite 35mm reels.

Roger

Paul Howell said:

Easiest to load is not not a reel, a Kodacraft film apron, tanks and aprons show up on bay. When developing 2 or more rolls there is a metal spacer that separates the rolls. We used Kodacraft in high school, fool proof.
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They made those in 120/620 and 127 size as well (the 127 are fairly rare these days). I've used an apron once; it left unfixed spots along both edges of the 120 roll and I found it harder to handle in the dark than loading the 120 film on a genuine Patterson reel.

With a little initial practice undented stainless steel reels... Been using them for 50yrs...

The Kodacraft aprons were also made in 116/616 size - if anyone has one of those, we need to talk!
Perfect for old, incredibly curly film.