You learn something new every day.

I just wanted to thank a poster here in the MF forum for solving a mystery that I have wondered about for years. Not too too much but wondered about. I do not remember the thread, nor the poster but here it is...

Thank You.

I have like 900 Hasselblad A12 backs of vintages from the early 80's through the early 2000's - All acquired brand new by me. All lovingly cared for and maintained. All in fantastic shape. Some of them have probably only been used a dozen times. Some thousands of rolls.

I am primarily a Kodak film shooter but have on occasion used Ilford either for testing or for a special purpose (Like my rare need for N- development in Pyro - works better than TXP for my intents). Anyway along with the countless Kodak 120 take-up spools I have a couple of Ilford take-up spools of random vintages that are mixed up in a big box.

Every once in a blue moon with no specific correlation to any A12 back - could be an old one, could be a brand new one, I have uneven spacing between frames - not a disaster, just a mystery.

Someone mentioned a week ago or so that incorrectly sized Ilford spools caused this - I went and looked and guess what - some of the Ilford spools are different in diameter.

I did two tests over the last week and bingo - it was the spools.

RB

Interesting. Are you talking about the spool end or the core?

fotch said:

Interesting. Are you talking about the spool end or the core?

Click to expand...

I am talking about the center of the black plastic thingys that come with the film. I guess that might be called the core.

RB

Hi RB,
were these spools from an older vintage? I myself do also have a nice collection of Fuji and Ilford spools (by the way, I like the Fuji spools way more) and wonder whether this would concern me as my spools aren´t older than 2004 or so.
Regards, Benjamin.

By the way, your website is great!

Slixtiesix said:

Hi RB,
were these spools from an older vintage? I myself do also have a nice collection of Fuji and Ilford spools (by the way, I like the Fuji spools way more) and wonder whether this would concern me as my spools aren´t older than 2004 or so.
Regards, Benjamin.

By the way, your website is great!

Click to expand...

My spools are probably older, it is impossible for me to tell. I probably have a mix. The poster that I was thanking did mention that Ilford corrected the problem but I have no idea when that happened.

RB

It happened quite a few years ago now.
I forgot when exactly, but it was about 2001 - 2003. So stock from that period could still have an off-spec spool. Later Ilford film will be on a correct spool.


Ilford then wrote:

ILFORD is aware of the problem in Hasselblad backs. It comes down to the spools, some of which were out of spec, causing inconsistent advance.

We have switched suppliers of spools, so this should not be an issue in the future. In the meantime, it is the takeup spool that is critical, so if you can, use a spool that has not caused problems.

The new ILFORD spools will look quite different from the old design. The old design had a scalloped shape around the slit, the new ones are a straight line.

David Carper
ILFORD Technical Service

So there is a way to recognize spools you better not use as take up spools in Hasselblads.