I agree,
I had been exclusively plastic reel until I took a darkroom course last fall
at the local art college. They only use stainless steel tanks and reels
(last way longer for an institutional environment). I was a little worried
at first that they'd be much harder to load. Yes, they are a bit harder to
load than plastic. However, I found the feel of loading them was a lot
nicer. Plus, I found that if I ever ran into a problem, it was much easier
to fix (just wind back before the problem and rewind). Once you get the hang
of the right ammount of bend (just enough to keep it stiff and to fit into
the reel) and the ammount of distance to hold the film from the reel (far
enough to give a bit of slack but not so much the you lose the bend in the
film) then you can load a reel very quickly with minimal handling (just the
edges).
The other big plus I found with SS reels was that you don't have to cut the
leader perfectly. I found that with plastic, if you didn't carefully cut the
leader straight and between 2 sprockets then you'd have a hard time getting
it started. With SS, you've got either a clip in the middle or the "snake
bite" that fits into the sprockets and holds everything in place nicely.
Definitley a SS convert here. Although I do load with my eyes open, so I
guess I'm still doing it wrong! Actually, if I was going to load in the
light (practice roll), I'd probably do it with my eyes closed, but in the
darkroom I leave them open.
Andrew "frugal" Dacey
frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tildefrugal.net/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Earl Dunbar" <edunbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 8:39 PM
Subject: [OM] Re: film development tank
>
> I found one of the the tricks to loading onto SS reels, =especially= roll
film, is to VERY slightly squeeze the edges of the film of the as you load
it, so as to create a slight bow in the film. Too much pressure and the
edges will not track properly through the spiral, too little and the same
result, "only different". Once you get the hang of it (practicing with
dummy rolls), it's slick. And I don't think I can do it with my eyes open!
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