Re: [Leica] reloadable cassettes

[Eric Welch <ewelch@neteze.com>]

At 10:55 AM 11/21/99 -0800, damian dlugolecki wrote:

>Another reason I prefer reloadable cassettes is to control the number of
>negatives so that one roll can be contact printed on 8x10 paper and can
>be stored in one file page.  No one mentioned this during the discussion
>and I wonder if I am perhaps missing something.

There's an easy way to get around that. Buy sleeves that hold 36 (six rows 
of six), or wind off one extra frame at the start or quit at 35 (seven rows 
of five). One thing I liked about the R4 and motors is it stops at 36. Just 
knock off an extra frame and it stops at the right spot. And by starting at 
two instead of one, you avoid having your first frame end up light struck 
from the bulk loading process. Nothing worse than having your first frame 
being a killer and a bit of the frame has non-image light ruining it.

>More than once I have dropped a cassette and had it pop open.  If anyone
>knows of a source of high quality cassettes I'd love to hear from you.

I used to use factory load cassettes. At the end of rewinding, I leave the 
leader out, and tear off the tongue. Then when rolling the film onto reels, 
I can connect it in the light. Once the light is out, I just have to grab 
the roll/reel and start rolling. No fumbling with hooking it up in the 
dark. (Not that it's that hard, just minimizing mistakes in the dark makes 
the work day go more pleasantly).  When I get to the end of the roll, I 
leave a good 1/2 inch sticking out of the film cassette. Then when I bulk 
load my film, I butt the end of the bulk film to the end of the film 
sticking out of the cassette, tape around it, close the lid and start 
rolling. This way, I have a film cartridge that has the name of the film on 
it, and it's even DX coded for use in cameras that have DX and it matches 
the film index I use to shoot.

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA

http://www.neteze.com/ewelch

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