Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/24

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Subject: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga
From: Pete Su <psu_13@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 16:31:52 -0800 (PST)

For most of the 5 or 6 years that I've been back into darkroom work, I've used
either Paterson or Jobo plastic tanks and reels. For 35mm work, they are easy
to work with and durable. I had no problems.

But, when I started branching out into 120, I found that they were just totally
unusable.

Some background: I'm not the most dextrous person on the planet. I just can't
abide any scheme for loading that involves trimming the negatives with high
precision. Plastic reels *can* work well with 120 film *if* you can trim them
so the corners don't get caught on the reel and jam things. But I just can't do
this.

It all finally came to a head when I turned the lights on and ruins 3 rolls of
film (from Paris no less) after having spent 45 minutes trying to get a last
roll onto the reel.

So clearly the thing to do was investigate metal reels.

Having obtained a Hewes 120 metal reel and a no-name tank from Calumet, I
proceeded to find that once you practice a bit, metal reels are incredibly easy
for 120 when compared to plastic. Just don't try and clip the film in the
middle of the reel. If you place the film in the right spot, and hold it there
with your thumb, it practically walks onto the reel by itself.

But, one thing that bugged me was that the metal tanks fill much more slowly
than Paterson and Jobo tanks. So the next thing to investigate was that new
Jobo metal reels that work in their plastic tanks with the plastic center
cores. These are made by Hewes for Jobo, and I figured I'd try them to hold
onto the fast fill times when using a lot of developer (a liter or more). I
know at this point the metal tank fanatics are questioning my sanity.

The good news: the 120 reels work great.

The bad news: the 35mm reels are impossible. The rail spacing and thickness is
such that 35mm film gets caught on the rails very easily, and you end up with
crooked film.

So after all this I've ended up back with Hewes 35mm reels and normal metal
tanks. The Hewes 35mm reels load almost as nicely as their 120 reels. So add me
to the list of people who will tell you to "just buy Hewes".

I even learned how to double roll the film (double rolling 120 is fun),
although I don't know if I'd try it on anything I really care about.

Summary for the archives:

1. plastic reels for 35mm: good
2. plastic reels for 120: bad
3. Hewes metal reels for 120: great
4. Jobo 1566 metal reels for 120 in plastic tanks: good.
5. Jobo 1565 metal reels for 35mm in plastic tanks: bad.
6. Hewes 35mm reels: great.

Pete



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Replies: Reply from Bill Satterfield <cwsat@istate.net> (Re: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga)
Reply from "Don" <don.ro@verizon.net> (Re: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga)
Reply from "Don" <don.ro@verizon.net> (Re: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga)
Reply from "Joseph Codispoti" <joecodi@clearsightusa.com> (Re: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga)