Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Oh, yes. Put those stainless steel reels, tanks and rod in the wife's dishwasher to get rid of any chemical residue but take them out before they hit the dry cycle and use a clean cloth to wipe them dry so chemicals from the water do not evaporate out and contaminate the developer at the next session. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pete Su" <psu_13@yahoo.com> To: "leica" <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 6:31 PM Subject: [Leica] OT: Developing reels: a Saga > 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 > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games > http://sports.yahoo.com > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html