Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/02

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Subject: [Leica] bulk loading
From: dorysrus at mindspring.com (Don Dory)
Date: Fri Jul 2 16:26:56 2004

Tom,
Super XX sounds like a wonderful portrait film.  Details as to who sells
it would be quite useful.  Thank you for the heads up.

Don
Dorysrus@mindsrpring.com

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+dorysrus=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf
Of TTAbrahams@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 6:14 PM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: Re: [Leica] bulk loading

Feli, 
I bulkload odd films like movie-tock (Super XX, Agfapan 250 and
Tech-Pan).  
Rather than use a bulk loader I go into the darkroom and just unwind the
film 
out of the can, extend my arms fully and chop of the film. This gives me
about 
37-38 exposures per strip - roughly 67-68 inches of film. I use the
Leica 
IXMOO cassettes - all metal and the lock on the regular baseplate (older
type) 
will open the cassette and there is no problem with scratches as the
opening is 
big enough (8mm) to let the film clear the edges. You do need to cut a
sharp 
V-shaped end for the spool on these - after a while you get the hang of
it and 
there is less bleeding from fingertips "Oh, that was not the film, that
was a 
finger!". The old Leica template, ABLOON, had a nice "shaper" for that
and I 
simply made my own from a piece of brass plate.
 For general films like TX and ACROS I use pre-loaded stock. Quicker and

easier and the IXMOO cassettes are difficult to explain to Airport
Security 
Guards. It has three different components, an outside shell, an inside
shell and a 
center spool - all are made from metal and the weight is noticeable and
on the 
X-ray it looks quite suspicious. It is a very complex piece, springs and

catches galore and you better get some reject film to try with first.
 The movie-stock is interesting - at the moment I am shooting Super XX
and 
rating it at 250. Great film - not as fine grained as Tri-X but with an
extended 
mid tone, virtually no "shoulder"  tons of details in the highlight
areas. If 
you treat it like Tri-X and cut the time by 10-15% (D76 1:1 at 8,5
minutes) 
you are in the ballpark. I still have a 100 ft roll of Panatomic-X in my

freezer that I will use up this summer. I might need to add some Kodak
Anti-Fog 
tablets to the developer, but even after 20+ years it should give me
good 
negatives. You can usually find the Leica cassettes at swap-meet for
reasonable 
prices, but beware, the only ones that work on the M's are the ones with
the chrome 
"knobs" on them. The ones with black paint knobs work on screw-mount
bodies, 
but not on the M's  as they are 2mm taller. The IXMOO (chrome knob) will
work 
on both screw and M-mounts. Movie-stock comes in 400ft cans and I
usually get 
about 75-79 rolls out of one can and I keep 80 of these cassettes around
for 
that. A couple of hours work to load them all and then you can shoot to
your 
hearts content. They are heavy though and ? dozen in your pocket makes
you list 
noticeably! They are absolutely light tight and never a scratch. They
are also 
great for short pieces of film - testing a developer or a lens.
Tom A
--------------------------
Tom Abrahamsson
Vancouver, BC
Canada
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In reply to: Message from TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com) ([Leica] bulk loading)