# Auto Loading Reels



## Jeff Canes (Oct 21, 2004)

I have been using the auto loads reel for 35mm, but the film (Efke & Kodak) tens to jam at about ¾ of a roll, with a test roll in room light it work ever time :angry1:, thought about switching to stainless but if autos make me swear stainless will too, End of rant.

So does anyone else have is problem?


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## Floyd (Oct 21, 2004)

Auto loading? I use a little palstic reel and then wind it by hand and put it ia a patterson tank to develop.


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## terri (Oct 22, 2004)

Ditto....plastic reel, Paterson tank.   What is this auto-reel you're speaking of?   Doesn't sound like it works very well.... :scratch:


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## oriecat (Oct 22, 2004)

I think he means the plastic ones.  I think they're called auto loading because you just put it in beginning, then it winds it into itself, as you spin it.  You know what I mean...

I use the plastic ones also.  I've tried using steel and I can never get it. :|


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## terri (Oct 22, 2004)

I thought the steel ones worked basically in the same manner.... ?   Ah, what the hell do I know?      When I took the darkroom class I was given a steel one to try but it seemed impossibly clumsy to me.   And I remember thinking, I can't get this puppy to work while I'm staring at it, how am I supposed to do it in pitch darkness??   :?  So I went out and bought my own.   

Note: I'm still clumsy but that's because, well, I'm basically clumsy, and also because I'm new.


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## oriecat (Oct 22, 2004)

No, the steel ones are different.  You have to clip the film to the middle pole and then manually spool it outward in between the edges.   Steel you start in and move out.  Plastic you start out and it moves it in for you.


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## Walt (Oct 22, 2004)

Jeff Canes said:
			
		

> So does anyone else have is problem?


Yup! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I never have a problem with 120 though.


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## Jeff Canes (Oct 22, 2004)

oriecat said:
			
		

> I think he means the plastic ones.  I think they're called auto loading because you just put it in beginning, then it winds it into itself, as you spin it.  You know what I mean...
> 
> I use the plastic ones also.  I've tried using steel and I can never get it. :|


 
Yep, those are the ones. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/items/40287.jpg
Tried the stainless a few times years ago back in high school, had to switched to a film apron. Apron where very easy use. Unfortunately Kodak has stop making them. Freestyle Photo still sale them but their quality is very poor. A bad apron will cause damage to the film. http://www.freestylephoto.biz/images/prod/50135.jpg , so I need to practice or take the film to the lab as I did before the people of TPF inspired me to do it myself


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## ksmattfish (Oct 22, 2004)

Buy *Hewes* brand 35mm stainless steel reels.  Instead of a clip they have 2 prongs that fit in the film's sprocket holes.  Easy to get started and it holds the film level to the reel for easy loading.  They cost more, but well worth it if you use SS.


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## Soulreaver (Oct 25, 2004)

I use steel.I never have trouble with my own reel, but every time I try to use the ones @ school its pure hell, cant get the film in the reel in less than 30 min  :?


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## ksmattfish (Oct 26, 2004)

Something to watch out with used steel reels (like in school or public darkrroms, or purchased used) is that they could be slightly bent from being dropped.  They may not seem damaged, but if you get a slightly bent SS reel, it'll be hell trying to load it. 

Walt said  





> I never have a problem with 120 though.



Yeah, another benefit of medium format (besides the awesome picture quality) is that I feel it's a lot easier to handle the big film and negs.  I embarassed myself in front of my students when I went to show them how to develop 35mm film.  I'd only been using 120 and 4x5 for about a year, so when I went to load the 35mm film onto the reel without any recent practicing, I had a heck of a time.


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## terri (Oct 26, 2004)

I had the WORST time with 120 on a plastic reel.   In the end I had to give it up and turn it over to my husband (and was in a rotten mood for the rest of the day, because now I'm freaked out by it).   

We had run a test roll through an old Kodak A1 to check for light leaks in the bellows.   I wanted to develop it at home.   I sat and practiced on an exposed roll of Konica IR, using my changing bag.   It practically leaped on, and I did it easily 3-4 times and thought I was the shizzit, like I was actually getting a feel for it.   Well, the TriX 320 had a totally different feel in my hands.   It felt thinner, and kept wanting to bend, and as careful as I was with it, it continued to slip.  There were a few times I felt like I got it started but it refused to advance, and when I tried to adjust it slipped off again.   I was being as patient and careful as possible, but after about an hour, there was nothing else I could try, plus my hands were getting sweaty in that bag, making handling even more difficult.   I gave up. :x 

It was awful and now I'm intimidated by 120, which I really hate to have happen because I'm intimidated enough by all of it.    :?   Can films vary so widely in thickness that it affects handling like this?


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## oriecat (Oct 26, 2004)

I sometimes have trouble getting 120 started too.  And I can't even figure out what the problem is (probably cause it's like dark down there! ) because all of it sudden something clicks and then it goes zip right in.  I actually was having trouble getting the film to pass the ball bearings, so I popped them out on one of my spools and it seemed to work better so now I just leave that one at 120 size.


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## terri (Oct 26, 2004)

Really?  You popped out the ball bearings, eh?   hmmm....I wonder if that would have helped me that day.   Like I said, one film practically fed itself on, but the next was hopeless.   I was ready to smash the whole thing to pieces, I was so frustrated.   But I knew I'd never get it on then.


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## telex95 (Nov 2, 2004)

I had the same experience.  My Kodak film jamming 3/4 of the way with the plastic reel.

It seems to me the stainless steel is harding to use, because there's a chance that you would end up winding the film too tight.  That's what happened to my classmate, and the surface of her film was touching, and didn't develop well.

However, my University recommands their students to use stainless reel only.  I don't really understand why or the purpose of this.


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