I've decided to do my own B&W again after a long hiatus. One question. I want to rewind on my M6s so that the film leader is still out of the cartridge. Is there a way to "feel" this out when you are rewinding (like slightly tensioning the rewind knob and looking for a loss of spring tension?). Trimming the film leader in the light with a razor sharp pair of scissors is much more preferable to trimming in the dark.

Thanks,

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002

Answers

John:

I'm really surprised by this post coming from you! Of course you can "feel" the leader just as it comes off the take-up spool; that's what the rough spot is just before you have no tension on the rewind knob. By stopping there the leader will be left out of the cannister!

???,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 20, 2002.

Put your ear close to the camera back and rewind the film slowly but evenly; you're there when you hear a click--that's the sound of the curled-up film leader disengaging from the spool.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), February 20, 2002.

I gave up leaving leaders out a while back because there were times when I couldn't tell the unexposed rolls from the exposed ones I'd taken out in mid-roll and forgot to mark. Got a little device called a Kodak film leader retriever, which works quite well, usually on the 1st try.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

You can also use the count , figure out how many turns you do with a 36exp roll and make a mental note for later use .

-- Charles C. Stirk Jr. (ccstirkjr@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

Hi John,

You can definetly feel the differance in tension when rewinding the film. The only time I leave the leader out is when I am changing film in mid roll. I guess I could solve that problem by buying another body. :-) I process my own B&W film. I rewind the film all the way into the canister, take it into the darkroom, open the canister with a bottle opener, and cut the leader with scissors. With a little practice it is easy to do. Just make sure you trim the sides of the end in the event you cut at a perforation. Partial perforations will hang up when loading the reel.

Hope this helps. Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@adelphia.net), February 20, 2002.

Gee Jay, I thought I was the only one to have half a dozen partial unmarked rolls in my bag.

Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@adelphia.net), February 20, 2002.

Well it already takes 3 hands to load a Leica so marking the cassette sometimes gets left for later :>)

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

There are a few things I do to keep from mixing up partially-exposed, fully-exposed, and unexposed rolls. The most reliable is to use a Sharpie to mark the exposure # to wind to and the EI on the leader of a partially-exposed roll. I also tend to wrap the leader the wrong way around the cassette as a more obvious (though less reliable) sign.

For fully-exposed rolls, I write the EI and make a sharp fold/crease in the leader. Then it's obvious that I shouldn't reload and re-expose that roll.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), February 20, 2002.

I have to say that I've never seen the point of leaving film leaders out - seems to me to just create the potential for disaster - I just trim the corners off the film in the changing bag. However, if you do want to pull the leader out again, I can highly recommend the Ilford film retriever - about £12 and absolutely flawless in operation (I haven't used, or even seen the Kodak version so I can't comment). Don't, whatever you do, get a cheap copy: they're a nightmare!!

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), February 20, 2002.

Steve and Jay, The way I figure out to resolve markings of unexposed rolls is "extra backup bodies", a good excuse to buy more M bodies and leave the films inside. So there're half dozen M bodies with half-dozen half-exposed films inside. I bet the bodies should be M2,M3,M4,M5,M6,M6TTL, for meterless 3 you maight want to load negatives and the last 3 with meters, load with slides. ^^

-- Fred Ouyang (yo54@columbia.edu), February 20, 2002.

John-

Just trim in the changing bag. I don't have any problems and I still have all my fingers... Besides, getting the film past the film gate after its been wound up tight is a pain. I'd be more worried about putting my finger through the shutter curtain than I would about cutting myself.

-- jeff (debontekou@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

I knew I should've gotten into a lab like my sister. Her lab in Montreal (Neuro-peptides) has a darkroom with a rotating door and night vision goggles. Talk about hi-tech. On the related subject... has anyone ever thought about getting IR illuminator night vision goggles for use in the darkroom? I think the generation 1 goggles are pretty cheap now and have a gain of 30 000X. gen 3 is up to 90 000X.

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

I use a pair of bandage scissors in the darkroom for film cutting. They have a big blunt rounded tip like some sort of animal bill (platypus?) that makes it pretty unlikely that I could get hurt with them. I've never had a problem.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), February 20, 2002.

Mike Dixon wrote:

There are a few things I do to keep from mixing up partially- exposed, fully-exposed, and unexposed rolls

Yeah, me too. I use little sticker dots to tell me the degree of pushing/pulling that a particular film has received. Green dot for normal, yellow dot for 1 stop push, blue dot for 2 stop push, red dot for 3 stop push. When I figure this leader thing out I'll be using the dots to tape the leaders to the canisters. Cheap (the dots are free courtesy of the department) and foolproof.

BTW: Congrats to Mike Dixon on procuring the user 75 lux. We were with you all the way (at least in spirit if not monetarily). If my understanding is correct, Jack and a few principles have absorbed the cost already and any contributions would be "retroactive" to spreading the costs out. Who knows... I might contribute at a later date... So what do you plan to do about the absence of the 75 framelines in your M3?

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

"So what do you plan to do about the absence of the 75 framelines in your M3?"

I have a little shoe-mount 35/80 accessory finder for my Kodak Retina that I'll use until I get a good feel for where the lines should be. After some practice, I suspect I'll be able to accurately estimate the coverage using the 50 framelines as a guide. It's not like any of the framelines are precise all the time . . .

And thank you for your support (moral and otherwise).

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), February 20, 2002.

Okay, maybe I'm a being a smart-ass but I don't see how anyone could mistake a partially exposed film for an unexposed film. The take-up spool in the M puts an opposite curl in the film and leader, so it's obvious which is which.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

Ray

The problem has less to do with mistaking partial rolls with unexposed films, its more a problem of switching films mid roll and being to busy shooting and forgeting to mark the partial roll with the last frame used.

Fred, I like the way you think.

Steve

-- Steve Belden (otterpond@adelphia.net), February 20, 2002.