Posts tagged film

Roll Film!

Roll #93 was my last pre-rolled dose of Tri-X. From this point on, I’ll be rolling my own to save a bit of dough and reduce the amount of waste I’m creating. I’m also hoping the experience will make me hard and tough like the Marlboro Man. Only without the cancer part.

This is the rig, an Arista Bobinquick-135 Junior. When you plunk down your $54.00 for a 100’ roll of Tri-X, it actually comes in a metal can. A quite useful metal can that could hold all sorts of things. Pretty nice.

Loading the spool into the machine needs to be done in the dark. In my case, I used my usual changing bag and had plenty of room. It seemed a little dicey initially since I couldn’t do a dry run and I wasn’t sure what would be waiting for me inside that can. Well… obviously, I knew there would be a big roll of film in there somewhere. But what else? More than likely, it would not be a breakfast sausage or a porcupine (no way they’d fit). Beyond that was anyone’s guess though.

As it turns out, the film is wrapped loosely in an unsealed plastic bag and the leading edge is taped to the spool. Removing the film from the bag and the tape by feel alone wasn’t a problem. The only tricky part turned out to be getting the end threaded into the loader’s delivery channel. Once this was done, the spool itself went in fine and I replaced the side panel. Now light tight, I could remove the loader from the changing bag and I was ready to roll.

Rolling is straightforward. First, you set that combination lock style knob you see there with the numbers so the white arrows line up. Then you take one of the re-usuable cassettes, twist the end off, remove the spool and tape it to the leading edge of the film inside the loader. Be sure to wrap the tape all the way around the spool so it makes contact with both sides of the film. WIth that done, you put the spool back in the cassette, replace the end cap, and pop it into a little recessed compartment underneath where you see the film protruding in the picture above.

Now, just close the lid on the loader, put the crank back on (which extends through the cassette spool inside) and crank away. The combo lock knob will turn as you crank letting you know how many exposures you’ve got in the cassette. Once it hits 38 (or however may frames you want on the roll), stop, remove the crank, open the lid back up and cut the film. One fresh roll of Tri-X ready to go.

I’ve only rolled 8 of the approximately 20 rolls I’ll get from the spool, but I’d say it took less than a minute to do each roll once I got the hang of it. So, including loading the machine with the 100’ spool, the whole process would conservatively take less than 30 minutes for 20 rolls. At the rate I’m shooting, I’d have to do this once every 6 or 7 weeks. No big whoop. Definitely money well spent.

Now I’m off to go rope some cattle, drink some whiskey, and start a bar fight I know I’ll win.

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In case anyone was wondering, all the above picture illustrations were taken with my phone.