Cassette capsules that you can't write on to say: "Exposed"

[TomB_tx]

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I'm with Pico. For 50 years I've rewound fully into the cassette, and, if a prepackaged roll, just used a bottle opener to remove an end (either in darkroom or changing bag). We used to think the more the film squeezed through the felt light trap, the more likely a stray dust grit would scratch it.

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[pico]

I'm with Pico. For 50 years I've rewound fully into the cassette, and, if a prepackaged roll, just used a bottle opener to remove an end (either in darkroom or changing bag). We used to think the more the film squeezed through the felt light trap, the more likely a stray dust grit would scratch it.

 

Yes, me too, but Wilson has limited access to a proper darkroom. I can appreciate his position. In fact, I rather admire  his economical approach compared to my experience of processing eight rolls at a time, using the old 'whack the cartridge on the bench' to open the cartridge in a total dark developing chamber. (Cramped, smelly, ugh.)

 

Aside: I met a photographer in rural France in 1965 who is now of some renown. He had the most modest 35mm setup I've ever seen and he produced wonderful work. He had a Leitz Valoy, and his final prints of which there were few were washed on the cement rain runoff ledge of his window. He's been my hero since.

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[zeitz]

I used Doug's method of putting making tape on the canister before it is exposed and taking it off when it the film is removed from the canister.  I can tell at a glance which canisters are candidates for the next roll.  But I also always roll the film all the way into the cassette.  I don't have a proper darkroom either.  I use a changing bag.  One advantage is that the spool and film can't get away from you.

[willeica]

+ 1 for winding the film in all of the way. If really you want to identify the canisters afterwards as containing exposed film, try these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivy-8mm-Dia-Labels-232730/dp/B003620EIC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504042844&sr=8-2&keywords=red+stickers+dots

 

William

[Guest]

If you haven't put a ring of normal, most common scotch tape on each canister before placing them in your bag to go shooting, which you remove when putting the exposed film back in (within a second),

then bite the cap for the exposed film's canister in order to mark it - as an emergency.

 

But a ring of scotch tape on all canisters before chucking the paper-boxes around them is done in no time. Of cause you can attach this way the top of the paper-box, to know later what film you have in your hand without opening the canister.

 

For b/w in your own dark-room I go like Tom, but as far as color is concerned, some labs put odd instruments into the cartridge to retrieve the end, which might scratch the film.

[wlaidlaw]

If you use a Rondinax daylight tank like I do, winding the film all the way in is the last thing you want to do. 

 

Wilson

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Can't you just cut or tear off the narrow leader of the exposed film? 

[philipus]

Very similar to what I do. I use simple masking tape, the beige kind used for painting, and put a strip on each roll onto which I write what film it is, for instance 3X for Tri-X or FSR400 for Fuji Superia 400. I have a range of codes.

 

Then when I load the film in the camea I put the sticker on the bottom plate and write the camera used, what ISO or EI I shoot the film at and the event, situation or date. Films often last for more days/events so I typically add a word or two to describe each. I sometimes also write which lens(es) I used.

 

I don't mind leaving the leader in or out afterwards. It's often evident if the film has been loaded through scratches or bends on the leader.

 

I put the piece of tape in a simple book and then I use the information on it regarding film code, ISO/EI and camera used as part of the name of the folder to which I scan the images. 

 

Sounds complex but it's very straight forward. And works for me, at least.

br

philip

 

I put a strip of blue painter's masking tape labeled with the film type, the ISO I anticipate using and the number of exposures, e.g., TX40020, on the bottom of the camera when I load it. When I finish the roll I take the tape off the camera and wrap it around the film container. This helps when I develop the film, of course, but it also helps when I'm out shooting because I usually carry two Barnack bodies and don't remember what film is in which.

[wlaidlaw]

Have just spent a fruitless hour fishing, with a leader catching device, for the end of a Fomapan 200 film, that I inadvertently would all the way back into the cassette. This is so that I can develop it in my Rondinax 35U daylight tank, I now know why I am so careful not to wind the leader in. I did not feel and hear usual crackle of the film, which was a very tight one to rewind, detaching from the wind on spool on my IIIg, so kept winding. I thought I had my changing bag in France but I can't find it, so it must be back in the UK. It will just have to wait to get developed. 

 

Wilson

[mikemgb]

Wilson, three methods you might want to try:

 

 

 

[Ko.Fe.]

My exposed films have no leader. How else could you rewind film in Leica? 

 

And why any other methods needed if opening it with side of scissors, just like opening non-Canadian beer bottle, works best in the darkroom?

 

I just did two C-41 films yesterday.

 

And my BW film is self-loaded with reusable cassettes.  Some of them twist to open, just like Canadian beer bottle cap. 

 

If all of it impossible, use stickers. Winogrand used it for the hundreds of thousands films. It worked for him...

[wlaidlaw]

My exposed films have no leader. How else could you rewind film in Leica? 

 

And why any other methods needed if opening it with side of scissors, just like opening non-Canadian beer bottle, works best in the darkroom?

 

I just did two C-41 films yesterday.

 

And my BW film is self-loaded with reusable cassettes.  Some of them twist to open, just like Canadian beer bottle cap. 

 

If all of it impossible, use stickers. Winogrand used it for the hundreds of thousands films. It worked for him...

 

You need the cassette unopened and with a leader poking out to use it in a Rondinax daylight developing tank. It winds into the spiral only from an unopened cassette and when you have all the film in the spiral, you push up a guillotine, which cuts the film off the cassette. Usually there is no problem leaving the cassette like this when you rewind the film. You can both hear it and feel it detaching from the wind on spool at which point you stop rewinding. It was just that this was a very tight cassette and I neither felt nor heard it detach from the wind on spool. I am afraid I fail to see what Windogrand has to do with it. 

 

Wilson

[Martin B]

I don't like the white (or even transparent) film carrier boxes at all. Not sure which cost cutting reason made film manufacturers switch from the older type black film cartridges to the newer ones. The black ones didn't let any light in and sealed also very well with the lid. I roll a lot of film myself, and I use these older black cartridges to put the film cassettes into. I numbered the cartridges according to the numbered Kalt film cassettes with a silver pen marker. I never mark my cartridges for exposed or unexposed - in case I forget, the box is either empty meaning the film is currently in the camera, or it has a roll of film in it with strip still outside (unexposed) or fully retracted (exposed). 

[MarkP]

Mini Sharpie pen in my camera bag. It writes on almost anything.

 

http://www.sharpie.com/sharpie/mini/SHMiniBlackFine.html

[Guest]

 

@Wilson,

 

The production of black film cans had to be converted to transparent film cans, because too many happy campers mistook pepper and salt, not to mention chili, from their converted film cans.

 

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