Can anyone recommend a film fishing tool for extracting an over rewound leader from a 135 cassette?

[wlaidlaw]

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Can anyone please recommend an effective film fishing tool, for extracting an over rewound leader from a 135 cassette? I had a plastic one of these some years ago and threw it away as being 100% unsuccessful. I had the wrong film in my M4-P, unexposed from earlier this year (1600 ISO Fujicolor) so rewound it to replace with 200 ISO colour negative but I did not detect the film unlatching from the wind on spool like I normally can and it has disappeared inside the cassette. I am guessing this may be because the 1600 ISO uses a very thin substrate. Given the cost of 1600 ISO Fujicolor, I don't want to just chuck it. It is also a useful tool to use with my Rondinax daylight tank for B&W. That is why I bought the totally useless plastic one. 

Wilson

[armadsen]

I have both a plastic one and a metal one and like the metal one much better. It's just like this: https://www.freestylephoto.com/192140-ARS-IMAGO-Metal-Film-Retriever

It does take a bit of practice to learn how to use successfully every time.

[Pyrogallol]

It might be simpler to get some plastic reloadable cassettes and transfer the film into that.

[wlaidlaw]

1 hour ago, armadsen said:

I have both a plastic one and a metal one and like the metal one much better. It's just like this: https://www.freestylephoto.com/192140-ARS-IMAGO-Metal-Film-Retriever

It does take a bit of practice to learn how to use successfully every time.

Many thanks. I have ordered one of these. 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

51 minutes ago, Pyrogallol said:

It might be simpler to get some plastic reloadable cassettes and transfer the film into that.

Except I don't have access to a darkroom. 

Wilson

[250swb]

I had one (from a well known manufacture of accessories) that worked the first time I used it and then never again. It would have to be absolute desperation for me to ever rely on these devices, it is a crap shoot, and I’d rather decide to loose half a roll of film than mess about with retrieving half a roll of film.

[wlaidlaw]

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Steve, 

It is a whole roll and the Scotsman within me recoils at the idea of all that waste 😀 I need a leader retriever anyway to use with my Rondinax 35U daylight tank. 

Wilson

[spydrxx]

I've used that model leader retriever and found it works, for me at least, better than some of the more popular and more expensive retriever models.

[nitroplait]

6 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Except I don't have access to a darkroom. 

Wilson

I couldn’t survive without a changing bag.

Anyway; use of a film retriever has to be learned. I work part time in a camera store and we are only two of five employees that “gets it”. You have to be very sensitive to sound and feel to have repeated success with those, but when you get it, it is like riding a bike.

[Doug A]

Many years ago my father showed me how to retrieve the leader with nothing but another length of film moistened on the emulsion side. It has always worked for me. Here is one video showing the technique. 

[AZD]

A variation of the above is to place some double sided tape on a leader and feed it into the trapped roll, then extract. This worked on half a dozen rolls of ancient color film I found. 

[Pyrogallol]

11 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Except I don't have access to a darkroom. 

Wilson

You don’t need a darkroom, a changing bag will do and is always a useful thing to have.https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=changing+bag&_sacat=625&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15

[wlaidlaw]

36 minutes ago, Pyrogallol said:

You don’t need a darkroom, a changing bag will do and is always a useful thing to have.https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=changing+bag&_sacat=625&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15

I have a changing bag which I bought for loading 70mm bulk film into the cassettes for my Combat Graflex and 33 feet of 35mm film into the KOOBF cassettes for my Leica 250 Reporter but with my very stiff and unresponsive arthritic hands, I found it extremely difficult. I have bought a retriever anyway. I rarely use the Combat Graflex but when it finally comes back from repair (4 years so far), I will be using the 250 Reporter. I have come to an arrangement with a processing company in the north of England that I will send them a KOOBF cassette with exposed film in it. They will process that film for me and then refill with fresh unexposed film. 

Wilson

[willeica]

2 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

I have a changing bag which I bought for loading 70mm bulk film into the cassettes for my Combat Graflex and 33 feet of 35mm film into the KOOBF cassettes for my Leica 250 Reporter but with my very stiff and unresponsive arthritic hands, I found it extremely difficult. I have bought a retriever anyway. I rarely use the Combat Graflex but when it finally comes back from repair (4 years so far), I will be using the 250 Reporter. I have come to an arrangement with a processing company in the north of England that I will send them a KOOBF cassette with exposed film in it. They will process that film for me and then refill with fresh unexposed film. 

Wilson

The woman who runs my local darkroom calls changing bags ‘nun’s knickers’ as she thinks they resemble those. I have to take her word for it. I do know that she was never a nun herself.

William

[chris_livsey]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:15 AM, wlaidlaw said:

. I have come to an arrangement with a processing company in the north of England that I will send them a KOOBF cassette with exposed film in it. They will process that film for me and then refill with fresh unexposed film. 

Wilson

Such altruism deserves a name drop to enable support, I to endorse that tool but it's all down to sound as the "trick", the trouble is I rarely rewind to excess so loose the "trick" and have to re-learn each time.

[wlaidlaw]

54 minutes ago, chris_livsey said:

Such altruism deserves a name drop to enable support, I to endorse that tool but it's all down to sound as the "trick", the trouble is I rarely rewind to excess so loose the "trick" and have to re-learn each time.

Chris,

The company is called Northern Film Lab based in Belfast. I will be paying for the KOOBF (Leica 250FF reporter cassettes) service and will also purchase the bulk film from them. https://www.instagram.com/northernfilmlab/?hl=en . As a non-Instagram user, I contact them via eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trkparms=folent%3Anorthernfilm|folenttp%3A1&_trksid=p3542580.m47492.l71970&_ssn=northernfilm 

Wilson

PS There is an error on one of their offerings on 70mm film. The film that cine makers use has different perforations from that used in 70mm still cameras (Graflex, Hasselblad, Linhof, Maurer etc), to be loaded into the Kodak pattern cassettes. I got caught by this soon after I got a 70mm film Combat Graflex camera. Still cameras use type 2 perforated film with perforations at the top and bottom and looking similar to the perforations on 35mm film. Cine film type 1 perforations are at one edge only with smaller and much more widely spaced perforations. Below is a Linhof Kodak type 70mm cassette. All my original Kodak ones with aerial Ektachrome film are sitting in the freezer. 

Wilson

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Edited April 26, 2023 by wlaidlaw

[Ouroboros]

I use a Hama film retriever, had it for years and it usually works ok.  If it doesn’t  then I just lever the end cap off the cassette in a changing bag (the end where the plastic spool come through) and lift the wound film out of the cassette.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Ouroboros

[chris_livsey]

8 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Chris,

The company is called Northern Film Lab based in Belfast. I will be paying for the KOOBF (Leica 250FF reporter cassettes) service and will also purchase the bulk film from them. https://www.instagram.com/northernfilmlab/?hl=en . As a non-Instagram user, I contact them via eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trkparms=folent%3Anorthernfilm|folenttp%3A1&_trksid=p3542580.m47492.l71970&_ssn=northernfilm 

Wilson

PS There is an error on one of their offerings on 70mm film. The film that cine makers use has different perforations from that used in 70mm still cameras (Graflex, Hasselblad, Linhof, Maurer etc), to be loaded into the Kodak pattern cassettes. I got caught by this soon after I got a 70mm film Combat Graflex camera. Still cameras use type 2 perforated film with perforations at the top and bottom and looking similar to the perforations on 35mm film. Cine film type 1 perforations are at one edge only with smaller and much more widely spaced perforations. Below is a Linhof Kodak type 70mm cassette. All my original Kodak ones with aerial Ektachrome film are sitting in the freezer. 

Wilson

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Thanks for that, interesting on the perforations, similar for 35mm where the "motion picture" stock, increasingly common these days, with BH perfs is different than 35mm still picture camera perfs using KS. Usually never noticed in use but I found this was an issue with Kodak Double X in the Hassselblad X-pan I had, also the Horizon 202 and the Leica SL MOT varieties ( when using the motors) are sensitive I understand but at least they are on both sides 🤣

Edited April 26, 2023 by chris_livsey
MOT in use added

[Huss]

On 4/20/2023 at 6:52 PM, Doug A said:

Many years ago my father showed me how to retrieve the leader with nothing but another length of film moistened on the emulsion side. It has always worked for me. Here is one video showing the technique. 

I have the Kaiser film retrieval tool, and while it works ok (on some films it just does not work), the licking another length of film trick works every time.

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Hallo,

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[armadsen]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:29 PM, nitroplait said:

I couldn’t survive without a changing bag.

Anyway; use of a film retriever has to be learned. I work part time in a camera store and we are only two of five employees that “gets it”. You have to be very sensitive to sound and feel to have repeated success with those, but when you get it, it is like riding a bike.

Yep, I agree that it has to be learned, and it took me a while. But now even clumsy me can very consistently extract the leader using the retriever I linked earlier. I do it every single time I process a roll of 35mm film.