Double rolling 120 with Paterson type tank

[bence8810]

Hello all,

I have always been double rolling my 120 but as I am quite new to film photography, I don't know what I am missing (if any) by not individually developing my rolls.

I use a 2 reel Paterson type tank which takes 135 and 120 as well. If I extend the reel for Medium Format size, the tank only takes one reel and therefore I started double rolling the film onto the reel to save time.

I only shoot TMAX films and use the TMAX developer 1:4 ratio. I add 690ml of this working solution and develop TMAX100 for 8 minutes at 20C and TMAX400 for 7 minutes.

So without any real issues I just wanted to ask, am I doing anything wrong by double rolling the film or it's ok and I should carry on?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[BLKRCAT]

very sneaky double rolling onto patterson reels. I would be concerned of overlap but if its working for you, great.

If you really wanted you could split the difference. 7:30. your 400 might cook a little more and your 100 might cook a little less.

Likewise if you decide to go down the rodinal stand developing route you could just do that and not have to worry about mixing films/times.

 

[nikon_sam]

It would be the same as if you were developing a roll of 220...nothing changes...
I do it this way all the time...

 

[Fotohuis]

I would be concerned of overlap

Jobo 1501 and 2502 reels have a Red clip to prevent overlap if you are loading 2x 120 roll films on one reel.

2502 reels are also loading easier due to the bigger radius for 220 roll films or 2x 120 roll films.

 

[mrksgrn]

Pardon my ignorance but how does one double roll? Could this be done with 135 as well?

 

[skibeerr]

Pardon my ignorance but how does one double roll? Could this be done with 135 as well?

No, just with 120 film, Length matters 😀

 

[bence8810]

Pardon my ignorance but how does one double roll? Could this be done with 135 as well?

No, as far as I know. A 135-36 roll of film uses nearly the whole length of the spiral inside the reel.

A 120 film is relatively short and thus you can keep turning the film until it goes to the core of the reel, leaving enough space for another 120 film on top of it.

The issues I found so far were the following:

- My reels stick sometimes making it hard to roll the film in. I can usually twist and turn the reel until the film eventually goes in but it is a painful process. Cleaning the reels with a toothbrush and some soap after every session helps keeping them gum-free.

- I need to sort of touch the film to turn it all the way in. The loading mechanism only helps to auto-load the film until there's film still unspooled, after that I need to use my hands.

Ben

 

[Fotohuis]

The lenght of a 220 roll film is exactly 2x 120 roll film so you can put them in serie.
For 135-36 2 times the reel is too short. I could give you an advice for a half frame camera (PEN) to have 72 exposures on one 135-36 film.

In the past there was a Ilford small thin film reel. The special HP5 was made on 70um layer instead of 130um thick. Like TSF type film here you could put 72 35mm exposures on one reel. But it was crap film to load. Very thin Polyester layer.

So it is much simpler to have more reels in one tank. The Jobo system you can expand. E.g. I have a tank system 5 for 5x 2502 reels instead of the system 2 (2523) for 2x 2502 reels.
The same for the 15xx Jobo system. Tank 1510 one 1501 reel (250ml volume), 1520 two 1501 reels (485ml volume) , 1540 (=1510+1530) four 1501 reels (975ml volume), etc.

 

[Fotohuis]

Just an overview (Jobo drums and tanks) for inverse and rotary development.

 

[sevo]

Pardon my ignorance but how does one double roll?

The reels can hold 220, which is twice the length of 120. So you can get two 120 on one reel by threading one roll after the other. Either joining the ends with adhesive tape, or by threading the first right to the end of the reel, inserting a stopper tab (which comes with all Jobo reels) at half the reel and then threading the second to that stop. It is not that hard to thread without overlap, but without some sort of separator there still is a risk of the film overlapping during processing.

Could this be done with 135 as well?

With short rolls (135-12 or carefully trimmed 135-20), yes. But the capacity being 220 film (1.6m), which is about 42 frames worth of 135, you can't get two 36 frame rolls onto a reel, even 135-24 will not do.

Most 135 film has no backing, so it can theoretically be sandwiched back to back, but that makes for very difficult loading with the currently common tank types, with a significant scratch risk. But it used to be a common procedure on some large tank processors with more generous reel spacing.

 

[anerjee]

I learned something new today, thank you!

Hello all,

I have always been double rolling my 120 but as I am quite new to film photography, I don't know what I am missing (if any) by not individually developing my rolls.

I use a 2 reel Paterson type tank which takes 135 and 120 as well. If I extend the reel for Medium Format size, the tank only takes one reel and therefore I started double rolling the film onto the reel to save time.

I only shoot TMAX films and use the TMAX developer 1:4 ratio. I add 690ml of this working solution and develop TMAX100 for 8 minutes at 20C and TMAX400 for 7 minutes.

So without any real issues I just wanted to ask, am I doing anything wrong by double rolling the film or it's ok and I should carry on?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Fotohuis]

Most 135 film has no backing, so it can theoretically be sandwiched back to back, but that makes for very difficult loading with the currently common tank types, with a significant scratch risk.

Indeed very tricky to do.