Highway 61
Revisited
My advice : hurry up to dispose your plastic Paterson stuff and buy some actual US-made NIKOR steel reels and tanks. Tons of them on evilbay now, for peanuts, and tutorials about how to load them are available on YouTube.
I have been home developing films for 30 years in steel reels and tanks for now (and I do continue to do so very often) : never ever damaged any roll, were it 135 or 120.
Only minor drawback of the NIKOR stuff is that the main tank lids often leak a bit, but using some teflon ribbon as a toric gasket solves it perfectly.
Do not use a changing bag, work in a dark room, you need less than an half square-meter to do it if you properly prepare the tanks, the lids, the reels and memorize where they all are in front of yourself, and always keep your scissors in the rear pocket of your Levi's, while the rolls to load are in the waist pockets of your shirt.
I have been home developing films for 30 years in steel reels and tanks for now (and I do continue to do so very often) : never ever damaged any roll, were it 135 or 120.
Only minor drawback of the NIKOR stuff is that the main tank lids often leak a bit, but using some teflon ribbon as a toric gasket solves it perfectly.
Do not use a changing bag, work in a dark room, you need less than an half square-meter to do it if you properly prepare the tanks, the lids, the reels and memorize where they all are in front of yourself, and always keep your scissors in the rear pocket of your Levi's, while the rolls to load are in the waist pockets of your shirt.
