the longest time you've spent loading a tank

[dogbunny]

i haven't processed a film yet, just diluted fixer and loaded a tank 😀 i bought ilford id-11 (10 LITERS!!) i didn't know it should be diluted all at once . still thinking how i will store all that liquid 😕
i have bought a scanner, but it appeared to be 110V but we use 220V here where i live, so i need to get a transformer somewhere

I cheaped out and just bought two 6 liter jugs of distilled water from the store. One for my mixed D76 and one for the fixer. I might do something different down the line, but good enough for now.

Good luck with the first development. Mine appears to have gone off without a hitch, but we'll see after I scan the negatives.

 

[loquax ludens]

It took me over an hour to load 50 feet of super 8 movie film on a Lomo reel the first few times I did it. I still find it pretty difficult to do.

I've never actually timed it, but it feels like under 2 minutes to load a roll of 35mm or 120 film on a plastic or steel reel. I like plastic better for 35mm and steel for 120.

 

[Steve_F]

Glad to know I am not the only one to feel bouts of murderous rage after dicking around in a changing bag for 10-20 minutes.

I love the expression dicking around. That's how I feel loading 120 film using a changing bag. Mine goes like flypaper. It drives me round the twist. Took me almost 20 mins the other day to load one. Much cursing. Even said I'd flog the RZ67 and settle for the 35mm.
Of course when I see the results its worth the effort..until the next time. 🙂

Steve.

 

[Steve_F]

Using a changing bag, until my d/room is complete I can do 35mm in probably less than a couple of minutes. 120 roll is always a b*lls-ache. It goes like flypaper in the changing bag and drags and screeches its way around the spiral. Took 3 attempts the other day.

Steve.

 

[smile]

I cheaped out and just bought two 6 liter jugs of distilled water from the store. One for my mixed D76 and one for the fixer. I might do something different down the line, but good enough for now.

Good luck with the first development. Mine appears to have gone off without a hitch, but we'll see after I scan the negatives.

i just finished developing my first roll, i think successfully 😀 will see tomorrow. first impression - good!! 😎
p.s^ i used tap water

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The time I spend trying to load a steel reel/tank, half of it I can use to clean the plastic ones through and through. My tanks are still as white as when I bought them. I've seen some other plastic tanks in a really really sorry state.

This is why I've always had the impression that the steel tanks are for those who don't/won't clean and rinse properly.

 

[NickTrop]

Yeah - humid day, sweaty fingers, tank not 100% dry, curly film, my own dumbness and fumble fingers = I'd say about an hour of frustration, probably (didn't time it...) Probably closer to 45 minutes.

 

[mfunnell]

Today was the first time I've put a roll of film (well, two) in a tank in nearly 12 months. I was forced to live elsewhere, courtesy of the GFGFC*, for about a year, and am only now getting back into the swing of things.

I practiced before I put everything in the changing bag. I really did. It didn't matter. I took nearly an hour to get the 1st roll on the spool. A complete absence of muscle-memory (I wasn't all that experienced beforehand) and having to discover all the "tricks" of the trade all over again. Oh, and sweating more inside the bag as time extended and extended... Yes, nice and dry. Not.

I'm afraid I rather manhandled the first film. The second was done in 5 mins (having learned from all the many, many mistakes I re-made with the first). Of course, the one that didn't go so well was the one with "real" photos, while the one with less mess and handling was the "test" roll. :bang:

Fortunately, while the technique was off, the process was OK. The negatives look pretty good. (My old standard Tri-X in HC-110 process.)

Now I just have to convince my 5000ED to talk to my new (Windows 7, 64bit) PC. Not straightforward, but I'm nearly there. In a few weeks I may have my workflow back where it was 18 months or so ago... 🙁

...Mike

* Great [effing] Global Financial Crisis

 

[p.giannakis]

30 minutes.... At that time i didn't have a changing bag so i almost suffocated under the duvet....

 

[mfunnell]

Of course the longest time I've spent loading an actual tank was trying to fit 40-odd rounds of 105mm DS in a Leopard I. Those things were inconvenient to load, especially if you'd never seen one before. But that's a different story...

...Miike

 

[loquax ludens]

i just finished developing my first roll, i think successfully 😀 will see tomorrow. first impression - good!! 😎
p.s^ i used tap water

Congratulations. Continued good luck to you.

I use tap water too nearly all the time. But it's filtered tap water. Whether or not that poses a problem depends on your water. Mine is moderately hard, but I've not had any problems with it. I do tend to use distilled water for highly diluted developers for extended development, such as for stand or semi-stand development.

 

[Thardy]

Once it took so long that I just threw the film in the tank and poured in the chemicals out of frustration. If you don't have the right reels that 120 film can be almost impossible to load.

Next most frustrating thing is trying to loading some medium format cameras after a long hiatus.

 

[loquax ludens]

And how did it come out, Thardy? I've done that with 50 foot reels of reversal movie film, but that was on purpose to get a vintage, aged, scratched-up look. It worked, of course. Did you get any usable negs from your experiment?

 

[Thardy]

And how did it come out, Thardy? I've done that with 50 foot reels of reversal movie film, but that was on purpose to get a vintage, aged, scratched-up look. It worked, of course. Did you get any usable negs from your experiment?

No, mostly all stuck together as I expected. 😱 I had read that someone did that before and the film was OK.


Things improved greatly when I started using samigon reels.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6697/3153/1600/PatersonSamigon2.jpg

The one on the right, has a large guide to help film loading.

 

[alistair.o]

Using a changing bag, until my d/room is complete I can do 35mm in probably less than a couple of minutes. 120 roll is always a b*lls-ache. It goes like flypaper in the changing bag and drags and screeches its way around the spiral. Took 3 attempts the other day.

Steve.

This spoke to me. Exactly the same experiences. Kept going back to the 'expert' youtube vid' - easy. BUT NOT FOR ME!

The pain, the curl, the cursing. 120 is not for me, that's my conclusion (for now at least)

Al

 

[useless generation]

I have always had good luck with Patterson reels for 35mm however 120 always jams and crinkles. I rember spending a good 15mins trying to load a bulk loader with 100ft of film. I couldn't get the film through the sprockets at the top of the loader because the light proof gate was closed! Lesson learnt!

 

[jk0592]

30 minutes or thereabouts, in a a jobo 35mm spiral in small changing bag. It takes much less time in the dark of the darkroom now. Much more comfortable, no sweating to contend with.

 

[Dylan Hope]

Had a roll of 35mm that just would not sit on the reel the other day, but that was about five minutes. Loading 120 onto my patterson reels, that's for when I'm feeling both masochistic and sadistic to myself. It's a hard life, but at least I have each other 😀

 

[dbm]

Community equpiment... aaaaaargh

Community equpiment... aaaaaargh

With my daughter majoring in photography at a local college, I got permission from the head of the department to use their darkroom equipment and chemicals.

First couple of rolls went fine, but I then had one that wouldn't load more than about two thirds of the way in. I stuffed the roll in the tank and got more reels from the dish rack, and finally got a reel to load, but had to help push it onto the Patterson reel as it was sticking yet again and did not want to go on the reel. Was probably 45-60 minutes to get the damn roll onto the reel.

Two things went wrong that day - I had dropped the film while loading in in the closet, and there is a small light leak at the bottom of the door. Fogged a small section of film. The other was most likely that the reels weren't completely dry (thus the sticky loading), and one of them must have had fixer still on it. The film came out all with drop sized clear spots in various places.

I've since bought my own Patterson tank and reels to use, so no more worries about wet reels. First film with my own tank/reels was about 5 minutes - 3 of which was spent prying the top off the film cartridge. Never can get the bottle opener to get a good grip.

 

[agfa100]

When I first started using 120, about 3 weeks into it this one roll took me about 10 min and drove me crazy. Only to find out I loaded the backing paper on the reel and threw out the film...... Thank god I only did that once but that was enough. I couldn't figure out why the film was so flimsy and hard to get on the reel (metal nikor)
wbill