Class cancelled....

[another view]

Oh good god! Let me get this straight... I need to do this in a bag, where I can't see what I'm doing, and I can't touch or crinkle the film in the process????

Yup... Like I said, practice with that roll of film until it's really easy. Then try it with your eyes closed. If you get stuck, open your eyes and see what happened. Once you're consistent with that, try it again in the bag. If you do get stuck with "real" film and just need to give it a break for a minute, just set the film inside the canister and close the lid. Then you can take your arms out of the bag because the film is in a light-tight container. I've needed to do that before...

You really don't need to touch the film anyway. Wash your hands before you start winding it on spools just in case, but you'll touch the end just to get it inserted into the reel, then you'll only touch the edges of the film to guide it onto the spool. I usually touched the other end of the film a little bit just to make sure it felt like it wasn't curled against the layer underneath it and never had a problem with it. That was my own "process" just as a double check but I'm sure the purists would frown on it. Clean hands and a quick light touch aren't going to cause a problem.

Oh, and speaking of washing hands - make sure to do this after practicing winding the spool. It's a used spool, so it's been in contact with developer, stop (smells really yucky) and fixer.

[Xia_Ke]

Okay, so I played a bit more last night and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. This reel has a loading feature that is really cool. Just get it started and by twisting the reel it loads your film perfectly. Good thing I have all that dirt cheap color film to practice with...LOL You know, I was almost thinking we should change the title of this thread to "Class is in Session"...LOL I'm definitely getting schooled on the subject. As always, thank you very much for the guidance

Aaron

[freygr]

Oh good god! Let me get this straight... I need to do this in a bag, where I can't see what I'm doing, and I can't touch or crinkle the film in the process???? Good thing I won't have funds to order chemicals and stuff until the end of the month. I'm gonna need LOTS of practice

You don't need to do it in a bag if you are in a completely dark room. The reels soon in the picture you have to slide the film in. I've found the using the steel reels it w2as much quicker but you could get film to film contact if you used too much tension when you where loading the real.