The First Olympus Pen

[Bennybee]

Hi Bill,
On the topic of cutting a film roll in half : I recently re-discovered the Agfa Rondinax 35 film developing tank, thanks to an article on the web somewhere. You can load that tank in broad daylight and push the knob of the built-in 'knife' upwards to cut the film from its cassette after spooling the exposed film onto the reel inside the tank. In case of a partly exposed roll, that would leave you with (more or less) half of the unexposed film in the cassette, ready for use after trimming a new leader to it? FWIW....

[minoly]

Thanks, Bennybee, for that tip. I've heard of the Rondinax tank-- I associate it with the Montgomery Ward Photography catalogs I enjoyed in the 1950's--but, I don't think I've ever seen one. I will see what I can learn about it. By the way, I enjoyed your delicatessen photos that were made with pushed Tri-X in an FM. One of my "I must do sometime" projects is to use the FM that I have but don't use much.

Bill Delehanty

[Julio1fer]

I use a Rondinax. Good idea using the internal knife to cut part of the roll. Never thought of that.

Be careful because the frame counter in the tank itself is just approximate, it is intended to give only a very rough idea of how much you have already loaded. Markings are 12/24/36, and closely spaced.

Maybe it would be more accurate to count the turns of the cassette axis, if you stick a piece of tape on it to help mark the rotational position. Should work.

[Bennybee]

Thanks Bill. I haven't added much on my Flickr page lately, but I intend to scan a few more of those soon.
Bill, Julio, I think I'll spend my next pocket money on a Rondinax tank. The more I think about it the more I am convinced it
would be an improvement in my film developing flow. It certainly beats sitting on my knees in a dark toilet trying to load that Patterson reel ...

[PFMcFarland]

I recently found a Rodinax tank in an antique store, and though the box is in bad shape, the tank itself looks unused. Almost too nice.

PF

[Julio1fer]

I think I'll spend my next pocket money on a Rondinax tank. The more I think about it the more I am convinced it
would be an improvement in my film developing flow. It certainly beats sitting on my knees in a dark toilet trying to load that Patterson reel ...

On the other hand, with the Rondinax you must have pre-prepared loads of 200 ml of each solution, and a way to measure 200 ml of water for intermediate washings. I have a plastic cup marked with the 200 ml level which saves me a lot of time.

You also need to rotate the wheel all the time, because the Rondinax is a continuous agitation device.

[minoly]

It could be worthwhile for me to have a daylight-loading tank like the Rondinax if the place we move to doesn't have a good spot for darkroom loading; the film-cutting capacity would be a bonus. I did dig out my old Exakta VX and found that my memory was correct-- the take-up spool is easily replaced by a reloadable cassette and the knife still works (though it hung up in the last bit- not a big problem and probably correctable in later uses). So, using a dummy roll, I transferred 12 full frames from the factory roll to the reloadable cassette and was able to advance and shoot 23 half frames. So unless I find that I didn't see some big flaw in the trial, I think I'll find something a little more exotic than Fujifilm 200 in 36 exposure load and break it down in 2 or 3 rolls for HF. For years I've thought vaguely about doing that but never did; this discussion was a good motivator--thank you.

Bill