Any advice on better reels than Paterson / Jobo?

[andybarton]

Thanks for your help already, folks

As many people moving up from 35mm will no doubt have found, 120 film is a pain to load when compared to its narrower cousin. I am careful to keep my reels clean, but still have trouble loading the film into them. Once started, the Jobos are slightly easier, as they have the indent where one can drag the film into the reel, but neither can be described as "easy".

Do people generally prefer stainless steel reels? especially the ones that load from the centre outwards?

Any advice gratefully received!

Many thanks

Andy

 

[wbulte]

I use Paterson tanks/reels. Practice makes perfect, but note that some filmtypes are more 'curly' than others.

Wilko

 

[MarkF_48]

I'm not familiar with the Jobo reels, but I have used a Paterson and stainless steel reels.
I just got back into developing 120 B&W film and I came across a reel made by Samigon which I purchased and have used. The Samigon reel has larger guides where the film is inserted and makes it very easy to load the reel. It works the same as the Paterson by walking the film onto the reel. It does need to be dry otherwise the film may get stuck, but this is the nature of the Paterson also.

The larger guides aren't readily visible in the link below, but read the reviews....
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...SA325_Multi_Format_Autofeed_Reel.html#reviews