[jbrowning]

Thanks WJW I will check out the library for sure. I have been reading some on that website.

Jim

[247nino]

I prefer the Paterson tanks... because in class I hulked the whole lid off of my steel tank... LIGHT EVERYWHERE~! suck...

I dont drop my tank on the floor so its not going to be prone to breaking anytime soon...
solution - keep a firm grip...

as for a darkroom use a closet... and look for light leaks around the door frame using your peripheral vision not by directly looking at the door... and if loading your tank is all you need a dark place for then youre all set and no need for a changing bag...


good luck to you and enjoy !

[DAP]

I'll agree w/ bdavis as far as Hewes stainless reels are concerned - they are the cat's ass. They cost more than the generics (kalt, etc.), but IMHO they are just as easy to load as plastic patterson reels. I think most people who hate stainless reels have never tried a Hewe's. As far as durability is concerned I think it is a wash - sure plastic tanks are more likely to break if dropped, but stainless reels are more fragile than plastic reels when dropped (fragile in the sense that a drop can cause some minor bending/misalignment that will make your life hell if you try to load film on it)

That being said - as long as you pick good quality gear it doesn't matter if you choose stainless or plastic - they all work well.

[davef]

I couldn't resist but probably should have found a tongue-in-cheek thingy. I'm sure AA had many cameras but his legacy work, as I recall, was mostly done on a view camera..... I also have recollections of a bloody great horizontal enlarger he built for printing them.

BTW, in previous lives, I have dropped my Paterson tank and it survived quite nicely. Chipped the little edge on the base. I have also seen stainless tanks dropped and dented so you couldn't get the reels in and out. Happened all the time in school as we had a big communal wet room for processing film and things like tanks got knocked off the edge of the sinks and counters regularly.

Dave

I know. Although apparently the California Hall Of Fame has Adam's Zeiss Ikon camera.

It was just my way of way of saying that everything old is not necessarily better, and that, occasionally, something comes along that improves on the old stuff .

For example, I, for one, welcome both self-loading reels and a smallpox-free world.