June
picturelineNews
|
 Three
for Thee and One for Me
which packet film holder
please
Digital imaging is the new wave in photography
and certainly has required a lot of attention for
the past couple of years. With all of the
new cameras, scanners and printers demanding introduction,
instruction and review, it has required a long
string of articles to handle all of this new information. There
is a group of photographers that should not be
overlooked, however. They are the large format
users, the foundation of photography.
In large format photography a lot of things have
been happening, but it has not earned as much press. Most
of the large format news has been about the discontinuation
of films, papers, developers and hardware. Where
one door closes another door opens and in this
case it helps to make large format a bit easier
and cleaner to use.
In the 1980’s Polaroid pioneered a single
sheet of E-6 processable film in a dust resistant
Polaroid style packet. This ensemble contained
Fujichrome 50 D or 100 D as a single sheet of film
per packet. I don’t know what happened
to this license agreement, but Polaroid ceased
manufacture and Fuji began full production of their
Quickload films. This type of film was inserted
into a standard Polaroid back, with the lever in
the “L” (load) position. Then
the dark slide packet was pulled up to a stop point,
but not removed and the film was exposed. Next
the packet was pushed back down to seal it light
tight again, the lever was switched to “P” (process)
the packet was removed from the holder and sent
to be processed. All in all it worked rather
well with only a few glitches.
 One problem, as I saw it, was by switching the
lever on the Polaroid back to the “P” position
the process rollers came together in their normal
way. This was to cause enough pressure to
break an internal packet of goop to process the
instant developing Polaroid film and spread its
contents evenly. With the new Quickload Fuji
film it only embossed any debris or hardened chemical
residue into the unprocessed film, which left great
spots on the film when it was processed. There
were other ways to handle the problems of using
a Polaroid back, but to make it more reliable Fuji
designed their own holder.
To get into the action Kodak designed and developed
their own style of packet films called Readyloads. Initially
they were double sided and required their own special
type of holder back. After several years
of problems, light leaks, and four redesigns of
the holder back the double side project was dropped. Kodak
now has a very successful program with a wide variety
of single-sided Readyload packet films. They
have also created a great new holder design for
use with their films.
While all of these great packet films were designed
to make life better for the large format photographer,
they have become a mixed bag. Of course they
save time since one does not have to load traditional
film holders. They are much cleaner than
loading traditional film holders. They are
much lighter and more compact than carrying loads
of traditional holders. What I wanted to
know is, couldn’t I carry just one type of
packet holder back, rather than three, and ease
my load even more?
Kodak’s professional Readyload single-sheet
packet film holder (catalog number 893-7542) weighs
in at 10.3 ounces and comes with a fitted canvas
pouch to keep it clean. It has an excellent
new pressure plate to keep film flat and works
smoothly and flawlessly with any of the Kodak packet
films. Kodak’s instructions, with the
packet films and with the holder, provide only
a set of graphics on how to operate the holder. The
Kodak web site (www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/readyload/features.jhtml)
provides a video for film loading and use. It
also provides instructions for utilizing the newer
Polaroid 545i holder with Kodak packet films. I
find no official mention to the fact that Fuji
films are not to be used in conjunction with this
holder. In a November 2001 article in View
Camera magazine, the claim was made that Fuji films
had been used without any problems in the Kodak
holder. In an article by Kerry Thalmann,
published in View Camera magazine February 2002,
Kerry states, “I also ran a half dozen Fuji
Quickload packets through the production version
of the single sheet Readyload holder without failure. I
must stress that neither Kodak nor Fuji officially
endorse this combination. Again, I cannot
stress strongly enough that the most foolproof
and reliable combination remains: Kodak pre-loads
in Kodak holders and Fuji preloads in Fuji holders.” He
also mentions “both Fuji and Kodak also officially
bless the use of the Polaroid 545 series of holders
with their film pre-loads.”
 Fujifilm’s Quickload single-sheet packet
film holder is a curvy, well built holder that
weighs in at 12 ounces and comes with a dust cap
to fill in the film opening during non use. Sadly
it does not protect the larger, 4x5 opening through
which the film is exposed. Best advice is
to keep the holder in a zip lock type bag to keep
dust and sand out, so that it will remain operational. At
Fuji’s web page regarding packet film (www.fujifilm.com)
follow the links from Fujifilm Home> Professional
Products> Film> Professional Color Reversal
Film> to Fujifilm Quickload Film for their information. The
page mentions that their film is “Sized for
use with a Range of Film Holders, Fujifilms Quickload
Film Holder, and Polaroid’s Model 545 Holder.” I
could not find any further information or links
from that page. The instruction page packed
with each box of film does give a graphic look
at how to operate the holder. It also gives
the graphic instructions for Fujifilm operation
in the Polaroid 545 holder. In the November
2001 article in View Camera magazine they reported
no problems crossing Kodak films into the Fuji
holder, Fujifilms in the Fuji holder, or Fujifilm
in a 545 holder. The February 2002 article,
by Mr. Thalmann states, “Considering the
problems I encountered, I strongly recommend against
attempting to use Kodak single sheet Readyload
packets in the Fuji Quickload holder.”
Now my reasoning tells me that if Kodak and Fuji
both recommend the Polaroid 545 holder as a common
use holder, then all films should be cross holder
useable. I know for certain and from personal
experience that film and holder failures do occur. No
matter what film is put in what holder, sooner
or later a failure will happen. I don’t
find the amount of failures to be overwhelming
in any of the film versus holder combinations. I
assume you could 90% of the time, safely use the
Polaroid holder for Polaroid instant film developing
and for exposing either Kodak or Fujifilm by following
the manufacturers directions. This would
indeed fulfill the dream of using any film in one
packet film holder only. Reduced carrying
weight, increased usability and portability would
be appreciated by everyone packing a view camera,
meter, a brace of lenses, a load of filters, boxes
of film, a dark cloth, and a mammoth tripod. After
a mile or so even another 12 ounce reduction in
weight is enjoyed.
With what some would consider an intense drawback,
that of using antique, or antique looking styles
of cameras, and what is considered out dated procedures,
large format photography is slowly on the rise. New
practitioners have discovered benefits to using
a camera with total image control and a huge piece
of film that simply outweighs digital capture. After
all have you ever stood face to face with a beautiful
contact print? Besides that, even big film
may be scanned.
With all of that said, you will make your own
mind up on this matter. Presumed, but never
achieved, the 100% safety of operation versus space
and weight reduction and the desire to have a single
holder to work with. For me, over a period
of time, I have bought and used them all. I
use Kodak in Kodak, Fuji in Fuji, and Polaroid
in Polaroid except when by space and distances
considerations I am forced to carry the ubiquitous
Polaroid 545. Did that settle that, or what?
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