Aaton A Minima - Film Cores

Dirk DeJonghe · November 13, 2015

The Relative Humidity is important. In winter, with low temperatures and central heating, indoor air may become very dry. This is when you get the sparks when touching the doorknob etc. B&W has no antistatic protection, colour has the carbon backing.

If you keep RH around 50% or higher, you won't have any problems.

Francis Kuhn · February 16, 2016

After a few attempts at re-loading my A-Minima spools directly, I thought there must be an easier way than feeding 200 feet of film while using my thumb and index finger to hold the flanges apart. I did a test where I disassembled the A-Minima daylight spool and it seemed to work well, but I'd be interested in hearing from others who may have tried this. (I only did one test with a roll of Tri-X reversal and it seemed to be fine, but I'll have to test it again to feel confident enough to continue doing it this way.)

I disassembled the A-Minima daylight spool by twisting the two outer halves counter-clockwise against each other. This allows access to the core which can be removed by, again, twisting it counter-clockwise against the side flange. I placed the core into a standard 16mm split reel for spooling (emulsion out). When full, I placed the core back into the A-Minima spool and re-assembled it.

The biggest problem seems to be finding a suitable way to attach the film to the inner core. Unlike regular cores, there is no film slot in the A-Minima core so I tried cutting one. The slot allowed me to easily attach the end of the film to the core, but once in the slot, the end of the film interefered with the flange "claws" that hold the assembly together making it difficult to re-assemble the sides. I'm thinking the best solution would be to find some lightweight spring steel and have it fabricated into a clip that matches the circumference of the core. The clip could be slipped over the core and the film leader snapped under the edge of the clip to hold it in place for spooling. Idealy, the spring clip's tension is firm enough to hold the film for spooling, but light enough to allow the film to easily slide out as the camera reaches the end of the roll.

-Fran

Gregg MacPherson · February 19, 2016

After a few attempts at re-loading my A-Minima spools directly, I thought there must be an easier way than feeding 200 feet of film while using my thumb and index finger to hold the flanges apart. ...

...so I tried cutting one. The slot allowed me to easily attach the end of the film to the core, but once in the slot, the end of the film interefered with the flange "claws" that hold the assembly together making it difficult to re-assemble the sides. .....

Fran,

What about twisting the film slightly with finger and thumb, as it winds onto the spool, so it clears the spool sides? Can you show a CU of the parts of the dissassembled spool?

Dirk DeJonghe · February 21, 2016

I use a low-tack sticky tape as used by painters on delicate surfaces. Kodak doesn't use any tape to attach the film to the core. Maybe they wind the film to the core and attach the flanges later (easy to do).