16mm 200 Foot Daylight Spool

[John Clere]

So I was thinking about getting a Beaulieu R16. Looks to be a fun camera, and they can all fit a magazine on top. However, I've been told that they can only hold 200 foot daylight spools, which I haven't seen for sale on line. So here are my questions.

 

If I had empty 200 foot spools, could I halve a 400 foot reel from a core in a darkroom? Well, I know it's possible but my concern is knowing when I've reached the 200 foot mark. How would I measure that in a darkroom?

 

The other question is probably more of a camera question, but if I wanted to for whatever reason could I use a 100 foot r90 spool in the 200 foot mag? Not as important of a question as the first one, but nice to know.

 

Thanks all!

[Gregg MacPherson]

There have been one or two threads about respooling film in recent months. Did you search?

[Josh Gladstone]

As for your second question: yes you can put a daylight spool into the 200 foot mag. I just tried it. I mean, I didn't run film through it or anything, but it did fit. Keep in mind, the 200 foot mag has a separate motor, so not only will your battery drain quicker, it's much louder too! And a 100' spool fits in the camera itself, so I'm not sure I see the point. Unless you're thinking about respooling 200' onto a 100' daylight spool in a darkroom and letting the last 80 or 100 feet just spin about freely in the mag?

[Dennis Couzin]

So I was thinking about getting a Beaulieu R16. Looks to be a fun camera, and they can all fit a magazine on top. However, I've been told that they can only hold 200 foot daylight spools, which I haven't seen for sale on line. So here are my questions.

 

If I had empty 200 foot spools, could I halve a 400 foot reel from a core in a darkroom? Well, I know it's possible but my concern is knowing when I've reached the 200 foot mark. How would I measure that in a darkroom?

 

The other question is probably more of a camera question, but if I wanted to for whatever reason could I use a 100 foot r90 spool in the 200 foot mag? Not as important of a question as the first one, but nice to know.

 

Thanks all!

To wind length L onto a spool (or core) count the turns on your manual rewind. The equation is L = pi*(t*(N^2) + d*N). pi is pi. t is the film thickness. N is the number of turns of the spool -- you must figure in the rewind gearing because you will be counting turns of the crank. d is the diameter of the spool or core you're loading.

 

Since you are just splitting a 400' core roll in half you can skip the micrometer measurement and the calculation. Wind the 400' onto another same size core until the two rolls are exactly equal by feel. There cut the film. Then load each 200' core roll onto 200' daylight spools, counting your turns. The counts should come out the same. If they differ a bit use the average count the next time you make 200' daylight spool loads using that kind of film. (Different kinds of film have significantly different thicknesses.)

 

Realize that a 400' core roll is just 400' while a 200' daylight spool load, when bought as such, is longer than 200'. As I recall, Kodak gave 107' on their 100' daylight spools. Daylight loading means waste at both ends. E.g., you can only make 11 generous 100' daylight spool loads from a 1200' core load.

 

You can use cores with a core adapter in place of daylight spools if you plan to load and unload the magazine in a changing bag.