Velvia Quickload

[Derek Simpson]

I have been offered Velvia Quickload at a competitive price per box of 50. The vendor had never heard of it and Fuji Ireland (where I live) wasn't much more en ligfhtened. I gather this format is supposed to be used with a special loader/g izmo. Q1 is this special whatsit a form of dark slide/film holder compatible w ith standard LF backs ? Q2 Is it possible using time and ingenuity to butcher t he "Quickload" packs and retrieve a "normal" 5x4 for use in standard holders ? Someone must have tried.

[Todd Caudle]

I've never tried to butcher a QL to extract the film, but that's because I own the Fuji Quickload holder and I LOVE it! The holder costs about $115 USD from B&H in New York, not sure what it would be on your side of the pond. It's really good at keeping out dust, the holder plus 50 sheets weighs much less than a 50-sheet box and 10 traditional holders, and it slides in the camera back just like a traditional film holder. Something to be wary of, though -- Velvia in Quickloads normally comes in 20-sheet boxes, so make sure of the count you're being offered. If anyone sells it in 50-sheet boxes, I'm not aware of it.

Todd www.toddcaudle.com (misc. landscape photos) www.skylinepress.com (Colorado books & calendars)

[Paul D. Robertson]

The Quickload film has its own dark slide-ish gizmo like Polaroid film. It's possible to shoot Quickloads in a Polaroid back, Kodak's version of the Quickload is called the "Readyload" and contains two sheets of film instead of one. Quickloads in a Polaroid back seem to be ok, Readyloads seem to have light leakage problems outside of their specific holder (and sometimes even then).

You may wish to take a quick gander at:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/holders.html

Paul

[Gary Frost]

As Todd said, Quickloads come in boxes of 20. The regular Velvia sheet film comes in boxes of 50 sheets. It sounds like perhaps they are not quickloads... but may be loaded 'quickly' into standard holders. Sounds like the standard sheet film is what you want anyway.

[James Chow]

I've never heard of velvia quickloads in boxes of 50, and I used to live in Japan. I always get them in boxes of 20. The normal sheet film comes in boxes of 10 or 50 sheets.

Inside the quickload is a plastic sleeve that encases the film. The film is connected to the sleeve at the top, I seem to remember. You can go into a darkroom or changing bag, remove the metal clip or cut off the QL near the clip, remove the plastic sleeve, and tear the edge of the film from the plastic sleeve (held on by some adhesive on one side of an edge) and load the sheet into a conventional holder if you don't want to pay $105 for the holder. One major advantage to the holder is that there are wiper blades inside the quickload, so when you pull out the envelope to shoot, it wipes any dust from the film! The borders of the image along the edge w/ the notch seem to be about 2mm thinner than what I get w/ my conventional Toyo holders.

There is something sold in Japan called Quickchange, which is a cassette loaded w/ sheets of film like the old grafmatics holders. You load this cassette into a special quickchange holder ($200), then you pull out an arm and push it back in between shots to load a fresh sheet of film. I've looked inside this cassette, and there are thin, metal frames that enclose each sheet on 3 sides stacked upon one another (there is no backing to each sheet like the grafmatic septums, though..just held on 3 edges. You can keep unloading/reloading these clips in a changing bag once you get the hang of it. In Japan, you just drop off the entire cassette at the lab and they recycle them. There's a pro aerial photographer in Japan who machine guns this stuff in a homemade 4x5.

[Derek Simpson]

Thanks to everybody who provided information. Glad I asked. Fuji , by the way, answered my initial inquiry today , slick eh ? Anyhows I've learned a lot and have purchased holder and film so bitchering of packs should not be necessary. Thanks again.Derek

[Derek Simpson]

Thanks again guys just to keep you informed of the trials and tribulations - yes everybody but Fuji was right - it comes in 20's. And believe it or not it has finally arrived - 4th July - and I managed 2 shots without getting into a frazzle. Seemed to work faultlessly. Of course I haven't processed yet - next problem getting the film OUT of the envelope - is there a trick to this ? or just scissors ?

[fw]

In your darkroom, just pull the metal clip away from the envelope, and the film together with its plastic support at top and bottom will just slide out of the bottom of the envelope. You will then have to peel the plastic supports away from the film. It may be worth sacrificing one film envelope in order to avoid unnecessary finger marks etc. on your exposed film.

[james mickelson]

Once you get the film cover off the rest is self explanatory. James