Film Holders - Do you flip your frommitzes, or just get rid of them?

[Ed K.]

Those little wires that hold the dark slide. Even when new, they have a habit of just getting in the way; and a magic sensor mode that makes them fly open when they are supposed to protect the slide from coming out. I use tape over the dark slides when a holder is exposed and in transport. I'm thinking of pulling them out, because there isn't any tag that warns of the liabilities for removing them (like the mattress tag!). What do you think?

[Diane Maher]

I use them. I put a rubber band over some of my holders too. I think you should leave them. Not everyone will want to use tape to keep them closed.

[Ole Tjugen]

One thing I'm less fond of than missing "frommitzes" is tape residue on the holders.

Keep them. And if you want double protection - use rubber bands, not tape.

[Eric Rose]

With out the little wires the magical radio signals are not received by the dielectric layer created by the emulsion and substrate thusly resulting in a non-Adams swirling of only Z6.5 photons near the epicenter of the of the visual universe as contained within the film holder. To remove the wires risks severe negative charge build up and possible damage to the concentricisity of the local crop circles.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Tape leaves tape residue.

[Ralph Barker]

I think Eric nailed it.

[JPlomley]

I use rubber bands for one other reason. Having taken the time and patience to set up and compose (about an hour), I find waiting for the wind to stop to be rather frustrating. So you can use your elatic bands to try and peg off insects in flight or ants crawling along the ground . Yeah, I know this is juvenile, but it's better than falling asleep.

[Jim Rice]

The wild card in Eric's hypothosis is the length of the doohickies. At 1/4 wavelength (assuming the film area becomes the ground plane) the radio thus recieved is going to be, like, a bunch of Gigahertz. Maybe some super secret government stuff up there. Next thing you know the NSA will be tracking you and that can't engender good karma.

[Vaughn]

My choice isn't on the polling list.

I don't use them, but neither do they cause me any grief...so I don't worry about them. I have maybe lost one negative in 30 years of LF use due to an accidently pulled slide.

Occasionally they get in the way while loading/unlaoading film, but not so much as to be a bother.

Vaughn

[riooso]

Rubber bands work great! When a holder is empty I put the rubber band crossways so that I know it is an empty holder.

Richard Adams