OK,
The holder and three film packets arrived from Robert White yesterday morning (210 quid altogether including P&P - fantastic customer service as ever) and I've spent the day trying it out.
Suffice to say, I'm hooked.
Firstly I would suggest that one should simply regard the film packets as reloadable cartridges. I'm tempted to stockpile a whole load before Fuji change their mind and make them non-reloadable! Although it might not be how Fuji are marketing it, I see this as basically a hugely improved two-part grafmatic. Though the holder is 360g, the cartridges themselves are very light (250g) so it's painless to slip a couple of extras into a bag.
As far as ease of reloading goes, after about an hour's playing I found that I can unload-clean-reload the 8-shot cartridge quicker than I can do the same things with 4xDDS. I would strongly recommend that you sacrifice one film packet by unloading it in daylight to see how it works - then you can use those sheets to practice reloading in daylight before doing it for real. The mechanism is pretty straightforward but unless you've the fingertip tactile sensitivity of a blind person or a card-sharp, it's best to be able to see what you're doing the first few times
When you need to unload the cartridge, start by turning the film counter to "1" using your fingernail. Then with the lights out (I've been doing this in a Harrison Pup tent and it didn't feel cramped), place the packet with the slide up and the handle end away from you. Feel with your thumbnails for the two vertical grooves on the end facing you and push down on these to release the catches - you can now pull off the end. Provided you've reset the counter to 1, you can also now pull out the slide (it locks on "E") and the 8 septa pop up. Each septum has a large cut-out in the corner where the film-type notches are - it's easy to pick up that corner of the film and just pull it out of the septum. Don't try sliding the film out - the open end of the film-gripping slot is quite tight - instead just slide a finger underneath the film and it pops out easily.
Reloading's just as easy - again, it's better to bow the film slightly and 'pop' it into the septum, rather than trying to slide it into the grooves. The edges of the septum are textured so by running you fingers around it's easy to feel if the film's in properly. Note that the open end of the septum (where the film notches are) goes back into the holder at the open end, ie away from the handle. I know I've made all that sound complicated but like I said, even after only one day, I find these cassettes easier to load & unload than conventional DDS.
In use, the holder's great. Solidly made and with a nice professional feel to it. Gut feel is that the design means it holds film at least as flat as a conventional holder - probably flatter. If you're in a hurry, moving on to the next sheet takes about a second. The ONLY criticism I have is that the lip which keeps the holder in position on a sprung back isn't quite as deep as I'd like - once or twice it popped back out again so I've got into the habit of using the graflock grips as well. Secondly, you can't pull the dark-slide all the way out. Some people might see that as an advantage but I normally use the dark-slide as a lens-shade. When you pull the slide out to reveal the next sheet, slide it back in again straight away before taking the photo (it goes back in BEHIND the film), otherwise it acts like a sail and blows about in the wind. Don't forget to give it another pull-push after the shot to move that sheet to the back of the stack. Oh and the instructions are not much good unless you can read Japanese but thankfully it's all so easy to figure out that you don't need them.
Well done Fuji and thanks again Bill for letting us know about it. I'm looking forward to trying these out in the desert next week!
Cheers, stuart
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Originally Posted by venchka
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