Reusing quickload envelopes?

[jvuokko]

Has anyone tried this? I know that this may sound crazy, but Fuji Quickload system is really good except one thing; The only available B&W film is Acros 100.

Ok, I like Acros 100 and use it a lot. But I also use many other films.

The construction of the Quickload envelope is quite simple, so that made me thinking that why on earth should I throw away those envelopes instead of reusing them?

They have so many advantages over traditional 4x5 film holders. Perhaps the greatest one is ability to made notes for individual sheet and keep track of sheets during long trips without hussling with writing notes that tells what order exposed negatives are in the boxes and which of them was exposed on which holder and what kind of development I was planning etc... Not mentioning binary style encoding of sheets by cutting corners.


The biggest question mark is the clip that holds keeps envelope closed when it is not in the Quickload holder. But I guess that it should work properly even after envelope is reloaded with new unexposed negative taped to the leader and trailing pieces.

What do you think?

I think that I am enough propeller head to try this! :D

[aphexafx]

The clips should be fine to reuse, but they do not last forever. I know this because I have dedicated a QuickLoad or two to practicing in the past, and they do eventually wear out or the plastic "leader" will detach.

I think your biggest issue will be taping the sheets straight in the dark. As I understand it, film is too sensetive for even a very dim red-lamp. Good luck!

[IanMazursky]

IR goggles are great for loading or cutting film.
Ive been thinking about this for years. The envelopes are very hard to put back together. The plastic leaders are also lightly glued if i remember.
Im going to give it a go sometime this year (i hope). Its a shame to throw out all those envelopes.

[Drew Wiley]

Affirmative - it does sound crazy. I had a bad enough time with Mido holders.

[Nathan Potter]

Great thought. I've also been contemplating the reuse but have yet to investigate it carefully. I really want to continue to use Tmax but in Quickloads for the great convenience. I think the reload may be possible but not easy. I think some kind of a re-assembly jig may be in order to make the task easier. IR goggles might be a great help. I'll be trying to work this out sometime this year but in the meantime if anyone makes some progress please post comments here.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

While I do suffer a small pang of guilt myself when I look to see amount of stuff that goes off into the recycling bin with Quickloads, it's only a momentary small pang.

Note taking aside, the two other advantages to Quickloads/Readiloads are dust elimination (they're loaded in a clean room environment) and bulk. The first item you can forget about if you recycle them, and for the second, well, to my mind a couple of Grafmatics holding 12 sheets would seem a much easier way to go than taping film and reusing the paper Quickload sheaths, not to mention erasing pencil notations, etc.

The big disadvantage I have with Quickloads is that the sheath acts as a big flag waving around in the breeze that can kill sharpness.