Graphic 23 film holder: spacing, ghosting and flatness

I'm new to large format and though it’s been a trial, I plan to persevere! My latest challenge is understanding why my Graphic 23 6x9 roll film holder sometimes exposes only half of the first negative, and produces ghosting on the “second”. My film loading procedure is as follows: make sure the counter is set to S, wind the film around and insert in the take up spool, advance until the arrows meet, insert in the holder and close, wind until it stops at 1.

Also, my holder is the wind knob kind, but also has rollers on the inside which apparently ensure film flatness. Any comments on whether I should expect sufficient flatness from this kind of holder?

Thanks!

You aren't loading it properly, you didn't advance the film quite enough before starting. The ghosting you see is in fact double exposure.

The directions say:

(after the film is in and started a little) "Continue to actuate the lever until the starting marker on the film is opposite the arrow inside the carriage."

Rotate the exposure counter in the direction of arrow intil it 'clicks' into place near 'S' and

replace the carriage in holder.

Actuate advance lever until it locks. Initial winding is now completed and exposure counter is set at '1'.

For more details and better help, go to www.graflex.org

Opinions differ about whether Graflex holders with pin rollers hold film flat enough. Mine is a piece of garbage made by SubSea, Inc, who bought the tooling after Graflex folded, but film flatness isn't one of its many problems.

Cheers,

Dan

Thanks, Dan. I finally had a chance to try your recommended loading method and it worked.

Mark