Nobody has problems with the Fuji Quickload system. I did yesterday. With my new holder I blew 4 out of 16 exposures when the clip came off as it was passing through the final couple inches of the holder.
Ticked me off something fierce. $2 a pop!
So I came home and started playing with the ruined envelopes and film. I put one back together as if unexposed and ran it in and out of the quickload holder a couple times and it came apart just like it had before. Seemed to be hanging up in that last couple of inches. I tried holding down the release latch as I carefully pulled while wiggleing a little the envelope out. No luck.
Maybe reading the directions again would help. Silly idea. Who reads directions? But I was desperate. Step 6: "Extraiga el Quickload" ... wait a minute. Wrong side. Step 6: " Pull Out the Quickload." substep 2: Hold the envelope's gripping part *tightly* between your fingers and pull the envelope straight out of the holder.
I went back to a ruined quickload and pulled the film out of the envelope. I noticed that there is a hole at the top of the insert that coresponds to the slot where your thumb goes as you pull the thing. Just like in the Fuji diagrams. I put the insert back in the envelope and pulled it in and out while thumbing the slotted area. Indeed ... I could feel the insert through the paper envelope and the hole as it slipped through my thumb and forefinger. It dawned on me. If you are not squeezing with your thumb firmly on the slot and thus the hole in the insert, which the metal clip is actually attached too, you would indeed have the very problem I had had. The assembly coming apart as you tried to get it out of the holder.
Back when I shot 4 x 5 a couple years ago I exposed a couple hundred of these things at least and this never happened. This holder seems a lot stiffer both in inserting and removing exposed quickloads. This had got me 'wiggling' the envelope up and down a bit as I tried to coaxe it out of the holder. This wiggling had made me change my hand position AND relax the pinch of my fingers on that notch. I had not paid attention to the *tightly* part in the instructions. They need to put that word in all caps for dummies like me. I've put one of those trashed quickloads back through the holder and simulated both exposing a picture and then removing the envelope half a dozen times. Works flawlessly every time ... IF I hold at the slot ... TIGHTLY.
Funny how you forget things. Since I returned to 4 x 5 I've been shooting roll film but I gotta get a much wider lense. It was fun to make 4 x 5 exposures again. Aside from my quickload failures.
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