Digitaltruth Photo

This is gonna sound stupid, but I'm trying to develop for the first time and don't want to screw things up. How do I remove the fim from the cartridge? Normally i'd just start trying to rip and tear, but doing it in the dark is gonna be tough, I'm guessing. Any tips?

back in the day, most cannisters were able to be reloaded, so it was poss-ble to pop one end off and extract your exposed film and save the can-
nister for another day. now-a-days, i keep a crescent wrench in my drawer in the darkroom, and destroy the cannister removing the exposed film. rip and tear is the answer.

You can buy proper film can openers : http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product ... ts_id=7835

or a bottle opener works just as well.

Practise on a spare film before you try dev'ing any valuable shots.

Some films can still be opened; Fomapan e.g.

Two ways to open the cardtridge:

http://vonkjes.nl/osCommerce/product_in ... bec452f252

indeed the opener!

or a film retriever where you can pick up the film leader from the cassette.

The Fomapan films you can simply disassemble with your finger nails and also reload several times. Also easy when you need DX cardtridges for automatic cameras.

And a good link when developing your first film:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200629163442455.pdf

Forget about can openers. All I use is a pair of scissors.

What I do is I grab the canister in my left hand (I'm right handed) so that the slot where the film comes out is accessible. Then I grab one of the lips of that slot with my right hand, and bend it open by prying it down and out. You're tearing the round cylindrical canister open, and this effectively loosens the side caps of the canister, and eventually you can take one of those off and simply take the roll of film out.
Then I cut the end of the film so it can be fed onto the spool and finally snip it off at the end where the tape holds it to the film roll.

It's quick, simple, only one tool required. Some of the Kodak films are built like tanks, and you may have to pull a little harder. The Efke canisters basically falls apart immediately. It seems to be different with different makes how difficult they are to open.

- Thom

Use a "church key" style bottle opener, the kind with the point at the other end (do not use the pointed end). Don't use the kind of bottle opener that's on a manual turn-key can opener.

Use the flatter end of your church key to pry off the flatter end of your film canister. Do this in a changing bag or in a completely dark room. It may take a couple of tries, because you're basically prying (and bending in the process) that flat metal end up off the canister. It's easy.

If you don't have a church key, they are really cheap - you should be able to pick one up at your local supermarket.

dave2 wrote:This is gonna sound stupid, but I'm trying to develop for the first time and don't want to screw things up. How do I remove the fim from the cartridge? Normally i'd just start trying to rip and tear, but doing it in the dark is gonna be tough, I'm guessing. Any tips?

Use a beer bottle opener.