respooled and ready to test

woot! using this handy-dandy guide, i finally worked the nerve up to try to respool 120 onto a 620 spool! this was something i learned about and have wanted to try for some time now. . .at least since i bought my first bhf and learned that not all of them will take 120 spools. i lucked out, i suppose, in that all five or six of my bhfs will take 120 but along the way, i've acquired a few cameras (i.e., the imperial reflex, ansco rediflex, sabre 620) that won't take 120 spools and can't be modified to take 35mm. i've been really eager to test the imperial reflex since i got the shutter oiled and working and since replacing the plastic piece in the back (the red piece that covers the counter window).

and so i decided that today would be the day and respooled a roll of fuji across 120 onto a 620 spool and loaded it in the rediflex. it took a few tries, as i knew it would, before i got it right. for me, the biggest problem was figuring out which direction to roll when respooling. the first time through, i got it backwards and had to start again, and then again. getting ready now to respool a roll of color for the imperial. and then it will just be a matter of waiting for a sunny day!

Update: holy moly! it's only been 15 minutes since i created the first part of this post and i'm sooo turned around with this respooling stuff. i set about to respool some color for the imperial and managed to redscale the film. (ironically, a few days ago i had been wondering if this was possible to do with 120--figured that it was if you respooled. . .something i wasn't, at that point, eager to do.)

so i managed to retrace my steps and reverse the film, respooling it again, and getting things back where they needed to be but i will be SHOCKED if these images come out all right. between my shoddy respooling job and the fact that the back of the most plasticky imperial was not aligned correctly when i wound the film to frame one, well, it'll be a straight-up miracle if any of these shots come out. then again, if all this respooling nonsense can help me get these results on demand, i think i'd be cool with it. in that case, i may well make a habit of sloppy multiple respoolings. . .