easiest way to open a super8 cartridge for home processing?

[milesandjules]

Easiest way to open a super8 cartridge for home processing?

We have done this a couple of times before using a hammer....but is there an easy way of doing it....or is there a tool we could make?

[granfer]

If a hammer works for you ......?

[granfer]

Seriously, though, I've always used a knife. There must have been some kind of tool used by processing stations, but I've never seen even a picture of one.

[DTNethery]

This may help :

Photos of Kodak's Super 8 Cartridge Opener -
http://www.filmlabs.org/docs/cartridgeopener.pdf

DIY Cartridge Opener -
http://www.filmlabs.org/index.php/techn ... dgeopener/



I've also read that it is possible to pry open the rear panel of the cartridge with a flathead screwdriver. Other people have described using a bottle cap opener along the edges of the cart to pry it open.

[chrisgavin]

Hi,

I've processed a few super8 cartridges at home now (BW negative) and it doesn't seem to be necessary to bash open the cartridge at all to extract the film.

If you turn the middle spindle of the cartridge the 'wrong way' , you hear the plastic clutch inside breaking.
Then you can pull a short loop of film out and you're actually unwinding the film from the take up spool.

The following has to be done in the dark of course...

Now cut the film loop and MAKE SURE THE END OF THE FILM DOESN'T FALL BACK INSIDE THE CARTRIDGE !!! *
You can now pull the film out of the cartridge and roll it onto another reel or feed the film straight onto your processing spiral or buckets or whatever.
This way you get your film out and nobody gets hurt : )

*
For one film I did let the end of the film slip inside the cartridge and I can testify that trying to break open a cartridge with tools in the dark is no fun at all.
I was stuck in my attic for over an hour trying to retrieve the film and not hurt myself too much.
The film wouldn't unwind at all nicely and kept snagging on the half-broken cartridge.
As a result this film got handled much more than it should have.
I wouldn't wish anyone else to have the same experience, so I hope this info is useful to other folks out there...

Best of luck for your home processing too : )

[nikonr10]

Hi,

I've processed a few super8 cartridges at home now (BW negative) and it doesn't seem to be necessary to bash open the cartridge at all to extract the film.

If you turn the middle spindle of the cartridge the 'wrong way' , you hear the plastic clutch inside breaking.
Then you can pull a short loop of film out and you're actually unwinding the film from the take up spool.

The following has to be done in the dark of course...

Now cut the film loop and MAKE SURE THE END OF THE FILM DOESN'T FALL BACK INSIDE THE CARTRIDGE !!! *
You can now pull the film out of the cartridge and roll it onto another reel or feed the film straight onto your processing spiral or buckets or whatever.
This way you get your film out and nobody gets hurt : )

*
For one film I did let the end of the film slip inside the cartridge and I can testify that trying to break open a cartridge with tools in the dark is no fun at all.
I was stuck in my attic for over an hour trying to retrieve the film and not hurt myself too much.
The film wouldn't unwind at all nicely and kept snagging on the half-broken cartridge.
As a result this film got handled much more than it should have.
I wouldn't wish anyone else to have the same experience, so I hope this info is useful to other folks out there...

Best of luck for your home processing too : )

Being do it like this for year's/ also push the film pressure gate in as you feed it on to the reel's softer on the film with out any drag !

[richard p. t.]

I use pincers. I nibble the seam on three edges, then bite a little whole in the middle of the edge opposite the film window. Then pull the cartridge open from that bite hole.
rt

[Andreas Wideroe]

I think Frank at the Super8 Reversal Lab uses something like this:

[richard p. t.]

I think Frank at the Super8 Reversal Lab uses something like this:

yes, these are pincers. what I use.

[Joel Pierre]

“Easiest way to open a super8 cartridge for home processing ?”

Why open the cartridge, so you can easily pull the film by breaking the lock of the axis of the spools ?

[milesandjules]

Awesome feedback guys...I'm going to have a crack at all of those techniques and see which one works first.

So the exposed film is hiding in the side of the cartridge that has the turning take-up winding wheel?

cheers
Miles

[chrisgavin]

milesandjules, I'm looking at a broken cartridge here, and it looks like the take-up side of the cartridge is the same side the film gate is on.

If you do try the 'unspool method' I proposed... Once you've broken the 'one way' mechanism inside, and you have a short loop pulled out, if you pull on one side of the loop the film will stick pretty soon, this is the end of the film still attached to the cartridge inside, if you pull the other side of the loop, then film will keep coming out. That's how you find out where your film really is.
To be safest. you could figure out which side of the loop is which before cutting the film and proceeding to unspool the whole roll.

Hope this makes sense.

[aj]

The lab-robots didn't need to crack the cartridges as long as the exposed text was in the gate. The cartridges were just piled in a funnel and the robot would grab the end, take it out and hook into the hole at some 10cm from the end. Possibly it pressed in the plate a bit to give the film free flow and then just yank out the film, splice it with the previous one and wind it onto a reel which would go to the processor. Simple as that.

Films which weren't on EXPOSED yet were advanced by a machine and not given to staff to shoot their family scenes on the remainder.
Had the film been transported fully in by a know better user or a camera with a broken EOF sensor then the film would have sent to a special process where the cartridges would be opened in de dark using a Kodak opener.

[wahiba]

I made a fixture clamping a pair of cartridges together. I then pulled the film out winding it onto 50' projection reels. I did two at a time as the tank takes two films. I managed all this and loading the spirals from the spools all inside a large daylight loading bag!

Getting the film onto a projection spool made it fairly easy load onto a Lomo tank spiral.

[gaugefilm]

For colour you can simply snap the core and hold down the pressure plate, the film will flow out 99% of the time with a good pull. I would definitely recommend cracking open B&W carts however because the emulsion is much more likely to get scratched whilst extracting the film. This is what I do at the Lab for B&W anyway.

All the best
Kevin