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Garry Black Photography

 

Question:

Hi.  I own an Alden-74 bulk film loader and lost the instructions.  I bought it about 6 years ago, and its been about that long since I’ve used it, and would like to use it again.  i saw that you own(ed) one, and was wondering if you could scan and email the instructions to me... I’d really appreciate it as I cannot find an Alden website anywhere.  Thank you.

 

 

Answer:

I hunted all over trying to find the instructions for my film loader - I haven't found them. It's been over tens years since I've used the loader, but here's what I remember.

 

  1. Load the film spool into the loader in complete darkness.
  2. Close the lid of the loader, pulling the end of the film into the cassette chamber.
  3. Move the open/close lever to the closed position.
  4. You can turn on the lights now.
  5. Tape the end of the film to the centre of a film spool.
  6. Put the spool inside the cartridge, and close the cartridge.
  7. Make sure that the cartridge is properly "seated" in the holder.
  8. Place the snap on cover over the cartridge compartment.
  9. Move the open/close lever to the open position.
  10. Rotate the yellow handled film advance, you can see on the film counter the number of frames that you've loaded - I usually loaded 37 exposures.
  11. When you have loaded enough film (number of exposures) move the open/close lever to the closed position.
  12. Open the lid covering the film cartridge compartment, remove the cartridge, make a straight cut across the film. The end that is now sticking out from the holder will be attached to your next roll of film. On the roll of film that you have just removed from the holder you will have to trim the end of that film so that it will load into your camera. Use a factory produced roll of film as your template.

And that should work, so the only time that you have to worry about working in the dark is when you initially load the film into the holder. Of course make sure that you don't screw up with the open/close lever - everybody does at least once!

 

Good Luck,