Left to right Alden 74, Watson 100 and Watson 66. In the foreground is a Shirley-Wellard universal reloadable cassette.
This is the second of three posts about bulk loading 35mm film that I began back in October of 2020. Part 1 was a description of the three types of cassettes I was using at the time. This part is a description of the three types of bulk loaders I am using now. Part 3 will describe a modification I made of my Alden 74 bulk loaders for use with the Leicas FILCA cassette.
As I wrote in Part 1, the Leica FILCA cassette is taller than today’s 35mm cassettes and taller than any of the manufacturer-specific reloadable cassettes that I have encountered. And that difference affects an evaluation of the three types of bulk loaders described here. I discuss the the bulk loaders here in order of increasing usefulness with the variety of bulk loading cassettes I use.
Watson 66
There are several variations of the Watson 66. I have seen a plain Watson 66, a Watson 66B and a Watson 66C. I am guessing that the names are in order of age with the 66 being oldest and the 66C being newest. I say this because the fit and finish decline noticeably from the 66 to the 66B to the 66C and a need to cut costs over time as a product ages is the usual pattern – entropy and all that. But in my experience they all work exactly the same way, at least with the cassettes I use, and I will refer to them all as the Watson 66.
Despite a suggestion to the contrary in the manufacturer’s literature, a Watson 66 does not work properly with a Leica FILCA cassette. The body of the cassette is not held solidly and it can rotate as the winding crank is turned. The giveaway is that the crank becomes harder and harder to turn as the loading progresses. At that point there is no way to recover as the film is wound around the outside of the cassette. I have not tried a Leica IXMOO in a Watson 66 but I would worry that the same thing could happen because, superficially at least, the only significant difference between the IXMOO and the FILCA is the height.
The picture is a lot better with the Kodak Snap-Cap and the Nikon Reloadable Cassette. My experience is that they work properly with the Watson 66. And I would guess the currently available plastic and metal reloadable cassettes would work equally well.
Alden 74
I have seen two variations of the Alden 74. The older version has a red crank and knobs and its shape is substantially different from the three loaders pictured above. I have no experience with this version of the Alden 74. The newer Alden 74 with a yellow crank and knobs is another step up in fit and finish from the plain Watson 66. It is the nicest to work with of the three types of loader I am describing here.
Just as with the Watson 66, the manufacturer’s literature for the Alden 74 says that it works with Leica reloadable cassettes. It does not specifically name the FILCA, but since the overwhelming majority of Leica cassettes were FILCA’s and not IXMOO’s when these loaders were new it certainly implies that it works with the FILCA. I find that is only half true. While the body of the cassette is held firmly so it can not rotate as the crank is turned, as I described in Part 1 of this series the knob that opens and closes the FILCA does not settle into place, It is difficult to close the cassette after loading the film and I suspect it may have caused some of the light leaks I saw before I modified the Alden.
And just like the Watson 66, the Alden 74 works properly with the Kodak Snap-Cap and the Nikon Reloadable Cassette. And I have no reason to think that it would not work just as well with any reloadable cassette – except the FILCA.
Watson 100
The Watson 100 is the most frustrating member of this group. It is at the same time worse in fit and finish than even the Watson 66C, the least nice of the three to work with, and the most thoughtfully designed of the three. I have seen them with yellow knobs and gray knobs but I don’t know if the difference is related to age or the brand name under which they were sold.
The biggest issue I have with the Watson 100 is that it is much much more difficult to turn the cap of the film drum to open and close the gate that keeps light from striking the bulk roll of film when the loader is opened to begin or end the loading operation. I have to wrap a cloth around the cap to close the gate. I have two gray-knob Watson 100’s and they are both the same in this regard.
What distinguishes the Watson 100 from my other bulk loaders is a simple removable shim that lets the user adjust the length of the chamber to fit cassettes of different height. With the shim removed, the Watson 100 works properly with FILCA cassettes. With the shim in place it works properly with all of my other cassettes.
And…
In Part 3 of this series I will describe the simple modification I make to my Alden 74 bulk loaders to work better with Leica FILCA cassettes. And at some point I will update the information in Part 1 of this series with a description of my encounter with a Shirley-Wellard cassette – an interesting “universal” 35mm bulk load cassette that became less and less universal as 35mm camera design evolved.
Mere Film Photography 