film trimmer question

Hello Again

Received this today and was curious as to the extensions and what the purpose was.

Thanks

Don

Have one of these -- it was designed to accommodate a variety of film cassettes. The film tail outside a loaded cassette locked in by the sprocket holes then cut with a razor knife along the curve will produce a correct leader. The left side could be used with the device reversed for some types of cassettes that had slotted cores (in the dark) or types of cameras that had different take up arrangements. I only used the right side. In actual practice, I found it faster to hand cut leaders with scissors. Others may have used it differently.

This template was intended for the old screw mount Leicas (and copies that load similarly, like the Canon rangefinders), although, as Sandy mentions, it can be used to trim leaders of shorter length, just by feeding less of the uncut film into the template.. The old Leicas and such require a very long trimmed leader because of the way they have to be loaded. A more modern SLR -- or any camera with a back that swings open on a set of hinges -- needs a leader with only a small amount of trimming, typically no more than 2 inches.

Hello

Thanks for the responses, I have a Leica IIIf and i know this is to trim the leader for loading the camera but I am not sure what the tabs on the left are for where the arrow is pointing.

Thanks

The old Leica cassettes had a slotted core which is not removable. The left side cuts a leader to insert in that. Hard to get black on black in focus. See if this works.

Thanks Sandy

That explains it, I don't have any of the original Leica cassettes, I may have to get one or two just to have.

Do you know which model would be right for the IIIf ?

Thanks Again

I am not 100% sure, but I think that the extension at the left is for Contax. They have a slit in the center of the takeup spool.

When I bulk loaded, I cut a diagonal, starting about mid width, then at an angle to hit the side of the film about 2 inches from the end (similar to what mwmcbroom said). It just needed to go into the take-up spool in the camera.

The extension at left seems designed to leave a leader that inserts in the middle of a take-up spool, instead of at the (usual) bottom slit..

ANY Leica cassette will fit a IIIf. There are special cassettes for 'M' models, which the older cassettes won't fit, but these too work in screw-mount Leicas.

Thanks Robertmarvin

 

Thanks to everyone who took time to comment and answer.

Don