Loading reala 120 - where's that darn arrow.

[bacsa]

Hi.

 

I read overall,including my yashica D's manual and photo.net threads,

that I have to align the red arrows on the 120-film back with the

marks on the camera body. Yesterday I loaded a roll of Reala, -put

the leader in the slit,started to wind and wind...no red arrows on

the film back. There was some writing in the beginning, then nothing

else anymore; however, <i>along both edges of the film's back</i> in

the beginning there was a red stripe(about 5mm wide) which after some

winding had a small gap and then became black. So i aligned the marks

on the yashica with the position where tis gap was, since i did not

want to wind the whole roll in the hope of finding those famous

arrows. There was nothing like arrow on the rest of the roll that was

already visible(about 15 more cm's).

<p>

So my question is, should I have been more patient and wind and wind

until i find the arrows, or is that red-to-black stripe something

that should be considered as alignment mark ("arrow").

<br>Thanks for your time, and sorry if it's a silly question! have a

good light today.

[aki_dick]

I can't remember the color or exact shape of the arrow in Reala 120 right now, but I used it a lot and I know there is some clearly visible something that lets you know the right point.

[james grehan]

Hi,

 

When I first tried loading a 120 film I had the same impression. Yes, you see different simbols until you get to the actual numbers, after rolling for a VERY long time. Then again I have never used Reala, but I guess most rolls of film would be similar.

[hclim]

Should be about 24 cm from the flap. The first exposure is something like another 20 cm further.

[blakley]

Fuji films still have the little arrows - they appear several winds *after* the little gap you noted. I had the same confusion with Velvia 120 recently.

[dave_lewis]

Bob's got it right...

[bacsa]

brrr...then, i guess, the first frame on the negative and, maybe the second one, is kinda "black dogs fighting in the ninght inside a cave"

 

anyway, it's a test roll, and I still can take one extra after no. 12...

 

thanks for the answers. You're a helpful bunch of photographers!

[dr_smith1]

I know I'm late to answer, but anyway...

 

The start mark on Reala is extremely obvious. It literally says

"START" right next to an arrow running all the way across the

backing paper,IIRC. I can understand your difficulty though. The

first time I ever loaded 120 film, it seemed to wind on forever

before it finally got to that mark, but I was determined I'd

find the appropriate markings or sacrifice the roll. Fortunately,

Fuji made it easy to find. Odd though that the import film

I get from b&h still says 'start' on the backing paper - I might

have expected it to be in japanese or something like that.