How many of you guys have problems with leader shrinking?

[slashmaster]

Another post reminded me of this problem I'm having. With just about all the super 8 films I have with white leader I have problems keeping it on the sprockets until the real film gets to the sprockets because the leader shrinks slightly. It seems to be a problem only with a certain era of film because I have older films which don't have this problem. Or perhaps it's a certain company that puts the shrinking leader on the film it processes?

[beamascope]

I don't have enough newer films to find out but I will say that older films (50s-80s) have no problem.

[nickrapak]

Where are you getting your films processed? Good labs should use acetate leader that shrinks at the same rate of the film (i.e. not much). Cheaper labs use polyester leader, which can shrink over time. I replace all of my polyester leader with acetate to prevent this problem.

[slashmaster]

Where are you getting your films processed? Good labs should use acetate leader that shrinks at the same rate of the film (i.e. not much). Cheaper labs use polyester leader, which can shrink over time. I replace all of my polyester leader with acetate to prevent this problem.

Thanks Nickrapak! That's just what I wanted to know!
I think all the ones I have problems with were processed by YORK somewhere between 87-92. I have a newer one processed by Kodalux about 96 without the problem and films made before 87 that other people made without the problem. Do people have this same problem with regular 8 and 16mm polyester leader? Because so far I have not but don't know what my regular 8 and 16mm leaders are made of.

[super8man]

I can only confirm that leader shrinking is quite common in older films. I have seen more 50-footers than I care to think about (from the 1940s to current day) and many of them have shown leader shrinking when I put them on my Bolex splicer. In the end it's not a big deal since the projector still pulls them through OK. Thankfully, the actual films have never shrunk.

[slashmaster]

I have seen more 50-footers than I care to think about (from the 1940s to current day)

Yeah I think super 8 would be much more sensitive to this than regular 8 so that takes care of everything before 1965 when super 8 got invented. If the actual film shrinks I may have to file each tooth on the sprockets shorter.

[Uglipenguin]

I have this problem on some of my films too. The surprising thing is that my films are not that old, the films on which the leaders are shrinking are only around 5 years old. I think it definetly depends on leader material. Alot of the shrinking leader was white colored and has yale labs on it. Those look crinkly and I know they shrunk because they no longer fit the sproket pins on my splicer when I tried to trim them. I have some old films (not shot by me) with the "process by kodak" printing from the late 60's and those are fine.

The leaders I have been getting currently (dwaynes and yale) seem to be a lot thicker, so hopefully it wont happen in the future. But what I'm having problems loading my projector with those thicker leaders for some reason. I'm using a bell & howell autoload 468, it is sproketless and it seems that the claw doesnt have enough power to get the leader through the turns on the film path. Once I pull the leader through the turns by hand, then it works fine. All my old films loads just fine... I've tried curling the leader etc and nothing seems to work. I wonder if anyone else had any problems like this?

[slashmaster]

I have this problem on some of my films too. The surprising thing is that my films are not that old, the films on which the leaders are shrinking are only around 5 years old. I think it definetly depends on leader material. Alot of the shrinking leader was white colored and has yale labs on it. Those look crinkly and I know they shrunk because they no longer fit the sproket pins on my splicer when I tried to trim them. I have some old films (not shot by me) with the "process by kodak" printing from the late 60's and those are fine.

The leaders I have been getting currently (dwaynes and yale) seem to be a lot thicker, so hopefully it wont happen in the future. But what I'm having problems loading my projector with those thicker leaders for some reason. I'm using a bell & howell autoload 468, it is sproketless and it seems that the claw doesnt have enough power to get the leader through the turns on the film path. Once I pull the leader through the turns by hand, then it works fine. All my old films loads just fine... I've tried curling the leader etc and nothing seems to work. I wonder if anyone else had any problems like this?

I've never seen leader thicker than normal film before. How thick is it? like 3 times the thickness? Do you have a gauge that measures thousandths?

[Uglipenguin]

I honestly dont know for sure if the new leader is thicker... I'm guessing that it is because its more difficult to bend. And from observing how the leader gets transported throught the autoloading mechanism and the places it gets stuck, it seems that it doesnt flex as easily as the old leader. Maybe the term isnt that it's thicker, but less flexible?