Loading film without flying blind: Nordic Lab brings open-source tools to the darkroom
For a lot of people, getting the film onto the reel in the dark is the least pleasant part of the whole developing process. An engineer in Belgrade has come up with a surprisingly simple fix for it and put it online for free. We now make it in Germany and ship it within the EU. Time to introduce the mind behind it: Nordic Lab.
Straight to the source: Nordic Lab. Sasha’s projects, videos and free print files are available directly from him, on nordiclab.org and Ko-fi. Go to nordiclab.org.
Contents
- Who is Nordic Lab?
- The collaboration: he designs, we produce
- What the loading guides are for
- What’s next
Who is Nordic Lab?
The person behind Nordic Lab is Sasha Yakovlev, an engineer and designer based in Belgrade. He describes the project himself as an “Engineering & Design Laboratory” with a clear focus: analogue photography, and the whole chain at that. Shooting film, developing it, making RA-4 colour prints in the darkroom, scanning, archiving. Sasha builds and repairs darkroom equipment, improves film processors and tests chemistry, with the stated aim of making the analogue workflow more accessible and more reproducible.
What drives him isn’t nostalgia, it’s engineering. And he has a surprising number of projects on the go at once. Here’s a selection of what he’s working on right now:
- Better developing reels (OpenReel): an open-source reel design optimised specifically for 3D printing at home, compatible with the Paterson system and printable without supports.
- Quick loading guides for Paterson reels: the two tools this article is about (35 mm and 120).
- A semi-automatic film developing machine: his biggest ongoing project, a device that pumps the chemistry through on its own, so nobody has to handle it by hand anymore.
- An affordable film drying system, enlarger conversions (including the Intrepid Enlarger) and even a mobile “Darkroom on Wheels”.
Photos: Nordic Lab
The development machine shows best how he thinks. He isn't interested in preserving old technology; he wants to simplify the process to the point where anyone can run it. Here's how he puts it in his video:
Sasha Yakovlev on his development machine (YouTube): “The development machine should work completely based on the liquids contained inside the tool … you have no contact with the chemicals, so even the kids can develop the film.”
What all these projects have in common: Sasha shares his designs openly. That's exactly why we work with him the way we do.
The collaboration: he designs, we produce
Sasha gives his designs away. The print files are free on his Ko-fi page, so anyone with their own printer can make the parts right away. Donations pay for his next batch of filament and the bigger projects, not for the design itself.
He's unusually blunt about why he does it this way. There's a minor holy war in the analog community over the “right” way to load film, whether a tool is “cheating” and whether you need experience to do it. Sasha doesn't think much of all that:
Sasha Yakovlev on sharing his designs (YouTube): “People just religiously say ‘okay, you need the skills’ to load the film. Come on, guys. This thing is for free. I share it for free … I see that this thing is needed.”
This is where we come in. We're not buying Sasha's design to lock it away; quite the opposite. He keeps full ownership, the files stay free, and we produce and ship under license with his explicit permission. We ship from Germany, quickly within the EU, for anyone who doesn't have a printer at home and simply wants a finished, tested part. Print it yourself or buy it ready-made: both options are open, side by side.
Printing your own? Get the files from Sasha The original print files are available for free from Nordic Lab on Ko-fi. If you like, you can support him there with a donation. Nordic Lab on Ko-fi.
What the film loaders are for
If you develop your own film, you know the moment: the changing bag is closed, your hands are inside, and now the film has to go onto the reel blind. With 35mm, the cassette tilts and jams; with 120 roll film, the film curls and jumps out of the guides. You turn, feel resistance, turn back, fumble around, and a single kink can ruin your shots. The annoying part is that it isn't a creative step at all, just pure mechanics, and it's only hard because you can't see anything.
That's exactly where Sasha's film loaders come in. There are two versions, one for 35mm and one for 120 roll film. Both fit standard Paterson developing reels (Super System 4 and identical reels) and hold the reel and film in a fixed, registered position, so the film feeds in straight instead of slipping around inside the bag.
Thread it in the light, just turn in the dark: The tricky part, getting the start of the film cleanly onto the reel, happens in daylight. Inside the changing bag, all you do is turn the knob. That takes the real risk out of the part you do in the dark.
A knob you can find by feel in the dark
The 35mm version has a knob you can find without looking, so you can advance the reel in a controlled way. In the current version, Sasha has also added a small hook that holds the film cassette in place: enough friction that nothing slips, but loose enough to simply pop off at the end.
No trimming the film leader
No more clipping or rounding off the corners of the film. It feeds straight onto the reel, cleanly and without catching. That saves time, and it also takes one more thing that can go wrong out of the process.
For the 120 version, Sasha shows the same setup for roll film in his video. It includes the knob that makes guiding the film in the dark easier, plus an adjusted feed direction so the film winds onto the reel cleanly.
Preload several reels: Because loading is so quick, you can load several reels in one go and keep them ready to use. Then you develop them later, without any rush. Handy when a weekend of shooting leaves you with several rolls.
We make both jigs here in Würzburg and check every single one for fit on a Paterson reel. Here are the two products:
Nordic Lab Film-Einfädelhilfe 35mm für Paterson (€39.95) · Nordic Lab Film-Einfädelhilfe 120 für Paterson (€49.95)
Check the fit: The jigs are designed for standard Paterson reels (Super System 4 and reels of identical design). Reels from other makers such as Jobo or AP/Samigon may differ in size, so we can’t guarantee a fit with those.
What’s next
The loading jigs are just the beginning. Nordic Lab has plenty more open designs waiting in the drawer, from the development machine and the drying system to the enlarger conversions. Whatever makes sense to manufacture, we’ll gradually bring into the shop as ready-made hardware. We know where we’re headed.
And Nordic Lab is only the start. Sasha is the first designer we’ve set up this kind of collaboration with: bringing good, open designs from the community into the shop as finished hardware, while the designer keeps ownership of their work and gets their share. If this goes well, more will follow.
See all Nordic Lab products: the whole collab at a glance, made in Germany and ready to ship within the EU. Go to the Nordic Lab collab.
More from the darkroom How-tos, gear guides and tips on all things film photography are waiting on our blog. Visit the blog.
