Since when 35mm metal film cassette no reusable

[MTC Photography]

Once upon a time, 35mm film cassette cap was easily removed, thus reloadable. Since when the 35mm meteal cassette

cap was clamp tight and not reloadable ?

[glen_h]

I first started in 35mm photography when I was about 10, in 1968, and they were crimped then.

 

But at the time, my father still had some older ones that weren't, so I knew that they previously were not.

 

I do now have two Tri-X cassettes not crimped, but I don't know the year. I suspect not long before 1968, though.

[Ed_Ingold]

The transition occurred about 1964. It was cited as a quality, reliability issue, to which I completely agree. A reusable cassette would pop open if dropped on end only a few feet, spoiling the entire roll. Empty reusable cassettes were widely available, and inexpensive. At the time I reloaded B&W film from bulk (Tri-X), and shot about 10 rolls of color film a year.

[glen_h]

At the time, I remember being told it was mailing them in processing mailers, and that they sometimes opened in the mail.

 

In 1968, I had (and still have) one that I bought with unknown brand reloaded film at a store in Seattle, on a vacation trip. I think inherited some bulk film from my grandfather. I think I had one other one, but I am not sure now where it was from. Not so much later, I got some Snap-Caps and used those for many years.

[Gary Naka]

In the '70s Kodak was crimped, Fuji was snap on.

We used to go to the Fuji processor to collect the used cassettes to reload.

[Jochen_S]

In the 80s Ilford was still snap on

[rodeo_joe1]

Kodak's cassettes have been glued together and non-reuseable for almost as long as I can remember. Ilford's used to have snap-off end caps, although the exact date they changed that eludes me, but it's decades ago.

 

I do remember having to buy a beer can opener for the darkroom to prise the bl**dy things open. So that dates it to after the introduction of canned beer, but before the invention of the ring-pull.

 

Nikon, Leitz, Contax and a company called "Shirley-Wellard" used to make re-loadable cassettes with a rotating feltless light trap. These were designed such that locking the camera back automatically opened the gate for the film to pass through with no risk of scratching. A great idea! Except that the mechanism was camera-specific in most cases. Although the Shirley-Wellard cassettes could be made to work in almost any camera.

Edited May 11, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

[ben_hutcherson]

I can't answer as to when the change happened, but I know that modern Kodak and Ilford cassettes frustrate me to no end. It's always interesting when I dump out my changing bag at the end of the day and see how badly mutilated the cassettes are.

 

Unloading film through the light trap makes me cringe, but I almost always do it these days. On manual rewind cameras, I intentionally leave it out. I have two "modern" SLRs-a Canon T90 and a Nikon F4. My T90 had the leader out mod done to it before I bought it, and I've been trying to find out how to do it on the F4(it can be done). On the T90, it involves bridging two solder pads on the top board in the camera. At least on the F4, I can rewind manually.

 

BTW, before someone mentions leader picks-I've been told that having the film in the light trap somewhat protects the trap from accumulating too much crud. Once the film is all the way in, the trap is a dust and dirt magnet. This makes sense to me, and I seem to rarely get scratches on leader-out film that was unloaded through the trap whereas I've seen terrible scratches on picked film.