About respool - plastic vs aluminium cartridge/roll

I wanted to know the recommandation for spooling 35mm film in cartridge. I heard that plastic cartridge can cause problems on the emulsion instead of aluminium cartridges that absord the static eletricity. If we use aluminium tube with plastic cartridge does it fix the problem. Also is it really a nightmare for labs or consumers to open the plastic cartridge ? But for spooling plastic cartridge we can attach them directly onto the "rod" wich look 100% pro like factory-made instead of taping film onto aluminium cartridge and it looks less professional.

What do you guys think the best is... plastic or aluminium cartridge ?

Thank you.

NB : My english is not the best, i'm french.

PS: Otherwise is there a supplier for aluminium cartridge which we can insert the trim film with two holes onto the cartridge directly. Reflx Lab sells plastic that we do not have to assemble parts.

I respool my own but I use metal cassettes for no other reason than I have several of them. I'll have to dig around and see if I even have any of the plastic cassettes.

Most of the minilabs don't open the cartridge, they pull the film out. The new plastic cartridges that snap together are very tricky to open. I used metal and plastic cassettes over many years no problems.

pelletier said:

aluminium cartridges

Click to expand...

If we're talking about standard 35mm cartridges - they're usually made of steel, not aluminum. And I don't think static discharge is much of a concern.
I generally re-use Fuji steel cartridges because they're relatively easy to open and close again and are overall well made.

The respoolable cartridges I use are steel on the outside with a plastic spool. The caps snap off by hand. I found that taping the film to the spool with a nice strong tape is a reliable way to not have the film separate on a rewind.

Regarding the newer plastic cartridges, there is a tool you can buy for opening them more easily. I've always treated them as disposable though and just twisted them open through their film slot with any flat metal tool.

I use a variety of metal (steel) and plastic cartridges and can't see any real differences...maybe one...once I dropped a metal cartridge and the snap-on cap shot off...the plastic cartridges i use have twist on caps, which I guess I find easier to manage. I tape to the spool on both sides of the film with one piece of tape....one piece of tape adhered to base then around the spool and adhered to emulsion side.

my old Kodak reloadble cassettes have a metal spool, and don't have a design that allows attaching the film without tape. The plastic spools I've seen, both on reloadable casettes and factory loaded casettes have a slot that if you cut the film correctly (or actually, you cut the with a special cutter that tapers and punces a hole in the right place) the film end will lock to it without any tape or adhesive. The cost of the tool to do that didn't make sense to me, so I just use a roll of scotch tape. attach the tape to 1/2 inch of the film end, wrap it all the way around the spool, and attach 1/2 inch to the other side of the film end.

I've never used the newer clip together plastic casettes, but I have a bunch of reloadable plastic casettes with twist off ends. I also have a bunch of metal casettes with pop off ends (like the Kodak reusable casettes.) I've never had issues with either type.