"Blank Cartridges" - Re-usable, or Not?

bjorke · Jan 7, 2025

No one seems to make the old metal refillable 35mm cartridges I grew up using, but I did find a box of these ones from Shenzen.

The Chinese label just reads: "Blank Cartridge" and instead of pop-off ends so you can tape the film to the center spindle, there are these plastic flaps sticking out.

Has anyone used these, ? Just tape the film to the plastic and cross your fingers? Doesn't seem re-usable to me....

Nitroplait · Jan 8, 2025

One may as well re-use commercial cassettes then and tape the bulk film to the end of film sticking out.

Many have done that for years (myself included) without problems.

You can usually get cassettes for free from your lab and I would put more trust in an Ilford/Fuji/Kodak cassette than something from a random Chinese company trying to make a quick buck.

Ivo Stunga · Jan 8, 2025

That felt looks like a hazard

koraks · Jan 8, 2025

Those look nice, but I agree with @Ivo Stunga that the felt doesn't look nearly as good as on the American, European and Japanese cassettes.

bjorke said:
Doesn't seem re-usable to me....

Why not? When done, pull out the film, cut off and process; then tape another length of film onto the trailer.

Are these available through AliExpress etc.?

Ivo Stunga · Jan 8, 2025

I'm also not a big fan of the gap between the cap and the gate, stuffed with said poor felt... Tolerances seem to be off
AND the gate metal thingy seems to have sharp edges

pentaxuser · Jan 8, 2025

Nitroplait said:
One may as well re-use commercial cassettes then and tape the bulk film to the end of film sticking out.

Many have done that for years (myself included) without problems.

You can usually get cassettes for free from your lab and I would put more trust in an Ilford/Fuji/Kodak cassette than something from a random Chinese company trying to make a quick buck.

Exactly

pentaxuser

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 8, 2025

That is what I did at the previous high school I taught at. My current school, there are heaps of refillable cartridges, so I use them. Truth be told, the non-refillable cartridges were faster to load.

Donald Qualls · Jan 9, 2025

Andrew O'Neill said:
the non-refillable cartridges were faster to load.

While potentially true (I envision issues with the tape join not being perfectly aligned, causing film to jam in the cassette while loading), a refillable cassette doesn't need to be destroyed to retrieve film that got wound all the way in (in theory, neither do the commercial ones, but I've had very poor percentages trying to retrieve a leader).

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 9, 2025

Donald Qualls said:
While potentially true (I envision issues with the tape join not being perfectly aligned, causing film to jam in the cassette while loading), a refillable cassette doesn't need to be destroyed to retrieve film that got wound all the way in (in theory, neither do the commercial ones, but I've had very poor percentages trying to retrieve a leader).

I never had an issue retrieving film accidentally wound inside the canister. Students were pretty careless, and did that daily. I got good at it. For the impossible ones, I binned them. We literally had boxes of them from a London Drugs' film dept. The refillable canisters at my current school has the snap on, metal lids. The downside is that they can pop off easily, when loading into the camera...if kids aren't careful. Then there's the potential of losing the caps... or left behind inside a film changing bag. I'm forever finding them inside a bag, whenever I'm loading a film bulk loader

cmacd123 · Jan 9, 2025

the ARISTA Pan 100 film comes in a simalr cassette. end caps so well staked they don't come off and the end of the film taped to a clear leader at the center of the spool. These require the use of a leder retriver to get the film leader back out, and the film to be pulled out of the light trap in the dark to load the Tank.

they seem to be available from refix Lab in China https://reflxlab.com/en-ca/products/50pcs-metal-film-cassettes-with-dx-code-or-not-free-shipping

bjorke · Jan 11, 2025

cmacd123 said:
the ARISTA Pan 100 film comes in a simalr cassette. end caps so well staked they don't come off and the end of the film taped to a clear leader at the center of the spool. These require the use of a leder retriver to get the film leader back out, and the film to be pulled out of the light trap in the dark to load the Tank.

they seem to be available from refix Lab in China https://reflxlab.com/en-ca/products/50pcs-metal-film-cassettes-with-dx-code-or-not-free-shipping

yes those are the ones in the pic

cmacd123 · Jan 11, 2025

bjorke said:
yes those are the ones in the pic

I recall when I saw them I was excited, But when I wrote the seller, they sated that the end caps were not removable, and the so the only way to re-use them is to remove the film through the light trap and use tape to attach the new film to the stub attched to the spool.

bjorke · Jan 12, 2025

cmacd123 said:
I recall when I saw them I was excited, But when I wrote the seller, they sated that the end caps were not removable, and the so the only way to re-use them is to remove the film through the light trap and use tape to attach the new film to the stub attched to the spool.

something tells me that this is what you get when buying bulk-spooled film (say,Double-X) from small shops

koraks · Jan 12, 2025

I'm tempted to buy a bunch, even though I've got hundreds of used "disposable" cartridges left that are still good for many rounds of reuse.
@bjorke please let us know how you fare with these.

John Wiegerink · Jan 12, 2025

Many years back I bought a bunch of expired HP5 72exp rolls of 35mm film. Those cartridges are all metal and 100% reloadable by just tightly squeezing the cassette body and pulling the end cap off. I still use those as my prefer cassettes to this day. All that said, I went to cutting and leaving a bit of the end film sticking out. I then tape to that the film to load like others here do. I like the old HP5 72exp cassettes since I can disassemble the and use my mini vacuum to clean and fluff the felt back to like new. With the Chinese ones mentioned above I would just throw them away after my first sign of a scratch. Of course I now use very little 35mm film so this works for me where it might not for someone else.

4season · Jan 12, 2025

Haven't yet had the chance to test this, but it may be possible to reuse the newer Ferrania cassettes: The sort used with the earlier batches of P30 with pasted-on labels have end caps which are firmly crimpled into place, but newer ones look similar to the old Kalt-branded reloadable cassettes.

Ivo Stunga · Jan 12, 2025

Yes, the Ferrania one I have has great build quality and the top can be popped off and put back easily and holds firmly in place. I use it to load my bulk film from top to avoid extra travels through the gate - useful for softer emulsions like Foma

bjorke · Jan 12, 2025

koraks said:
I'm tempted to buy a bunch, even though I've got hundreds of used "disposable" cartridges left that are still good for many rounds of reuse.
@bjorke please let us know how you fare with these.

I'll try some eventually -- I too have a bunch of old Kalt cartridges, but they are one by one going bad.... bought these as a backup, pretty cheap!

John Wiegerink · Jan 12, 2025

Ivo Stunga said:
Yes, the Ferrania one I have has great build quality and the top can be popped off and put back easily and holds firmly in place. I use it to load my bulk film from top to avoid extra travels through the gate - useful for softer emulsions like Foma

Do you use a bulk loader when doing this? Let me get this straight, you load just the internal spool in the bulk film loader, wind until you have the amount of exposure you want, then insert the loaded spool back into the outer cassette and pop the cap back on? All in the dark of course. I think I'm going to do this from now on myself. Thanks for the tip.

cmacd123 · Jan 12, 2025

4season said:
Haven't yet had the chance to test this, but it may be possible to reuse the newer Ferrania cassettes: The sort used with the earlier batches of P30 with pasted-on labels have end caps which are firmly crimpled into place, but newer ones look similar to the old Kalt-branded reloadable cassettes.

for the last couple of batches, Ferrania revived one of the older film spooling machines which produces (I hope will still produce) cassettes similar to the ones that 3M/Ferrania sold before all the Cassettes were crimped. (the last resuable ones I had from before times were Arista Colour Film)

this page shows one view of part of that machine:

Orto

Explore and purchase our photographic films, capturing the imagination of filmmakers, photographers, and artists worldwide. The film that shaped the history of cinema has returned to tell stories through the art of analog photography. In black and white.

www.filmferrania.com

and this page shows some stills of the cassettes close up.

P30

Explore and purchase our photographic films, capturing the imagination of filmmakers, photographers, and artists worldwide. The film that shaped the history of cinema has returned to tell stories through the art of analog photography. In black and white.

www.filmferrania.com

Ivo Stunga · Jan 13, 2025

John Wiegerink said:
Do you use a bulk loader when doing this? Let me get this straight, you load just the internal spool in the bulk film loader, wind until you have the amount of exposure you want, then insert the loaded spool back into the outer cassette and pop the cap back on? All in the dark of course. I think I'm going to do this from now on myself. Thanks for the tip.

I load by hand in the dark, measuring the length by hanging it and cutting predetermined length - usually 3 strips at a time

John Wiegerink · Jan 13, 2025

Ivo Stunga said:
I load by hand in the dark, measuring the length by hanging it and cutting predetermined length - usually 3 strips at a time

OK, now I understand. I think I'll dry a practice run in my bulk film loader to see if it will work with the bulk loader.

Ivo Stunga · Jan 13, 2025

Sure thing - if loading by hand, handle the film only in perforation area and fingerprints/oils won't be an issue.

Ivo Stunga · Jan 13, 2025

Oh, and cleaning the gate helps - either compressed air or a sticky note

"Blank Cartridges" - Re-usable, or Not?

bjorke

Nitroplait

Ivo Stunga

koraks

Moderator

Ivo Stunga

pentaxuser

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

Donald Qualls

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

cmacd123

bjorke

cmacd123

bjorke

koraks

Moderator

John Wiegerink

4season

Ivo Stunga

bjorke

John Wiegerink

cmacd123

Orto

P30

Ivo Stunga

John Wiegerink

Ivo Stunga

Ivo Stunga

"Blank Cartridges" - Re-usable, or Not?

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency