Decent quality reloadable cassettes for 35m??

ColdEye · Jan 7, 2022

Just got a set of the Arista plastic cassettes from Freestyle and most of them have the felts already disintegrating. Are there any other good choices? Scouring the web for kodak snap caps are a chore, and it seems my go to metal reloadable are not available anymore. For now I am just re-using my spent 35mm cassettes by taping the film to the remaining bit of film left.

ColdEye · Jan 7, 2022

Those metal ones from Russia look interesting. Have you used those yourself?

Moose22 · Jan 8, 2022

ColdEye said:
Just got a set of the Arista plastic cassettes from Freestyle and most of them have the felts already disintegrating. Are there any other good choices? Scouring the web for kodak snap caps are a chore, and it seems my go to metal reloadable are not available anymore. For now I am just re-using my spent 35mm cassettes by taping the film to the remaining bit of film left.

I had exactly the same issue.

Freestyle has completely lost my business based on their response, as well. They told me "We'll check our warehouse on this" and didn't even refund my money. Now I see you have the SAME problem, so they obviously didn't "check their warehouse" or any such thing. Those guys are not trustworthy.

I got some of the Soviet metal cans from the Ukrainian seller on the ebay. They're easy to use and the felt is great so they aren't going to put tons of crap into your camera like the freestyle trash. They didn't seem super secure at first, but I haven't had them come apart in my bag or leak light or anything, and I've loaded and shot a few times with them now, so they're good. Beefy, too, they'll last forever.

Otherwise, I've been saving my preloaded ones when they're done. I had a handful of HP5 rolls before I started loading HP5, so I tape the new film to the leader. Not only works great, but I even have the correct DX encoding for my newer cameras without having to hack anything.

I do have a box of snap caps and like them a lot. But, yeah, they're rare now. If you find them at a good price, snag them. They're fussy to use at first, but once you get the hang of it they're great.

Moose22 · Jan 8, 2022

Old Gregg said:
unused and individually wrapped in a strangely stinky paper, but the quality is sublime.

Same. Wrapped in oiled paper. Feels to me like the plastic revolution didn't make it to the Soviet Union until 30 years after the west.

ColdEye · Jan 8, 2022

Yeah, I emailed them about it and they pretty much just said send pictures and then radio silence. Oh well. I did see the Ukranian seller too. Might try both.

AgX · Jan 8, 2022

Old Gregg said:
They were new old stock, unused and individually wrapped in a strangely stinky paper, but the quality is sublime.

These papers may have been treated with a volatile anticorrosion compound, I once came such across in the long past with a consumer product. Or just common oiled paper where the oil had oxidized.

Nitroplait · Jan 8, 2022

ColdEye said:
For now I am just re-using my spent 35mm cassettes by taping the film to the remaining bit of film left.

It doesn't feed our need to buy new photographic stuff, but works just as well.
I have FILCA, IXMOO, Nikon F and Nikon AM-1 casettes as well as unbranded metal casettes in current use, and they are not better or worse than reusing commercial casettes like you do.

pentaxuser · Jan 8, 2022

ColdEye said:
For now I am just re-using my spent 35mm cassettes by taping the film to the remaining bit of film left.

My experience doing the same with my own and the local mini-lab customers' ones has been excellent. They can often be freer-running than the plastic re-usable ones and in the case of the mini lab's each cassette has only has one film through it so the felt light trap tends to be in excellent condition. The only slight issue is that the mini lab's machine leaves only a small piece of the remaining film out of the cassette but there is enough to be taped if reasonable care is exercised

pentaxuser

Patrick Robert James · Jan 8, 2022

Just make friends with someone at a minilab and you will have all the cassettes you will ever need. I've never run across anyone that said no if I asked for their used cassettes. I haven't looked for them for a long time though since I probably have hundreds now. I imagine these days there might be a demand for them.

Taping film to a used cassette is the easiest way I think. Otherwise you are fiddling with caps. A while back I picked up some old Kodak and Agfa snap cassettes for nostalgia and the first thing I did was tape in a leader so I never had to open the cassettes again.

AgX · Jan 8, 2022

I am not sure though that taping to an old stub will work when loading without a loader, to get the film straightly fixed.
And even when using a loader, there is not much filmlength between mouth of cassette and film gate of the camera to avoid spoiling of a the last frame in any circumstance, as the splice being located at just that spacing.

Alan9940 · Jan 8, 2022

AgX said:
And even when using a loader, there is not much filmlength between mouth of cassette and film gate of the camera to avoid spoiling of a the last frame in any circumstance, as the splice being located at just that spacing.

I always spool on two extra frames and have never had an issue with the last exposed frame.

AgX · Jan 8, 2022

I see. Well, my approach of thinking was different, thus my remark.
When loading reloadable cassettes I typically load them just to the limit, yielding, over 40 exp., then, if the camera yields such, I transport until there is resistance by the film, not stopping at the 36exp. mark. This approach applied to splicing of course neccessitates to keep the splice outside the film gate.

Also when overloading a reloadable cassette I can feel when I am at the limit, something I hardly can do when loading by splicing, unless using a loader or a premeasured strip of film.

Each approach has its benefits and shortcomings, we just have to be aware of them.

tomkatf · Jan 8, 2022

Ilford used to make the best metal reloadable cassettes... At San Diego State we bought them in 100 count boxes...

Saganich · Jan 24, 2022

I just wanted to relay my experience with the Ukrainian film cassettes, at least the ones I bought. The build quality is great, the felt is great, but they don't fit into any of my ltm's or M's. The end caps bulge just a wee bit too much causing them to jam so the cap will likely stay behind when you remove the cassette. They work fine in my Nikon F2. I haven't tried all of them, but I had an inlking of this when I noticed they didn't fit well in standard film cans.

Moose22 · Jan 24, 2022

I haven't tried them in my leica. I have an M3. Now I want to give it a try just because. They are a bit more bulky than snap caps or regular cassettes where you tape to the leader.

They fit several of my Nikons fine. I've used them in an F2, an F3, and an FM3a.

Thanks for the heads up.

Alan9940 · Jan 24, 2022

Saganich said:
The build quality is great, the felt is great, but they don't fit into any of my ltm's or M's.

Odd. I have the same ones and they work fine in my two Leica M6's.

Nitroplait · Jan 25, 2022

Assuming we talk about the same "U35K" cartridges as depicted below, I'd have to say they are crudely made, very typical of the Sovjet Union era. I do not have problems dropping them into - and removing them from my M's and LTM's but I admittedly mostly use IXMOOs and FILCAs in those cameras.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was bit of sample variation causing some cartridges to give resistance when removing from the camera.
Charming product never-the-less, and if they work they probably will forever.

This is how they were packed from the factory - still smelly and sticky

Nitroplait · Jan 25, 2022

btw. I thought the uneven exterior of the cassettes was hardened rust protective oil - and it may be - but if trying to wipe it off with alcohol, it will take the paint as well, so don't do that.

Alan9940 · Jan 25, 2022

Yes, those are the same ones I have and, yes, they are of a "quality" one would expect from that part of the world. I've only recently started using them so time will tell the tale.

ic-racer · Jan 25, 2022

I got all my reloadable cassettes in the 1980s. They all still work fine, and I only bulk load. Too bad the new ones are no good, I was thinking of getting some new ones.

Moose22 · Jan 25, 2022

Nitroplait said:
Assuming we talk about the same "U35K" cartridges as depicted below, I'd have to say they are crudely made, very typical of the Sovjet Union era. I do not have problems dropping them into - and removing them from my M's and LTM's but I admittedly mostly use IXMOOs and FILCAs in those cameras.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was bit of sample variation causing some cartridges to give resistance when removing from the camera.
Charming product never-the-less, and if they work they probably will forever.

This is how they were packed from the factory - still smelly and sticky

yes, those are them.

I actually got two orders. One from an etsy seller wrapped in paper like that. Mine weren't sticky though. The second order was from an Ebay seller. They were all clean, no paper, no sticky, and perfect and packed in a box nicely. Alas, they took 7 weeks to get here, but that's international bargain rate shipping this winter, not the seller's fault.

And variation is almost guaranteed. There's nothing precise about the manufacture. Stamped steel and rolled steel and there's no doubt in my mind nobody was maintaining the dies on their machines until the machine failed.

ColdEye · Jan 25, 2022

Well I found a couple Snap Caps on eBay, but as anything else they are way up there in price now. I have just reloaded two 100ft rolls into used canisters (a couple of labs here just gave it away) and no issues so far.

Tel · Jan 26, 2022

I ordered a bellows from Rudy (ecbuyonline2008) in Hong Kong this week and noticed that he's also selling reloadables. They look like a different design from the ones with the felt falling out that Freestyle and B&H are selling, so I ordered some. I'll post results as soon as they arrive.

snusmumriken · Jan 26, 2022

I hadn't realised that this had become so difficult. Alarming! I bought a batch of 100 empty new un-branded metal cassettes in the early '90s. They were the older style that virtually all film manufacturers used up to that time, with slightly deeper end caps that you could pull off with your fingernails. When I bought them they had already been superseded by the current type that you must destroy to get the film out, so I guess the factory (in Spain, IIRC) was selling off their stocks. I check every freshly-developed film for scratches before returning the cassette to stock, but I have had zero problems with them, even though they have felted light traps.

Before that I had the plastic ones with a single twist-off end (often self-removing), which seem to be all that's available now. They were really terrible for causing scratches.

Ilford don't prominently advertise their bulk lengths of 35mm, so I assume they would prefer us to buy machine-loaded cassettes. That probably makes economic sense, but disposable containers go against the grain for many of us - and besides home-loading is fun, right?

AgX · Jan 27, 2022

snusmumriken said:
I bought a batch of 100 empty new un-branded metal cassettes in the early '90s. They were the older style that virtually all film manufacturers used up to that time, with slightly deeper end caps that you could pull off with your fingernails. I have had zero problems with them, even though they have felted light traps.

I never ever saw a cassette with a light trap made from felt.
Though I got a professional bulk loader that got such.

Decent quality reloadable cassettes for 35m??

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