Improving the film loading process in the Minolta-16 MG Camera

I love using the Minolta 16 MG. I love how small it is, I love using the flash, and I love the results and how convenient it is for everyday use.

But one thing that I find absolutely miserable is the experience of loading film. I own several 100ft wheels of color or BW film for it, and usually use a 3D printed cassette for it.
The downsides of my current process are:

1 - The space inside the cartridge is too narrow for a satisfying length of film - Estimating the length of film that will fit in this area is very difficult and leads to waste



2 - The cassette's cog is wider than it needs to be and could be more snug around the take-up gear



3 - The width of the cassette itself is inferior to what the maximum width could be - while at the same time being difficult to pull out of the camera



4 - Tape doesn't adhere properly to the take-up spool while attaching film to it - the 3d printed texture makes it difficult for tape to adhere properly - could be solved by adding a slit in the cylinder to catch and align the film more easily in the dark. Aligning the tape in the dark is also difficult and requires several attempts



5 - Placing the cassette in the camera is difficult, sometimes the cassette is flush with the camera and the lid can be closed easily, sometimes not - I'm struggling to understand why






Solutions I have considered:

1 - Modifying the 3D model of the cassette to address the issues I have with it

2 - Not using all the parts of the cassette and only using the take-up spool part of it, while the rest of the film will be lose inside the camera (might pose light leak issues)



3 - Asking on Photrio to see if someone who uses this camera has better ideas


What is frustrating is how wide the silver metal gear seen on picture #2 is, rather than having just a cylinder of smaller diameter with a slit through it which would allow easier loading.

I'm interested to hear how other people do it

fabulousrice said:

Asking on Photrio to see if someone who uses this camera has better ideas

Click to expand...

The only 3D cassettes I've seen I would not use because of the light leaks through the walls of the cassette (they are OK if you load and unload the camera in a darkroom). Add in your problems with them, and I'd advise using Minolta, Yashica, or FR cassettes. You don't need many. I can get all the film I want into the Minolta cassettes -- the problem is the film counter on the camera has a limit, so there is little point of getting longer lengths in the cassette. Even THICK film, such as Kodak 2475 or high speed color film fits fine in the real McCoy.

As to the tape not sticking to the take up spool -- cut a longer length of tape and simply attach it to both sides of the film.

A few notes:

Use ESun matte black PLA + filament printing with a 0.2mm nozzle, and you will get opaque light tight cassettes. Should be some models out there that work. The one you have needs to have the "lobes" moved a few tenths of a mm apart, it's too small. Adjusting the %printing size might help too.

Film drum diameter is fixed, otherwise the image spacing will be wrong. Camera was only intended to make 18 images per roll, and reducing the drum diameter will make them closer together -- much reduction in diameter will result in images touching. I've printed up a few that fit nicely -- the fact that yours don't always seat is due to the drum not fitting down on the points of the driver, either turn the drum a little or slightly advance the camera. Same issue with Kiev carts.

18" of film works great, easy to make something that length to measure out film. More than that will probably jam unless you are using microfilm.

Finding tape that sticks to anything but itself these days is a challange. Scotch won't work on PLA, better on PETg, but the tape Kodak used to hold film onto paper backing seems to be un-available anywhere I can find.

Keep in mind that Minolta and Kiev made cameras with different format sizes -- Minolta 10x14mm & 12x17mm, and Kiev 10x14mm & 13x17mm. That affects the number of exposures & the camera's film counter, as well as the length of the film loaded into the cassette.

The later Kiev cameras used a cassette with a spool having a narrower center, so that a longer strip of film could be loaded. These later Kiev cassettes will not fit into earlier Kiev cameras, or any Minolta camera (as well as Yashica, Kowa, and other 16mm cameras that used the Minolta cassette).

And if using any 3D printed cassette, it's a good idea to check for possible light leaks by using a penlight inside a dark room.