New metal film cassettes

mshchem · Apr 13, 2023

Here's the original, easy to pop open reusable Kodak cassette. Oh the good old days. c.1950

eli griggs · Apr 13, 2023

The energy of a soft lead bullet hitting and dumping it's kinetic energy into the top surface of a lock can make a sheering force that pushes the lock away from the "hook" of the 'U' shaped bar, either pushing that bar past that part or actually sheering away that sliver of metal that is holding it in place.

You're no shooting through it, that's the wrong approach, unless you're making a Master Lock commercial, but hitting it with a sort of powered hammer.

Soft lead will dump more of it's energy into the lock than a copper jacketed bullet, in general because of the loss of mass and energy when the copper jacket peels apart and takes some of those factors with them in the form of shrapnel.

Kodak forgot that reloaders of their cassettes most likely would be buying Kodak bulk load films to refill their original Kodak cassettes; clawing out a few extra pennies from users whom needed to buy new preloaded film to get more cassettes, until that need was met by Ilford, and empty cassette makers.

That was no a good strategy to maintain Kodak loyalty in the brand, IMO.

Cheers

cptrios · Apr 14, 2023

Just received mine. They seem quite solid compared to the Ukrainian ones I've been using. The caps to those look better because they overlap the canister a lot more, but they've got a ton of play. The ones on these don't budge at all.

The spool does have a little hook in the center to catch a hole cut in the end of your film, so I suppose if you feel like punching holes like that every time you load, it'd work out. They come with a little slip of plastic already attached, though, so theoretically you never actually have to take these apart if you want to do the tape-and-wind method (and therefore either never use these in a motorized camera or get handy with a leader retriever). The felt seems ok, but who knows. We'll see how they actually work out when I shoot a roll!

pthornto · Apr 14, 2023

Thanks for posting these pictures. It’s encouraging that the caps seem to go on and stay on tight. Interested to see how you make out with these.

callsign_BULL · May 17, 2024

Midwest Film Co. Metal Cassettes, https://www.midwestfilmco.com/bulk-loading/midwestfilmco-metal-reloadable-35mm-cartridge :
I just received four non-disassembleable, plastic loading tongue cassettes ($2.50 ea) but I had an issue with them. None of them had a plastic tongues protruding, and there was no instructions or warnings included. It turned out that they were shipped with the tongues just inside the front edge of the light trap and should have been turned backwards to display the tongues - I wasn't informed of that. Apparently in my fumbling I turned the spools and pulled the tongues fully inside. A film leader retriever won't grab them. I emailed Midwest for guidance and within two hours I got a reply with the missing info, and offer to replace them - they were then shot. Here are the main points: In a second email they said they have had problems with a shipping preparation (thus the tongue-in-trap hack), and further that they are a money-looser for them and they are considering ceasing production after the present supply is exhausted. So, if you want some, order soon. And if you do, remember to immediately roll the loading tongues out backwards before you do anything else.

DBF

loccdor · May 17, 2024

Ι have also used the Midwest canisters mentioned by OP. They do have a plastic bit attached to the spool. The cans are rather reflective which is a drawback, it would be better if they were black, they tend to leak some light. I may paint mine black.

I'm not sure why rolling the tongue inside the spool would be a problem, couldn't you just pop the cap off to pull it out again?

cptrios · May 17, 2024

Weird. I wonder why they started to make the caps non-removable?

callsign_BULL · May 17, 2024

loccdor said:
I'm not sure why rolling the tongue inside the spool would be a problem, couldn't you just pop the cap off to pull it out again?

No, the end cap is not now intended to be a pop-off, and thus the pre-attached plastic loading tongue, The plastic tongue is too short and stiff to be retrieved if it gets inside. My guess is that the present iteration is an attempt to reduce production cost - I hope the product survives.

DBF//

Neal · May 17, 2024

I purchased these items and the caps easily pop off. The plastic tongue is there to tape the film to but I cut it off and tape the film to the reel as I've always done it. Old dog and new tricks sort of thing.

guangong · May 17, 2024

Years ago I used to reload used cassettes as well as Kodak reloadable cassettes, but the risk of dirt on felt light trap wasn’t worth the bother. Now the only cassettes I bulk load are Leitz and Zeiss (I would use Nikon if any were affordable) because film never touches the mouth of cassette when in camera, so there is no chance of film being scratched.

Rrrgcy · May 18, 2024

I was also shipped several without the tongue sticking out from the 2nd (and last) batch. They’re very sealed. Tried to cleanly remove the end caps but it’s like they’re soldered crimped on. I just tossed them. Happy with the 1st original Midwest Film Co. pop tops, been working without light fail issues. It’s tough to tell each batch from the other so I label the sealed versions w typed print “for manual rewind only”. Differences in appearance are distinct but minimal so easy to mistake one for the other. Bottom is original, top is sealed.

eli griggs · May 18, 2024

Rrrgcy said:
I was also shipped several without the tongue sticking out from the 2nd (and last) batch. They’re very sealed. Tried to cleanly remove the end caps but it’s like they’re soldered crimped on. I just tossed them. Happy with the 1st original Midwest Film Co. pop tops, been working without light fail issues. It’s tough to tell each batch from the other so I label the sealed versions w typed print “for manual rewind only”. Differences in appearance are distinct but minimal so easy to mistake one for the other. Bottom is original, top is sealed.

When you tried to remove the cap, did you evenly put squeezing pressure on the cassette near the cap you are trying to remove?

The metal cassettes I use, look like these, but it takes put some pressure compressing the body near the 'locked' on cap to remove the lid, undamaged and ready for a new reload.

Give it a try and see if this works for your sealed cassettes.

Cheers

armadsen · May 18, 2024

The caps do not come off on the second/current version. Directly from Midwest Film Co.’s website:

These are a new style of metal cartridge and the caps DO NOT come off. As long as the plastic tab is in place you can tape film to it as many times as you’d like!

I don’t know why they switched designs, but despite these ones being more expensive than the first version, they’re far inferior.

eli griggs · May 18, 2024

armadsen said:
The caps do not come off on the second/current version. Directly from Midwest Film Co.’s website:

I don’t know why they switched designs, but despite these ones being more expensive than the first version, they’re far inferior.

Designed obsoleteness, to ensure more sales, IMO.

Argue back for a reusable design that has an openable lid.

Running new raw film back into the cassettes, only doubles the chances of a scratched roll of film and there is no reason for a faulty redesign.

It's the film that matters, the cassette can be replaced by plastic cans, fail-safe by a small tab of tape, lid to cassette closure

IMO.

callsign_BULL · May 18, 2024

eli griggs said:
Designed obsoleteness, to ensure more sales, IMO.

More likely an attempt to reduce cost and increase profitability.

Excerpt from an email from Midwest to me two days ago (Thu, 16 May 24): "Once these are gone we’ll likely drop the product all together. Lost too much on shipping alone."

DBF//

eli griggs · May 18, 2024

callsign_BULL said:
More likely an attempt to reduce cost and increase profitability.

Excerpt from an email from Midwest to me two days ago (Thu, 16 May 24): "Once these are gone we’ll likely drop the product all together. Lost too much on shipping alone."

DBF//

Good to know.

Perhaps the company will return to a multi-reloadable design and find a low cost shipping solution.

MCB18 · May 21, 2024

Anyone have any idea how to replace light felt on old Ilford pop tops? Mine seem to be leaking light which is extremely disappointing.

eli griggs · May 21, 2024

MCB18 said:
Anyone have any idea how to replace light felt on old Ilford pop tops? Mine seem to be leaking light which is extremely disappointing.

You might try buying some self-adhesive, short nap felt in sheets, about 8.5" x 11" from Amazon or a good fabric or crafts store.

You can cut this with a good metal straight edge and a really sharp scale blade or an old fashion double edged shaving blade (be super careful with those) for the cleanest edges.

Better yet, have someone with a Circuit cutting machine cut it into one and a half or two millimeter stripes and hand cut to length.

Pop off the remaining cartridge cap, and use a sharp blade (that is not slicing felts) to carve away the old felts away from both sides of the lips, clean with ISO or Everclear grain alcohol and once again, with plane water and dry.

DO NOT PULL OR PUSH THE CASSETTES OUT OF SHAPE, while removing old felts or while installing the new felts and caps, for reloading.

The springiness of the cassette body is limited and you won't need to stream it to the point of changing it's geometry.

In my opinion, you should have a small set of straight forceps or pointed tweezers, plus a straight needle probe to help install the felts.

I hope this is of some help; perhaps someone else can instruct you to cleanly use contact cement as your adhesive on Velvet or non-adhesive felts, for a wider choice of methods.

I don't think spray adhesives are a good idea, but others here might have a different perspective.

I.M.O.

Cheers.

New metal film cassettes

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