Re loadable 35mm film cassettes

[NDKodak]

How many times do you reuse re loadable 35mm film cassettes before you have to discard them? Normally I do not have many problems but I had a couple of them pop open on me today after loading them.
Is there any one brand that you feel is better then others?
What do you think of the new plastic ones that have screw on top?

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I find the metal ones to be more reliable than the plastic. But others may have the opposite opinion. The main problem is with grit being caught in the felt light trap. I use a little brush made by Butler designed to a used between the teeth. It is just the right size to clean the felt. You can find a card with 3 of them in the drugstore,

 

[markbarendt]

I use metal and have had no problems.

 

[AgX]

The current plastic types can easily be secured against opening (if necessary) by means of a strip of adhesive tape fixed to the drum and that notch on the cap.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

I find the metal ones to be more reliable than the plastic. But others may have the opposite opinion. The main problem is with grit being caught in the felt light trap. I use a little brush made by Butler designed to a used between the teeth. It is just the right size to clean the felt. You can find a card with 3 of them in the drugstore,

Good idea, thanks. They are called proxy brushes I believe.

 

[Neal]

Dear NDKodak,

I have 2 different constructions of metal cassettes and one type of plastic cassette. I have had zero problems that were not my fault. I have only had to discard one plastic cassette because the light seals were dying in a new (to me) camera and the goop got into the light trap.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

 

[pentaxuser]

I have never has the plastic screw type ever unscrew or open up on me. I have seen a recommended re-use of a max of 5 mentioned but i see no reason why with careful use and cleaning with the between the teeth brush or sticky part of a post-it note the cassettes shouldn't last a lot longer.

The alternative, if you have a mini-lab close by, is to get it to give you its used cassettes. It probably throws away dozens in a week. Attach the bulk load film to the little bit of residual film on the cassette and you can then probably afford to throw away the cassette after one use. It's free as well!

pentaxuser

 

[walbergb]

How long a cassette will last is difficult to answer. If I find a scratched negative or a light leak, I put a small red self-adhesive dot on it. If I get the same bad results with that cassette a second time, I discard the cassette. If I do reuse that cassette, I'm careful not to use that cassette for "good" pictures. To protect the light seal and reduce the risk of the end coming off, I store the cassettes in the plastic containers commercial film comes in. The cassette is either in the camera or in the container. I find camera stores are happy to give the containers away. BTW, I prefer plastic screw tops over the metal clip type because (a) statistically p) they have a 50% less chance of popping open (1 versus 2 end caps), and (b) I have never had a plastic cap accidentally come off, whereas I can't count the number of times the metal caps have popped off).

 

[cmacd123]

The supply of different cassettes has been dwindling. MY madness is to stick a twin check tab on the cassette when I develop the film, (and noting the number on my film notes) and if the fog has gotten too big when the film is developed, I fish out and discard that cassette.

Since many of my SLR cameras are Canons that get upset and flash an icon on the LCD if they can't find the DX code. I have been using strictly the metal cassettes with the DX code. I am hoping that someone will gear up to produce these before I use up all my stock. I don't have the patience to use tape and stickers to try and emulate the DX code.

back when I used the plastic ones, I found that the light trap often would start to leak on the side with the removable cap after not all that many uses as the film gets forced into the trap from that end.

 

[nworth]

The metal ones seem to last pretty well forever if you take care with them. I still have some old Kodak cassettes from the Panatomic X and Super XX days, and they still work well. I also have some I bought about 25 years ago, and they still work well.

 

[damonff]

The metal ones seem to last pretty well forever if you take care with them. I still have some old Kodak cassettes from the Panatomic X and Super XX days, and they still work well. I also have some I bought about 25 years ago, and they still work well.

I also use mine again and again and they seem to last forever. My newest ones are 3 years old and they are fine. I just give them a blow before I load the film.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I have some that go back far enough they predate DX coding.
By storing them in film cans when not in the camera, the felt tends to stay clean.

I have every five years maybe, given the felt a vaccuuming with a crevice tool when I am doing a big mid winter bulk loading night. Other wise they seem to work fine for many many reusues for me.

I have only recently started to use a film leader retriver, and accordingly I now load the bulk E-6 film in my stash onto reused provia cans as I use up the factory loads, so when I wander into a good DX reading camers from time to time the latitude is correctly handled.

When taping onto a protruding tail, I stick to BluMax film spilcing tape bought from a lab. It sticks film together very well, with no gooing, like some masking tape can do with time.