Shirley-Wellard cassettes and the Canon F-1 New

I've been shooting more and more Double-X in my F-1 New, and using those amazing little Shirley-Wellard reloadable cassettes...but I've been having issues. It was hard to get the cassettes in and out of the camera, and the film was tracking a little high across the shutter opening, meaning the tops of my images were into the perfs. After fiddling around with them a lot I finally realized the dead-simple fix: remove the little anti-backlash adjuster entirely. It's made out of really thin shim stock, but that puts just enough additional distance between the screw head and the cassette to make it a tight fit in the opening...and pushing it high in the opening. The anti-backlash feature isn't really required in this camera, nor is the tracking adjustment. Just spin out both screws, remove the anti-backlash shim, then replace both screws fully (to keep out any light.) Ahhhhhhh, now the cassette just drops right in like any normal 35mm film, and comes back out again easily, and no more perfs inside the image area.

Hang on to the anti-backlash piece in case you ever need to use your cassette in some other sort of camera that needs it, of course!

In case you have no idea what these are, here is another post from a while back where I linked to scans I made of the instructions, which will give you an idea of how they work:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Duncan

never heard of them. Interesting variation of the many types of cassettes camera makers sold. I still use Leica cassettes which, because they are designed only for one type of camera, could be specialized. They're simple to use and ultra-reliable.

These are really an engineering work of art and pretty rare these days. Have a look at the Roger and Frances site( as in Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz). A SW cassette is shown there with an article on it

pentaxuser

Not sure I see the point really. I'm sure they are nicely made but redesigning the standard cassette in a way that requires such complication seems a bit...British (spoken as one who has had and loved a few old British motorcycles over the years). Having said that, I'd certainly like to have a few to try out myself!

EdColorado said:

Not sure I see the point really. I'm sure they are nicely made but redesigning the standard cassette in a way that requires such complication seems a bit...British (spoken as one who has had and loved a few old British motorcycles over the years). Having said that, I'd certainly like to have a few to try out myself!

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The standard cassette uses a felt light trap, that rubs on the film as it passes through...twice! Works well enough for one-shot cassettes supplied with new film, but when you're bulk loading and the film passes through it three times, and then 3 more times every time you re-use the cassette... well, eventually the scratches are just unavoidable. So there's the point to this overly complicated redesign: the film never touches anything on its way in and out and in the cassette!

Duncan

pentaxuser said:

These are really an engineering work of art and pretty rare these days. Have a look at the Roger and Frances site( as in Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz). A SW cassette is shown there with an article on it

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

Link for those who don't know how to operate Google ;-)

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how choose cassetes.html

Duncan

I've shot with my New Canon F-1 for over 30 years and I've never heard of these cartridges. Thanks!

Mainecoonmaniac said:

I've shot with my New Canon F-1 for over 30 years and I've never heard of these cartridges. Thanks!

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You haven't lived, they were made by a small engineering company in the English Midlands in the forties and fiftys and were very high quality and probably the best readable cassettes ever made.
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/c...sal-cassettebrdelightful-labyrinth-style-dood

Well..

benjiboy said:

You haven't lived
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/c...sal-cassettebrdelightful-labyrinth-style-dood

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I'm keeping my eye out for one of those cartridges. But it's for bulk loading correct? I haven't bulk loaded in decades due to dirt in the light trap on those film cartridges. Hate getting scratches on the full length of the film. But these Shirley Wellard cartridges are different?

Thanks for the inside scoop Ben. It's always good get get tips from a fellow Canon F-1 (n) user.

Yes it is as frobozz says the light trap is based on the labyrithine principle and does not rely on a felt light trap for light-tightness so the film never touches any material.

It is of course complicated and quaint like everything else in the U.K. and like the railway bridge over the river Forth in Scotland cannot be expected to last much beyond say 200 years

pentaxuser

Mainecoonmaniac said:

I'm keeping my eye out for one of those cartridges. But it's for bulk loading correct? I haven't bulk loaded in decades due to dirt in the light trap on those film cartridges. Hate getting scratches on the full length of the film. But these Shirley Wellard cartridges are different?

Thanks for the inside scoop Ben. It's always good get get tips from a fellow Canon F-1 (n) user.

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A pleasure, unfortunately I'm old enough to remember them and indeed used to have some of them in the days I used to "roll my own" but I can't remember what happened to them because it must be thirty years since I used them, and I've moved house a couple of times since then, although you do sometimes see them on E bay, and that's an F1(N) user (upper Case ) the F1n is the updated version of the original F1

pentaxuser said:

Yes it is as frobozz says the light trap is based on the labyrithine principle and does not rely on a felt light trap for light-tightness so the film never touches any material.

It is of course complicated and quaint like everything else in the U.K. and like the railway bridge over the river Forth in Scotland cannot be expected to last much beyond say 200 years

pentaxuser

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They were a superb example of British design and engineering and know how that are still highly prized by the cognoscenti because they have never been equalled since.