What do you do with all your old film canisters? etc?

[Rom]

I use my 35mm canisters for pot!

Jeff

So when do we start a "blind canister exchange" ?

I can be in if needed

++

 

[Sirius Glass]

With a little internal trimming, the caps from black Kodak cans make servicable lens caps for many of the lenses on Speed Graphics and other older cameras. Years ago I've had to beg the cans from film processers when respooling 35mm film for major photo trips. One can develop a short piece of test film in one. For non-critical work they make inexpensive and convenient pinhole cameras. They work for housing minature electronic devices.

Thank you for that idea!

 

[MattKing]

I use my 35mm canisters for pot!

Jeff

A long time ago in a previous century all Kodachrome in Canada was sold "processing included" and came with a free envelope that could be used to mail the exposed film to the nearest Kodak processing laboratory.

On a reasonably regular basis, someone would get the brilliant idea of putting pot into the plastic cannisters and mailing same to another address (not Kodak's) using the Kodak envelope.

Unfortunately they didn't count on the fact that the Post Office saw such high volumes of those envelopes that they would tend to just automatically send the envelopes to the nearest Kodak lab without reading the address on the envelope.

Kodak would open all of those cannisters in extremely subdued light (people do the stupidest things with film) so the staff in that part of the lab would discover the contents of the cannisters essentially by feel.

In that earlier, more innocent time, some of the staff were a bit freaked out by their discoveries!

The RCMP would be called, and in some cases the contraband would be replaced and then the package would be sent along, in the hope that someone would claim the contents, and thus incriminate themselves.

It was a simpler time then ....

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

HAHA thats a very interesting tidbit Matt!

I reuse the canisters when I reload new cassettes. My grandparents used to load them up with quarters to buy their daily paper with.

 

[Maris]

Thinking of winding backing paper back on to empty 120 spools and Ebay-ing the package to people who want to do homeopathic photography.

 

[jford]

Make rockets for the kids: go outside, put a teaspoon of bicarb soda in the canister, pour in a little vinegar, pop the lid on, put it upside down on a concrete path, stand back and wait 30 seconds. Four metres is about the highest we've managed to shoot one. Lots of fun for ten year olds. Make sure they stand back...

 

[Ron G]

I have a metal one that I used to store tooth powder in for my foot locker display when I was in Germany in the army.That would be about 1960/'61.I still have it.Ron G

 

[Mike Wilde]

Thinking of winding backing paper back on to empty 120 spools.../QUOTE]

I do this with quite a few. When the 8x10x 250 sheet old paper box I store them in gets full, they start to get tossed again.

I have masking taped unspooled 120 backing paper over cracks around doors in motels bathrooms to turn them into light tight changing rooms, so I could change film holders before the sun went down before.

I also have used old backing paper as overlapping edgess for panels that get pushed into window openings when I want to turn the laundry room adjacent to the darkroom into a temporary darkroom when I make 20x24" prints.

The spools and backing paper are used when I reload them with 35mm film, for a image including sprokect holes and edge markings effect, when shot in a 120 roll film camera.

I also have slit down 70mm bulk film and reloaded 120 film this way.

 

[Mike Wilde]

Make rockets for the kids..

I donate my surplus black ones to the local scouts troop for these such activities. They also use them to make up mini moisture resisitant spice storage containers for when they go camping.

The clear ones I pass on to a uni archeology prof who is a pal. he uses them to store all sorts of small bits that are found at field investigations. He says they are so much easier to label once in the can.

 

[jgcull]

A friend of mine is a science teacher, and asked for the 35mm holders. They make volcanoes. ???

 

[2F/2F]

A friend of mine is a science teacher, and asked for the 35mm holders. They make volcanoes. ???

Tiny volcanoes! We used to use soup cans for volcanoes in science class.

 

[rjbuzzclick]

With a little internal trimming, the caps from black Kodak cans make servicable lens caps for many of the lenses on Speed Graphics and other older cameras.

+1 I use them for all of my LF 4x5 lenses, front and back, and then use a strip of double-sided velcro to wrap around the lens/lensboard to hold them on.

 

[John Koehrer]

I'm building an ark. I need either really tiny animals(2 ea.) or a crapload of canisters.

 

[pentaxuser]

One can develop a short piece of test film in one.

This sounds interesting. Presumably it has to be very short( how many frames/inches?) as it would curl against itself inside the can or does the dev liquid keep the film from sticking to itself?

Presumably you have to fill the can with dev in the dark or pre-fill it and place the film in it in the dark?

What happens at the end of dev? The emptying and filling with stop has again to be done in the dark?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Jim Jones]

The cannisters hold about 3.5" of film. Longer strips of film might overlap and prevent developer from completely reaching the film. They do have to be loaded in the dark, but this seems to be no great problem. Loading the film into the cannister and then adding the developer may be less a problem than trying to put the film into a cannister which already contains the developer. After the developer is dumped and the stopping completed, the stop bath can be replaced by the fix in very dim light. I would use an ordinary kitchen timer to time the development in total darkness rather turn the light on after loading the film and off before dumping the developer.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for the explanation, Jim. In a normal tank most will use inversion agitation. If you don't put the lid on the can I presume that swirling the dev in the can while open and upright achieves the same effect.

Certainly for a clip test your "trick" uses a lot less dev.

pentaxuser

 

[Selidor]

I used to make rockets when I was younger. These days I aimlessly juggle with them

 

[Romary]

With the 35 mm canister I make pinhole for solargraphy : http://www.le-stenope-republicain.info/2011/03/o-sole-mio.html

 

[magkelly]

I mostly use them for storing small sewing stuff, beads, and for keeping craft paint from drying out. If you have leftover paint and put it in a film canister usually it stays fresher and doesn't dry out as quickly. Also I have several in my purse for change, for pills, whatever.

 

[Jim Jones]

Thanks for the explanation, Jim. In a normal tank most will use inversion agitation. . . .

I put the cap on and slowly roll the cannister on a table top. It takes only a tiny fraction of an ounce of developer which is then disgarded.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks, Jim. This is in danger of becoming a separate thread but I have another question if I may. It suddenly struck me that the very economical way it uses dev then raises the issue of whether a few ccs of dev will be enough. For instance if the dev of choice is Xtol as it is in my case then Kodak recommends at least 100ml of stock. However this is for a full 36 frame 35mm so would I be right in assuming that the can will hold enough dev to do 3.5 inches of film.

This is about 3 frames so a 1/12th of a full film so 8-10 cc's should be enough and if so then the can will easily hold enough.

Is my logic correct?

Thanks

 

[Jim Jones]

Thanks, Jim. This is in danger of becoming a separate thread but I have another question if I may. It suddenly struck me that the very economical way it uses dev then raises the issue of whether a few ccs of dev will be enough. For instance if the dev of choice is Xtol as it is in my case then Kodak recommends at least 100ml of stock. However this is for a full 36 frame 35mm so would I be right in assuming that the can will hold enough dev to do 3.5 inches of film.

This is about 3 frames so a 1/12th of a full film so 8-10 cc's should be enough and if so then the can will easily hold enough.

Is my logic correct?

Thanks

Your logic sounds good to me. You might want to check with a bit of old film to make sure that 8-10cc will consistantly wet the entire film.

 

[Klainmeister]

The clear Fuji 35mm canisters I use for fly fishing patterns. It gets confusing though when I'm looking for film while out fishing....

 

[removed account4]

i usually have a sea of this stuff -
a few times a year, when i can't see the floor anymore,
i take a shovel and scoop it all up and dump it in the trash.

using the canisters for solargraphs and rockets sounds fun ...

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Today I used an all black Ilford film canister to make a loupe skirt for a mamiya sekor sx 55mm 1.4 I had lying around. Measured for focusing distance, cut, and sanded smooth, it fits over the rear element snugly. Now Ive got a pretty awesome loupe that rests flat on my light box. Though the 55mm focal length doesnt cover the entire frame, and is about 5-6x magnification, its totally distortionless edge to edge, and bright!. I had it side to side with my 8x agfa loupe, what a difference!