Why doesn't medium format film come in canisters like 35mm?

[Ashfaque]

Those metalic canisters are cool. I wish I had a few. Anyway, the ones Adox is selling are produced/supplied by LAVials.com, PN VL20H

 

[MattKing]

I have a few (~8) of the canisters that I purchased separately from places like Freestyle and Glazers.

They are most valuable for protecting exposed film. If you try to put unexposed film that is still in foil wrapping into them, it is at best awkward because the fit is too tight.

As they are bigger than foil wrapped film, they take slightly more space in your bag. Not an issue if you have 5 rolls in your bag, but if you are on a commercial shoot with 50 rolls.....

If all film came in the canisters, the neat pro-pack boxes would probably disappear.

A lot of 35mm canisters are just discarded by photographers. I expect something similar would happen with 120 canisters if they were included with every roll. That would offend my aversion against wastefulness.

I would like it to be easier to buy the 120 canisters separately. Just as I wish it was possible to effectively recycle the 120 spools and backing paper.

 

[Neil Poulsen]

A standard, plastic pill bottle makes a good container for 120 film. They're about 3" by 1" in diameter. There's about 1/8" to spare in diameter and 1/2" to spare in length.

I've never put it to the test, but they may be water tight. At the very least, they're water resistant.

 

[Chadinko]

In my day job I buy airplane parts; some O-rings come in little nearly-opaque brown ziplock bags to protect them from UV exposure since the rubber they are made of deteriorates. These are AMAZING for storing 120 film rolls -- I don't worry about light leaks or anything, really, with these. And the best part? I get them free!