choosing reloadable cassettesThe vast majority of cassettes for 35mm cameras can be divided into two types, the sort with a fixedvelvet­lip light trap and the labyrinthine type. We vastly prefer the latter, for reasons that will become

apparent below. There is also a residual category, usually camera­specific though the Agfa Rapid cassettewas used in a surprisingly wide variety of cameras, not just from Agfa.

loading

The basic question is getting the right length of film on the centre spool, wound emulsion in. Don't laugh:when Roger was given 800 feet of outdated FP3 in 1966, he more than once loaded it 'backwards' with theemulsion out, so all exposures were made through the base of the film. We'll come back to film lengthslater.

There are two possibilities: load the spool 'naked', then put it into the cassette, or load the spool inside thecassette.

With velvet­lip cassettes we generally preferto load the spool outside the cassette, as itmeans one less trip through the velvet lighttrap with attendant risk of scratching, gritcollecting and wear on the trap. Withlabyrinthine cassettes this is less of a problemand if you use a bulk loader (see below) thenyou will almost certainly find it easier to loadthe spool inside the cassette.

Also, loading the spool 'naked' means youhave to hold on pretty tightly when you cut thefilm, or it unwinds all over the place.

Shirley Wellard 'Universal' labyrinthinecassette

(see below)

velvet lip

This is the familiar standard cassette that was introduced in the early 1930s, and is most widely usedtoday. It has appeared in three main forms.

staked end

The most common current form for factory­loaded film is the so­called 'staked end' type where the end capis so tightly crimped onto the main body of the cassette that it is difficult to remove it without damaging theend­cap or the cassette body or both, rendering reuse of the cassette problematic.

Contrary to widespread mutterings, thestaked­end design was not to stop people re­using the cassettes. Rather, it was to reducethe risk of the end­cap popping off if thecassette was dropped, an important factor inprofessional use. Roger recalls only too wellworking late into the night in the early 1970s,duplicating slides for an AV presentation. Bymidnight he was just finishing but he wasdog­tired; so tired that he knocked one of theexposed cassettes on the floor. The endpopped off and he had to reshoot 36 frames.

Recycling manufacturers' cassettes

Paterson Acupan was made by Foma and isstill available as Fomapan Creative 200 ­­ an

still available as Fomapan Creative 200 ­­ anexcellent film, even before you recycle the

cassettes.

pop-off end-cap

Older designs (still used by some filmmanufacturers) allow the end cap to bepopped on and off a number of times,allowing limited re­use of the cassette.

Opening the cassette

Press down firmly on the long end of thespool and the cap at the opposite end should

pop off.

purpose-made re-usable cassettes

Cassettes that are designed to be re­usedhave either pop­on caps (like the ones usedby some film manufacturers) or even twist­onplastic caps, though we have not seen thesefor a while. The main limiting factor withthese is the life of the velvet. A piece of low­tack adhesive (Post­It note, making tape)can be used to remove grit and refresh thenap of the velvet.

Cassette in pieces

Although many manufacturers' cassettes canbe recycled, it is worth remembering that

they were only designed for single use andare pretty flimsy.

Ancient Ilford FP3 cassette

You can see the superb light­trapping and readyre­usability that results from this design of end­capbut you can also see that it would almost certainlybe a lot more expensive to manufacture andassemble than a modern pop­end cassette.

labyrinthine

labyrinthine

These are based on the principle that light doesn't go around corners. There are two shells, inner andouter. Inside the camera, the two are rotated relative to one another so that there is a clear, open slotthrough which the film goes. For loading and unloading the camera, and for carrying the cassette, they arerotated so that the openings are anything from 90 to 180 degrees apart; the film passes between the innerand outer shells, hence 'labyrinthine'. Opening and closing is done automatically with most designs, butwith the Shirley Wellard the cassette must be opened and closed manually.

Labyrinthine cassettes have no velvet to trapgrit and cause scratches, or wear and let inlight, and they can be used virtually forever:because they are so solidly made, the risk ofwearing them out is negligible.

Nikon cassette centre spool

Reloadable cassettes of this kind belong to anearlier age. There was a chip of film leaderstuck in this one ­­ so it took a few minutes tostrip it down and reassemble it. The two tinyscrews on the left hold the plate over the slot inthe centre spool; the short bar is what holds thefilm in place in the slot.

Their great disadvantage is that most are camera­specific (e.g. Leica, Contax, Kiev, Nikon) and fewer andfewer cameras are designed to use them: even Leicas no longer actuate the Leica self­opening cassette.

There is however one labyrinthine cassette that can be used with just about any camera that has a pull­uprewind knob, the Shirley Wellard Universal. These have not been made for decades but still turn up atcamera fairs or on e­Bay, and because they are near­universal (or near­Univeral), we deal with them first.

shirley­wellard

The trick with these is the four little studs on the bottom of the film spool, clearly seen in the illustrationbelow. Normally these sit slightly outside the corresponding holes in the bottom of the cassette, but if thespool is pushed down and twisted they engage and the inner shell can be rotated: clockwise to close (thesame direction as rewinding) or anticlockwise to open. This is done by pushing down on the rewind knoband twisting in the appropriate direction.

There are only two real disadvantages. One is that therewind knob sits very slightly proud (about 1/16 inch,1.5mm) when the cassette is in the camera. The otheris that you have to remember to open and close thecassette. The former is more often an aesthetic problemthan practical, and the latter is a question of memory.

Shirley­Wellard, disassembled

The end cap just screws on and off. You can clearly seethe four studs on the bottom of the film spool and the

corresponding holes in the base­plate of the cassette. Ifanyone were to build such cassettes today they wouldprobably have to sell at over a hundred pounds ($200)

each; the amount of engineering in there isextraordinary.

Two forms of adjustment are provided to fit the cassette to the camera: a properly­fitted Shirley Wellard fitsperfectly and will not rattle at all. One is the vertical adjustment, and the other is the rotational adjustment.Both are most easily understood from Shirley­Wellard's own instruction leaflet, reproduced on its ownpage.

leicaUnlike the Shirley­Wellard, where the inner and outer shell are permanently linked, the two shells of the the

Unlike the Shirley­Wellard, where the inner and outer shell are permanently linked, the two shells of the theLeica cassette come apart for loading. The pictures will make this clear. It is important to note, though, thatthere are two models of Leica cassette, the early 'black mushroom' model for screw­mount Leicas only andthe later 'chrome mushroom' model which can be used in all Leicas except the later M­series. We are notsure when Leicas stopped automatically opening and closing these cassettes via a key in the baseplate butthey certainly don't work in our MP with its Leicavit­M.

Leicacassettes

On the left,the later'chrome

mushroom'variety withits correct

plasticcontainer(screw­on

lid withwhite platefor notingfilm type);

on theright, theearlier'black

mushroom'type withits correct

metalcontainer(push­on

lid).Obviouslythe laterone has

had muchmore use!

When thecatch on

the bottomof the

Leica isturned, thespring onthe left of

thecassette is

pushedaside, and

the'mushroom'­­ the post

on theright,

oppositethe spring ­­ is rotated.

Leica cassettes, disassembled and open

On the left, the 'chrome mushroom' cassette isdisassembled (some have black spools, somegrey) while on the right the 'black mushroom'cassette is open; you can see how the spring ispushed back slightly, at which point you canrotate the 'mushroom', align the slots, and openthe cassette. DO NOT send these cassettes tolabs who are not familiar with them: we had onewritten off when some ham­handed cretin justbent the spring out at a right angle to open thecassette, instead of admitting he didn't know,and asking.

contax/kiev

These appear to be interchangeable ­­ which is no surprise as the Kiev is essentially a Contax II/III ­­ butwe have not had the opportunity to try both kinds in both cameras. We couldn't find our Kiev cassette whichis why it isn't illustrated here.

nikon

These are clearly based on the Contax version,which again is no surprise as the original Nikonrangefinder cameras borrowed a lot of designfeatures from the Contax.

They are easier to handle than either ShirleyWellard or Leica because the slots are open at theends, without a 'bridge'.

Nikon cassette

Open. The white end is an ISO scale filmreminder.

Nikon cassette

Left, closed, empty.The button at the

bottom of the end faceactuates the lock.

Right, loaded, with thecorrect Nikon screw­top plastic container.

Nikon cassette disassembled

Outer shell, fine black wrinkle exterior, left; innershell, glossy black, right. If you load your own film

from bulk, and if you have a camera that canaccept some sort of reloadable labyrinthine

cassette (whether self­opening or Shirley Wellard)they are well worth seeking out and they often go

for absurdly low prices, given the amount andquality of work involved in making them.

other cassettes

The Agfa Rapid system, long obsolete, had no centre spool. As far as we are aware it derives from theAnsco Memo of 1927. The film was pulled out of one cassette by the film transport mechanism, andpushed into the other where (if you were lucky) it curled up of its own accord. The old feed cassette thenbecame the new take­up cassette. The longer the load, the harder it was to persuade it to feed properly.Anything much over 20 exposures is pushing your luck as well as the film. On the bright side, cassettes areeasy to reload (but hard to clean).

easy to reload (but hard to clean).

Agfa Rapid cassette

You can see that there is no centre spool: the filmis just pushed in to the feed cassette. The end ofthe film (with the perforated 'Agfa' is however quiteheavily textured. We do not know how importantthis is in assisting stiffness and loading.

Some Robot cassettes had a velvet light­trap butthe lips of the trap were pushed apart when thecamera back was closed. This allowed a tightertrap when it was closed, allowing better lightsealing, and greatly reduced the risk of scratchingwhen it was open.

A few manufacturers have offered 250­exposure models, or 250­exposure backs, with correspondingcassettes: Leica was the earliest of the major systems to do this, but Nikon and others have done thesame. The cassettes in question take about 10 metres (33 feet) of film.

Most other cassettes are even rarer, such as the extra­small cassette for Tessinas and one or two from the1920s and very early 1930s before cassettes were standardized: in those days, every manufacturer madethem to his own design.

cassette-to-cassette

A few cameras allow you to work cassette­to­cassette, whether dedicated (e.g. original Contax)or with standard velvet­lip cassettes (e.g. Exakta).This offers several advantages including the lossof only a couple of frames of exposed film if theback is opened by mistake, and minimal film lossif you want to change films in mid­roll. Loading ishowever slower and less convenient. Anotherdrawback, which had not occurred to us until wetried it, is that you can end up with the film in adifferent cassette. Here, for example, the camerais loaded with Ilford Delta 100 (Exaktas work'backwards', remember) but the film could end upin an old Acupan cassette. Devotees of Exaktasmay be interested in the paid review.

working without cassettes

With cameras where you do not have suitable cassettes, it is often possible to improvise some form of feedcassette (usually based on the centre spool of a standard modern cassette) and load and unload thecamera in the darkroom. This is hardly convenient but if you want to try some ancient camera it is worthremembering.

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© 2006 Roger W. Hicks