Re: [Leica] Reloadable cassetts (was: M6 baseplate)

[Gaifana@aol.com]

I explored the proprietary cartridge thing before, but it is very 
cost-impractical. You can buy 45 B&H cheapo cartridges for $15, have two and 
a half 100' rolls of film loaded into carts at the same time.

If you bought a Leitz or the Canon copy cartridge, you would be able to 
afford far fewer cartridges, and your reloading machine would be tied up a 
lot longer.

You can use the cartridges at least six times. The plastic ones with the 
screw-on tops are actually the best. The limiting factor is whether or not 
the felt gets matted.

Since even the cheapo cartridges hold 40 frames (I just did this), there's 
not much compelling about the older cartridges, unless you are in the desert 
and didn't bring black film cans.

In a message dated 1/15/00 8:08:38 PM, mvhoward@mac.com writes:

<< John Collier wrote, in part:

> Rather an ingenious mechanism. You can find them used for
> about $15US to $30US each.
> 

Metal reloadable film cassettes sell at B&H for 32 cents each.  Assuming the
lower end price of $15, that means that for every Leica cassette, I can get
about 50 regular bulk-loading cassettes. I'm guessing that each one can be
used safely, say conservatively, four times before there is risk of light
leaks from deteriorating felt trap (or scratches, for that matter)
necessitate throwing it away.

Call me cheap, but a 32 cent cassett used four times and then replaced means
that until I've shot a total of around 190 rolls of film, it's cheaper than
the Leica cassette.  And a hell of a lot less fiddle to load.

M.