And now for a dumb question...

[MrFujicaman]

Does anybody know when Kodak switched from metal film cans to the plastic ones we have now? I think it might have been the early 1970's?

 

[xmas_one]

Probably early 70s

 

[Beemermark]

I was shooting film in the ‘60’s and don’t remember seeing metal film canisters. I’m guessing they disappeared in the ‘50’s.

 

[xayraa33]

Last Kodak metal film canisters were around 1971 and metal with plastic cap canisters hybrid canisters were around 1972 and full plastic were from 1973 onward here in Canada. It could be different in different nations.

 

[Moto-Uno]

I just finished developing a roll of Kodak 35mm film(c-41) and a magnet sticks to both canister and the flat end cap , as it does to Kodak 35mm film from both Vietnam and Mexico . Am I missing something here ? Peter

 

[madNbad]

Not the cassette itself but the container it came in.

 

[BillBingham2]

When they first came out they were black tops and gray bodies. Don’t remember the date. Want to say 71 sounds right.

B2 (;->

 

[ranger9]

In 1973 I was taking a FORTRAN programming class in high school. We would type our programs into a Teletype terminal and send them to a remote computer by putting a phone handset into an “acoustic coupler” on the side of the Teletype. When our programs were running correctly, we'd save them by punching a perforated paper tape, and we'd protect the tape by rolling it up and putting it into a film can. Those cans were metal - silver body and screw-on lid with a rubbery sealing ring on the inside lip. So, Kodak was still using metal cans as of 1973, I wish now I'd saved a few.

 

[Dogman]

I started shooting pictures in 1972. I still have a few metal cans from that time. But the film might have been produced earlier and the can discontinued prior to then.

As I recall it, the metal cans were popular for storing small amounts of contraband during my college days. No first hand knowledge of course.;-)

 

[Bill Clark]

Found this information on the Shutterbug web site:

have been waiting to compile more data about this subject. Since you asked, I dug back into my files and here’s what I have on the subject. I called Kodak’s hotline (800-242-2424) but they could not provide any data, however they suggested calling the George Eastman House (GEH) in Rochester where many of the Kodak archives are now located. I did, and an old friend at GEH told me that Kodak started using metal canisters about when Kodachrome was introduced in 1936; they were phased out in the ’70s. The body of most metal canisters was bright yellow (typical for anything Kodak) combined with color-coded screw tops that identified the film inside. This was back in simpler times when there was not the wide range of different emulsion speeds and similar film names that we had in the ’90s and early 2000s. He said that since Kodak film was produced at plants throughout the world the color-coding might vary.

 

[Moto-Uno]

^^^^^ "Gotcha ", thanks , Peter

 

[Doug]

I've got a stash of these aluminum film containers. Most of the Kodak cans are plain unpainted aluminum with painted color-coded tops. Agfa cans are a bit different but all are plain aluminum.

 

[MrFujicaman]

Okay, after looking over the replies here and checking the web, near as I can tell, Kodak started phasing out the metal film cans in the 1972-early 1973 time frame.

By the time I got involved with photography in the fall of 1973, the only people with metal film cans were all the potheads....