Variants of Nikon re-loadable cassettes

ChrisLivsey

ChrisLivsey

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Waiting for some stand Rodinal so ran off a shot of some cassette variants.
The tops are indistinguishable but the bases betray the age.
From L-R:
400 max E marked (empty)
400 max but colour speeds red no E
as above but different font
Most modern E mark speed up to 1600 small font.
Most duplicates I have are the late high speed examples, some in the F box, probably because of the sheer number of F bodies made.
Interested if anyone has early examples.
 
The only one that I have is LNIB complete with packing foam and instruction sheet in Japanese and English. It matches the rightmost version in your pic. The numbers in the lower right of the instruction sheet imply that it is a 1970 edit, which fits well with the fact that everything is marked "Nikon" and not "Nippon Kogaku".
 
The earliest cassettes were a somewhat shiny brass, engraved Nikon and even some of the later crackle finished had a Nikon engraving on them. I have to sort through mine and see if I can get some shots of them. It was also common that newspapers engraved the name of the paper on the outside shell.
There are plenty of variations of them - though the most bewildering one is the centre spool! Seems like Nikon farmed out the manufacturing of them and every manufacturer did their own "grabbing" slot in them - most of which doesn't work! I resort to tape the end of the film to it instead.
The weakest spot on them is the round flat spring on top. It is simply crimped on to the top of the cassette and can come off. You can fix it, at least sometimes by sticking it back on and use a "flaring" tool (I made one from wood and tapered the ends to "bend" the flange). Light tap with a hammer usually works.
Ok, it is sunny outside - better get out while it lasts. I have a dozen Nikon cassettes load with Orwo UN 54 - rated at 100 iso. Good day for using some of them.
 
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The post war history of film! Early Nikon cassettes with film speed index to 200.Just remember that TriX in 35mm was introduced as a 200 iso film in 1953/54 - everybody shot it at 400 - so I assume that Kodak decided not to fight and relabelled it. The 400 and 1600 iso markings are on later cassettes. I also like the different fonts of the numbers. I have heard that the cassettes were "farmed" out and the various manufacturers put their own stamp on the product - this is particularly noticeable with the take-up spools. I have about 85-90 cassettes and I have to search to find more than 10 or 15 with the same style spool in them!
 
Just remember that TriX in 35mm was introduced as a 200 iso film in 1953/54 - everybody shot it at 400 - so I assume that Kodak decided not to fight and relabelled it.
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Wasn't it right around then that many manufacturers dropped the 1-stop "safety factor" from their published speeds?

Article by Andrew Matheson in August 1960 PhotoGuide Magazine

THE JUMP IN FILM SPEEDS
Film speeds have a habit of changing when no one is looking. Here are the facts behind the recent (1960) ASA speed changes.
By ANDREW MATHESON, London

OUT of the blue, American film makers have doubled recommended emulsion speeds. What made them do it-and why didn't they do it before?
Speed is one of the most important film characteristics. Measuring it remained the biggest headache in the film industry for nearly half a century. Not because of a lack of methods, but through too many of them. It took nearly fifty years before someone hit on the idea of relating film speed to final print quality. One reason why it took so long was perhaps that it was a cumbersome way, outside and in the laboratory. But it brought order into a chaotic state of affairs. That was the beginning of the ASA (American Standard) exposure index numbers-and later the BS (British Standard) system.
For nearly thirteen years it worked like a charm. Photographers had a figure that they could set on exposure meters and use in exposure tables, and obtain correctly exposed negatives.
Last year the American Standards Association burst into this seemingly peaceful state of affairs. A new standard, made official a few months ago, in effect doubled all previous film speed ratings. At once we are at sixes and sevens again - or more precisely at sixes and dozens. What has happened?
Click to expand...
 
Someone once told me that Kodak used the front steps of the Eastman House in Rochester as a "bench mark" for film speed. Shots were taken at high noon on June 1 and the film was evaluated in the lab. I kind of like that approach. Testing films in labs will tell you hoe the film behaves in labs - but has very little to do with real life situations! We all develop, expose and judge light differently and, at least with black/white "correct" according to our own taste.
 
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