FILCA cassettes

Basic usage:

The spring is lifted gently and the inner cylinder rotated to open the cassette, and the spindle is turned to align slot with the arrow with the opening.

Cut the end of the film to a tab shape and push it into the slot.

The film end is captured by teeth inside the slot and can’t pull out. Then the spindle is rotated, drawing in film from a bulk roll.

Cut off the film and rotate the inner cylinder until it locks with the film end sticking out. It is light-tight in this configuration, and it can be used in the camera.

After using the roll of film, the cassette is opened up in the dark and the film removed, cutting it off at the end where it’s anchored in the spindle slot.

Pull the tab through the spindle in the same direction it was pushed in.

cassette issues 6/2025:

Cassette #1:

Nothing really wrong with this one I think, some are just a little fatter than others, and some cameras are tighter than others, and if you have both at once, they can get stuck. It’s just a crap shoot I guess.

Cassette #2:

This pin is supposed to sit fully seated in the hole, held by the spring’s presure – it’s what locks the inner cylinder from rotating (and exposing the film) when it’s not in the camera. A bar inside the camera pushes the spring arm outward to allow it to rotate and open the cassette. The arm may just be bent or the inner cylinder of this cassette might be the wrong one or damaged and not have the hole in the right place.

The inner cylinder and outer cylinder should be snug but rotate pretty easily, but only when the locking pin is lifted. This one rotates any time, but always with some difficulty, which is a problem for when the mechanism inside the camera or the film loader tries to twist it to open the cassette.

I don’t know if the minor corrosion on this cassette is enough to cause the tightness, it doesn’t really seem like it, so maybe the inner and outer cylinders just aren’t a correct match? There were a lot of variations on these cassettes and they probably have to at least somewhat match correctly.

Cassette #3:

This one would be perfect except that the thing inside the film slot that’s meant to catch and hold the film seems to be jammed or broken, because it’s nearly impossible to shove film into it. Normally it goes in very easily but won’t pull back out, only straight through. With this one it just kind of bumps up against whatever is stuck in there and won’t go further.