Poll: Photography History Trivia

[drg]

There was a visitor to my office this week who saw some of these sitting on a display shelf and asked what they were used for in photography.

As a separate question (without Googling), do you know the approximate or exact year these were replaced with a modern solution?

[Axle]

I have a guess...so I answered "I don't know"

[srobb]

Well, I voted and it looks like I am with the majority. Can we hazard a guess here?

[Old Timer]

Oh come on! I can't be the only one that is voting for , "Ah for the good old days." I know I'm old but there have to be others that used these.

[Asylum Steve]

Oh come on! I can't be the only one that is voting for , "Ah for the good old days." I know I'm old but there have to be others that used these.

Now, now, many of us old guys sleep late, so it took awhile for me to see this thread and poll.

And while I actually have some of these bad boys lying around in boxes (along with my Rudy Valee wax cylinder collection), I never actually bought film in metal canisters myself.

With that in mind, my guess is plastic replaced the metal some time around, oh say 1970?...

[JSPhoto]

lol....I remember my dad giving me a camera a long long long time ago and these were with it. He still has them sitting around somewhere. Occasionally I run into an area photog who still uses them!

JS

[ken1953]

Oh come on! I can't be the only one that is voting for , "Ah for the good old days." I know I'm old but there have to be others that used these.

Well actually, in the good old days...I couldn't afford my new hobby...but I would like to see the day of "no plastic" come back...I didn't know how to vote since I think I'm sure of what they are, but I wasn't into photography that much back then...

As for when plastic took over...I'm guessing mid to late 60's...maybe 68...
Ken

[JSPhoto]

Well actually, in the good old days...I couldn't afford my new hobby...but I would like to see the day of "no plastic" come back...I didn't know how to vote since I think I'm sure of what they are, but I wasn't into photography that much back then...

As for when plastic took over...I'm guessing mid to late 60's...maybe 68...
Ken

OK, fine, make me feel old!!!


LOL

JS

[ken1953]

OK, fine, make me feel old!!!


LOL

JS

Uh-oh...if I'm making you feel old...then I must be ancient...

[Peter_AUS]

Old Timer, you aren't the only one to have used them. I remember the good old days very well.

[Old Timer]

Old Timer, you aren't the only one to have used them. I remember the good old days very well.

Thanks Peter. I was buying film in them in the mid 60's I think. I know that we were rolling most of our own film at the time and they all went into metal at that time after we rolled them. I kept one taped to my camera strap with an extra roll in it made a neat way to always have a spare roll when I was traveling light.

Oh and here are a few odds and ends that I found hanging out in my cmaera cabinet.

[drg]

O.T.

Love the other old film canisters! I've got some of those also around somewhere. I don't remember, what came in the Yellow cans with the Blue lids? For a time, the yellow lid was for Kodachrome.

I'll feel old if some one looks at me with almost the same expression as the woman who asked what the metal film cans were and says, "You used film!!??" It may be here sooner than we think.

Everybody keep those guesses coming as to when the cans disappeared. I've got info I am trying to verify that it was different for other than North America.

Thanks for all the replies so far!

Oh, yeah, guesses for dates, specific or not, are certainly encouraged.

[Van A]

Yes, I remember these film cans. My father had a boatload of these as I was growing up. I never saw the painted ones but I remember the aluminum ones quite well. My guess is that they were replaced by the plastic version around the early 1970's. Am I close?

[gahspidy]

Cool little canisters they are. Plastic is practical and convenient, but just does not have any character like these blasts from the past. I will guess late 60's they were replaced. . .say about 67-68 And possibly the first plastic ones were coming in from overseas.

[almo]

We used to have a box full of those at the Lab I used to work at. Seeing this pic makes me wish I had nabbed a few of them.

[JSPhoto]

I remember getting these in 1972 yet, We bought some in Europe then. My dad must have hundreds of these still.

JS

[drg]

Thanks one and all for participating in this poll and trivia quiz!

Yes, these are 35mm film cans from my collection. Thanks to Old Timer for the additional photo of some of the other types.

The "date" in question appears to be in the mid-1970's. The best sources I've found tie it to sometime in 1975. There are letters to the editor in a three issues late in 1975, early 1976 of Modern Photography mentioning the plastic ones and I've also found a couple of newspaper source in that same time that make a reference. Unfortunately, with the newspaper sources, I can't find the original papers! The micro-film has been misplaced but there is reference made by a grad student in a different discipline who wrote about it in passing in a paper on a cultural references written in the late 1980's.

I started this thinking there was probably a press release somewhere, but so far, nothing.

I went to the source, KODAK. They prompty informed me that all such archival information is now located at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. So I contacted them. Debra Hamel, the Archivist for KODAK Advertisements, assisted me and conferred with one of the other Archivists and they arrived at a date of 1975. Much thanks to her.

KODAK apparently used these off and on until stocks were depleted, and there may be no 'hard' date. I do remember buying film in these specifically after 1975. May explain some of the bad slides I took a few times. Out of date E-chrome! I know they were still being used a few place in Europe later than this and then they just disappeared.

I did not purchase much 35mm film in the 1980's due to pretty exclusive use of Medium Format and Large Format cameras. I also was working a lot with 'real' micro film in various sizes and if I needed 35mm for a camera, the film rep usual had a case or two and would just hand me tubes or bulk film.

One day I ran across a box full of these cans and almost threw all away. Saved a few and passed them out over the years to people who wanted them.

Now I've got all these magnesium flash bulbs. Wanna see?

What good History of Photography Trivia questions or items do you have?