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The Minolta 16 Film Cassettes
The Minolta 16 was as close as the camera industry ever came to standardizing the 16mm format. Film for the Minolta 16 was spooled and packaged by Minolta, but also by companies such as FR and Seadler-Optik in Germany. Standard 16mm movie film was used for the most part, and at the beginning, double perforation film was used, which is why the frame size was 10 X 14 mm. Shortly before the 16-MG-S was introduced, Minolta started using single perforation film, with the perfs on the bridge side of the cassette. This allowed the MG-S, and later the QT to use a larger 12 X 17mm frame, which Minolta often referred to as "quarter-frame", since it was roughly 1/4 the size of a 35mm frame. Most of the color negative film that was sold in the Minolta 16 format had no perfs, because 16mm color negative movie film always seems to have a remjet backing which causes problems with standard processors.
As can be seen in the pictures below, the cassette is a plastic double cassette with a bridge across the supply and takeup chambers. It is very similar to the Minox cassette, albeit larger, and the takeup side is larger than the supply side. Beware of counterfeit Minolta cassettes! Some poorly molded, ill fitting knockoff cassettes are floating around out there. Just because they have "Minolta" molded on the bridge doesn't mean they are for real. Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
At
the top is a roll of color negative film as packaged by Minolta. It came
with a cassette storage box, instructions, and a mailer to send the film
to Minolta Labs for processing. In the middle is a Minolta-16 "magazine"
which was sold as an accessory for those people who wanted to load their
own cassettes. It came empty, with no storage box. Below that is a most
unusual Minolta-16 cassette made in Germany. It was sold and packaged by
Seadler-Optik in Nurnberg. The cassette is a different design than the
Minolta. It is molded from a much shinier plastic, and the chambers are
a slightly different shape. The marking "Made in Germany" is molded into
the bridge, unlike the other 2 which have "Minolta" and "Japan" molded
there.
Here's
another view of the cassettes.
This
is a cassette disassembled and ready for loading with film.
Here
is a comparison of the Minolta cassette on the left, and the Kiev cassette
on the right. Note the much smaller take-up spool on the Kiev cassette.
This allows more film on each roll, and even with the large 13X17mm frame
size of the Kiev, 25 exposures or more is possible
Here
are 2 Kiev cassettes. The Russians improved on the Minolta cassette in
other ways. Note the spring steel clip which fits over the take-up spool.
It holds the end of the film securely without tape. Also, the end caps
have index holes on each side which snap into a corresponding bump on the
cassette. No tape is necessary to hold the caps onto the cassette body.
It's a shame these cassettes won't fit the Minolta 16's, due to the smaller
take-up spool.
Here
are 3 close-ups of the German Minolta cassette.
The
other side of the box is in German and says "Tageslichtdoppelkassette 20
aufnahmen 10 X 14 mm" and has an expiration date of 6-1966. Unlike
the Minolta made cassettes, this type does not have felt light traps.
As
can be seen here, this 20 ASA, 14 DIN black and white film has no perforations.
Could this be Adox KB14 slit from 35mm?
This
film was packaged for the Minolta 16 by Northwest Custom Film Processing
of Seattle, Washington.
This
is how Minolta packaged their film in the early 1960's.
This
is "Holiday Pack" of black and white Minolta 16 film..
This
is how Minolta packaged their film in the late 1960's.
Notice
the film has double perforations, and came in a cardboard tube.. Later,
Minolta would change to single perf film because the 16MG-S used a larger
negative size, and the film would be packaged in a much nicer plastic box.
