Rapid film
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| Agfa color film in Rapid cassette image by Jim Grey (Image rights) |
Compared to standard 35mm film, the Rapid system was easier to load, since the film did not have to be threaded onto a take-up spool. The new full cassette is simply placed in one side of the film chamber with a leader protruding, pre-cut in a bluntly rounded shape. The camera automatically guides this leader into the velvet light-trap of the takeup cassette; and after shooting a blank frame or two the camera is ready to make its first exposure. The film does not need to be rewound. At the end of the roll, the now-empty cassette is moved to the other side and used as the take-up cassette for the next roll.
Whereas the Rapid system used a standard film pressure plate, 126 relied on the close tolerances of its cartridge to hold the film flat, a less reliable system. Nonetheless, the runaway success of Kodak's Instamatic series eventually pushed the Rapid system off the market (even Agfa began selling 126-film cameras).
The Rapid film system was actually not new, but rather a modification of Agfa's Karat film cartridge system of the mid-1930s. The Rapid system had the added capability of setting the camera's exposure-metering mechanism (if any) to the proper film speed automatically, as did the 126 cartridge. A silver metal plate affixed to the side of the Rapid cassette has a central tab, whose length increases with higher film speed. This tab has no function when a finished, empty cassette is swapped over to a camera's take-up compartment (instead, the emulsion type of an exposed roll is indicated by punched markings in the tail of the film).
A similar system to the Rapid cartridge was made in East Germany, called SL System.
Rapid film cameras
- Agfa ISO-Rapid I
- Agfa Isomat Rapid
- Agfa Isoflash-Rapid C
- Agfa Optima-Rapid 100 C
- Agfa Optima-Rapid 125 C
- Agfa Optima-Rapid 150
- Agfa Optima Rapid 250
- Agfa Optima-Rapid 500 V
- Agfa Silette Rapid
- Agfa Silette Rapid L
- Agfa Silette Rapid F
- Agfa Silette Rapid I
- Agfa Isette Rapid
- Agfa Isoly Rapid
- Canon Dial Rapid
- Canon Demi Rapid
- Ferrania Lince Rapid
- Fujica Rapid S (1965)
- Fujica Rapid S2 (1965)
- Fujica Rapid D1 (1965)
- Fujica Rapid SF (1966)
- Hanimex 101 Rapid
- Hanimex 101F Rapid
- Hanimex 202 Rapid
- Hanimex 404 Rapid
- KMZ Zorki 12
- Lomo Smena Rapid
- Minolta 24 Rapid
- Ricoh EE Rapid Half
- Voigtlander Vitoret Rapid D
- Yashica Half 17 RAPID
- Welta Penti
