A Gallery of 16mm Film Reels

[This article will be constantly updated with new reel pictures as I get them]

I always thought 16mm film was really fun as a kid.  Educational films on short
reels or big movies and other things on huge reels, it was always cool to play with 
the technology and some of the film reels had "personalities" of their own.  Perhaps
a bit of art in these old-school things.  As I do 16mm film transfers, I am taking pictures
of these various patterns from 16mm reels! 

Consumer 16mm film often came on 

these small 50 foot metal reels.

 But sometimes the came

on a relatively cheap cardboard reel!

We are talking about film shot in 

the 30's, 40's and 50's, etc.

 

Here is an 800 foot Elmo 

"Self Threading" take-up reel

The pattern implies those radiation warning signs. :-)

A fairly simple plastic 

"hub-and-spoke" reel - 400 feet.

1200 foot Yellow plastic reel.

These often came in different colors.

 

1600 foot "exclamation point"

(as I call it) reel.

800 foot "exclamation point" reel.

 

1600 foot "six-spoke" reel.

Six holes to grab for reel loading.

1600 foot "eight spoke reel".

Why the small holes on the edge of the spokes

on both the 6 and 8 spoke version?

 

I'm not sure what to call this.

It's a 1200 foot reel with these 4 circles

on the inside.  Maybe we'll

call this the "handcuff" reel.

  

Here are 2 400 foot plastic reels

another variation of hub-and-spoke, as

well as a variation of the larger "exclamation mark" reel.

Here are a couple of metal 400 foot reels.

More reels to come!  Hope you enjoyed the flashback...last update 4/2011