Feeding the Panda

TMAX 100 is a film I have often shot in my box cameras, but it has been on back order for quite a long time at the places I usually go to get it.  I had one roll of 120 TMAX left in the refrigerator which I decided to shoot in my Ansco Panda.  I re-rolled the film onto a 620 reel and took a stroll by the Tingley Ponds with the Panda.  I'm wondering now if that was the last roll of this Kodak film that will see the inside of one of my old cameras.

 

The little Panda is my favorite box camera.  I think it would likely find more favor among today's remaining film shooters if it did not require re-rolling 120 film onto 620 reels.  That is not a very difficult or time-consuming process, but it seems enough to discourage a lot of potential users.

At first glance, it is difficult to understand why Ansco would choose a unique Kodak film format for any of its cameras as the company had its own film producing capability.  It seems very likely that the film format selection was tied to the fact that Ansco had merged with the German Agfa company in 1928 and the conglomerate's U.S.-based operations were seized in 1941 by the U.S. government and held as an enemy asset into the 1960s.  So, the decision process at the time of the Panda's appearance in 1946 was under the direction of government-appointed overseers who quite probably had a cozy relationship with Kodak which had many government war production contracts at the time.