Recently picked one of these up for a few bucks from the local Goodwill. Came with a (n)everready case and one Rapid cassette, so I figured $5 wasn't half (no pun intended) bad.

I managed to win an auction for an Agfa ISO Rapid I, just so I could get the extra Rapid cassette it came with.

I'm looking forward to putting it through it's paces.

Anyone have any experience with these? Not looking forward to having to go through the trouble of reloading the cassettes, but I figure it'll be fun to try once or twice.

Also, Yashica half-frame cameras.

Discuss.

I have a couple of Rapids here and they can be awkward to reload. The shaping of the lead was something I found important. As in vital.

The bits of brass (bronze) you see clipped from inside to out (just the tiny crimped ends visible) are 2 coils of springy stuff to keep the film off the back of the cassette and getting scratched.
So the lead needs to have the sprocket holes leading so as to be be lead by the coils.
I will try an ASCII diagram

--------
O O O O)
. . . . . /
. . . . (
. . . . ..\
O O O O)
---------

I know this for 2 reasons
(1) I have 2 unused factory loads and
(2) seeing this, my curiosity made me disassemble one to see why I was having trouble with the film only advancing 2 frames and getting stuck when I put film in myself (the cassettes!).

If the film has a normal or pointy lead it will catch on the light trap material for sure because it tends to droop into the space between the 2 bronze coils. It cannot then advance.

There is also a great big plastic tube/spacer in there for what reason I can only conjecture. Maybe to dissuade reloading? Loading more film than it needs? Whatever, I removed it. Both ends need to be cut this way. Fun in the dark. I guess a template could be made?

When I understood all this I had no problems getting my reloads to feed OK.

If you have any other questions, I have not explained it well enough.

Murray

Well, I haven't tried yet, but it seems you've done a fantastic job explaining it. I'll let you know after my ISO I and it's extra cassette get here. I look forward to giving this a shot.

Adorable!!