The magazines were preloaded in advance, the color film base was the ultra thin DuPont Cronar. Many, if not all mags contained a pulse generator that signaled which mag was actually used and how many pix were taken.
Handling the film when wet was like juggling razor blades in motion, the film edges would cut thru ones fingers without any sensation-the only alert was the blood on your palms.
There is a 'blad and lens floating in space, on that spacewalk the astronaut let the camera float in front of himself while completing a task. When he over reached, it was bump-launched into space. Victor Hasselblad took immediate advantage of this event to announce that the Hasselblad is the first camera in space!!
There is another 'blad sitting at the bottom of the Pacific, when Griffin's capsule landed in the ocean upon return, he had difficulty opening the hatch. Desperately, he 'blew off' the hatch. It sunk and he floated awaiting pickup.
Just prior to this mission NASA requested ~6 more cartridges for delivery 'yesterday'. I and my tech (J.A. Maurer Co.) spent Fri-Sun, 24/7 satisfying this request. A jeep waited in the parking lot and a jet stood by in Mitchell Field (Long Island NY).
One photo aspect concerning these activities I will never forget: Just before the first docking maneuver mission, the local NY TV stations were creating mock-up images of the docking for broadcast, they did Hollywood proud! Brilliant colors and dead black for the space backdrop, not to mention the eye popping gold mylar curtain. Shortly after the missions completion NASA sent us a copy of the films--I can only state that the 'real McCoy' made the TV stuff look desaturated!!
Thanks for bringing great memories from a great time, irv weiner