Advice please. Just started bulk film rolling and would like everyone's $0.02.

My 2 cents, which is now sadly only worth 1 cent, is that bulk loading is way more trouble than it is worth.

I far prefer packaged film, which I know is dust and moisture free, and comes packed with a fresh light tight barrier on the cannister.
 
for b&w 35mm i only shoot bulk. a few years ago i went on a buying spree when bulk film was cheap and have many rolls left to shoot of plus-x, tri-x, tmax 100 and 400 acros and even one of tech pan. now if i buy new i buy xtreme 100 for cheap walk about shooting. its a good film and likes xtol. but almost all my purchases are either rollei retro 80s and superpan 200. but from germany and even with shipping its half the cost of buying from B&H. as a birthday gift for myself last month i bought 5 bulk rolls from Germany and with shipping was less than $50 per roll. not bad for fresh film.

if you want to bulk roll, do it. it has advantages of giving you the chance to roll shorter rolls for testing and playing. I've been rolling my own for a while and never had any issues with dust or scratches so im not sure what those who have those problems are doing.
 
In the US: Amazon sells Xtreme Black-and-White 35mm x 100 foot Film ISO 400 Roll for $35.95, shipping is $5. Ilford Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 is only $72 with free shipping. Tri-X is $93, free shipping. Tri-X pro about $128.
 
I use bulk film for a variety of reasons.

One is that it gives you more options in film than just buying 24/36 even if you open yourself to buying expired film factory rolled. I can find old emulsions that aren't made anymore and try them out. Having 50 or 100ft of a stock can help me nail in exposure and development of something that's 40 years old or wasn't originally intended for "regular" photos. 10 exposure rolls can be great for this.

I do a fair amount of camera repair and actually testing them with film gives me reassurance that they are spacing frames correctly, light seals are effective, lenses are focusing exactly where I want them to be. 10 exposure rolls are also great for this.

Saving money: Bulk gives you the option of finding extremely cheap oddities via flea markets or ebay (less so since Lomography made expired film popular) or from other photogs that are trimming down their hoard. Sometimes down to where each roll of 36 would cost me pennies.

I bought a bulk loader that had Tri-X expired in 2004. It has pretty good base fog compared to new, but it still looks like Tri-X and as long as I'm not shooting it in the dark (something I would use TMY-2 for anyway), it works pretty much as well as new film.

I use HC110 1:100 semi-stand pretty much exclusively and find it works with basically everything.


As for your personal film choices, try them out! You sound like you develop film yourself, so you can alter development to make pretty much any film look the way you want it to. Tri-X is not inherently higher in contrast than the other 400 speed traditional grain films out there like HP5. Shooting 100ft of something will give you a chance to really evaluate it and eventually narrow down to what you really like or will allow you to decide that it really doesn't matter and you can continue buying whatever is on special to save even more money.
 
I bulk roll. I got 2 bulk loaders for free from friends and a bunch of plastic screw top cassettes, so my initial costs were pretty low. I just picked up 10 more cassettes for A$1.50 each and I'll use them for years. So that's not a big cost. Iv been hunting for the elusive "affordable" IXMOO cassette, but never find them 🙁 one day...

As for film, I mainly use Fomapan 400 which I shoot at 250 (A$68/100ft vs A$6.50/36exp) and HP5 for pushing to 1600 (A$90 vs $11). In both cases bulk rolling costs about 50%. A significant saving IMO.
 
I nearly always use bulk rolls and highly recommend it. I have 5 bulk loaders that I have collected over the years from ebay. All in perfect condition and I would not have paid anymore than $25 each. I use normal casettes from used film and just tape the end of the roll film to the last inch sticking out of the cassette, close the loader and wind on 36 shots.

When I've shot the roll, I just make sure that I don't wind it all the way in, spool it straight into a Jobo reel, cut it at the join mark and develop. And the cassette is ready to be taped again to the bulk film.

Bulk Fomapan in 100, 200, 320 and 400 is available in Australia for $68 (Blanco Negro). I shot the 200 mostly. I also have cans of Delta 400 for pushing and 3 x 45m of Kodak Hawkeye B/W surveillance film which cost me next to nothing on ebay.

I have never had a light leak or moisture issue. No scratches either.
 
kb244 said:
Seems to be pointless when the bulk rolls cost more than the pre-made roll.
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But that's only true for Tri-X right now. All other films offer some real savings for bulk rollers. Are those savings worth the hassle? You decide.

For me, that's not really the reason, anyway. I bulk roll (for now) for two reasons:
1. because it makes it so much easier to get 15 exposure test rolls for playing around with new developers, especially home-brew stuff like Caffenol...
2. to get my hands on rare materials (like Orwo UN 54, or Polypan F...)
 
kossi008 said:
But that's only true for Tri-X right now. All other films offer some real savings for bulk rollers. Are those savings worth the hassle? You decide.

For me, that's not really the reason, anyway. I bulk roll (for now) because it makes it so much easier to get 15 exposure test rolls for playing around with new developers, especially home-brew stuff like Caffenol...
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You forget the zen of rolling. So relaxing.
 
kossi008 said:
1. because it makes it so much easier to get 15 exposure test rolls for playing around with new developers, especially home-brew stuff like Caffenol...
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It is lucky some people like playing around with new film or guys like me would never try anything.

I received some Kodachrome in about 1960 when my parents bought me a Kodak Pony camera, and stuck with it until I started using Ektachrome in about 1985. I started shooting in B&W in about 1970, using Tri-X and never changed until I stopped, and moved completely to Ektachrome. Until it disappeared, I used SX-70 Polaroid film. The only film I ever "experimented" with was Polaroid 35mm instant.

I don't like change.

I used my Nikon F from 1965 until I bought an F3HP. I once bought a 100 foot roll of Tri-X, and collected some Nikon cassettes, but I only loaded a few cassettes, I just did not get around to loading film, so I ended up tossing the roll.
 
nikonhswebmaster said:
I don't like change.
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Me either. I stick with HC-110. But TRI-X is not the same as it was, according to some regular and long time users.
I do 15 frames loads now. 36 is way too long, I'm only loading it if on the trip.


monk3ym4jik said:
...I wonder if I should start saving for the M10...
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I did calculation in M10 thread. If you take 70 rolls per year and it is on color film with lab developing and scan, M10 surprisingly doesn't come as expensive. But if you bulk loading bw filmand skipping Kodakalaris over-pricing by giving our money to more dedicated to photographers Ilford/Kentmere, plus develop at home, M10 makes no sense. To get to the price of M10 with film M it will take twenty years.
 
What times are you doing for HC-110 1:100 semi-stand? (I assume the time isn't quite as important as the developer exhaust in place after the initial agitation)
 
My choice for bulk roll film is Rollei RPX100. It goes for €50 per 30ft roll. I'm exposing the film at EI200 and develop with Rodinal 1+25 for 8 minutes. Xtol should be just as good, if not even better.

Here is one recent example.

32725637466_724003719d_z.jpg
 
Freezing rain since before dawn, so I decided today would be a good day to start bulk loading.

Armed with an Alden 74 from evilbay and a fresh roll of Foma 100 from Adorama, I got to work. I have to say the learning curve was not very steep at all. It took about three rolls to suss out the quirks of the loader and, after that, it was smooth sailing. I may have scratched one roll by forgetting to set the loader to "open" before rolling. Oops....

I chose the Foma because it was relatively inexpensive and I didn't want to make my mistakes on the roll of Orwo UN54 my wife got me for the holidays. I'll roll the Orwo when I'm feeling more confident.

I got 19 rolls of 36 exposures and one of 24 from a 100' roll, so it works out to about $2.50 per roll, or a little more than a 40% savings. That's assuming I did everything right, of course!
 
ChrisPlatt said:
BTW you made a fine choice in the Alden 74.
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It seems like a pretty good contraption. Mine could use a little sprucing up, but the price was cheap and it's a simple enough device that there's really not that much that can go wrong (unless, of course, you forget to rotate the drum to "open", that is....) 😱

A few of the frame counter gear teeth on mine are a bit chewed up, but I've already figured out how to fix it.
 
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