broke student - bulk film

[foolproof]

wheres the best place to buy b+w bulk film ? i presume it would be cheaper if i got it somewhere in europe, with shipping and customs and all that. have been thinking of it for a while now as im just fed up of paying mad money for film over here. im in college and really love shooting my personal stuff on film, but im breaking the bank to do so. what films are cheap / good? is it an easy process to bulk load ? desperate times im afraid 😱

 

[EmilGil]

There are quite a few retailers in Europe, check http://www.retrophotographic.co.uk, http://www.silverprint.co.uk, http://www.fotoimpex.de

In the US you'll find B&H and http://www.freestylephoto.biz, the latter selling out-dated, rebranded PanF at $11.69/100ft. Even including shipping and customs, that should be pretty unbeatable!

Edit: retrophotOgraphic.co.uk that is...

 

[nikola]

heh Emil was faster 🙂
http://www.retrophotographic.com/shop/

 

[foolproof]

thanks guys - how does this film loading actually work ?

 

[EmilGil]

You can do it in a pitch black room, just cut the film in 1.5m lengths and wind them onto old spools by hand. 🙂

The slightly easier way to do it is to use a bulk film loader where you insert the bulk film and wind a small lever, pulling the film into the cassette. They look something like this.

 

[foolproof]

also how many 36exp rolls would you normally get out of 100ft of film?

 

[EmilGil]

Usually something like 18 or 19.

Yay, my 100th post! 🙂

 

[foolproof]

checked out the freestyle website - $43.70 just for shipping to ireland! wouldnt really be worth it then. will check out the english ones

 

[EmilGil]

Weird... I just ordered four bulk rolls of PanF, Diafine, liquid PMK concentrate and some small bits and bobs to Norway, airmail shipping was $45.

It seems you only get "international priority mail" when estimating the shipping cost to Ireland, try mailing them and ask about airmail. I think priority shipping was something like $80 for my goods so airmail is a little more than half of that.

 

[Pherdinand]

I ordered from freestyle recently, I had the same problem with shipping, mailed them and the thing got corrected. I ended up with 35$ shipping costs for a lot of film, developer and such.

HOWEVER
i put the order on their site on 21th of november and it is still "on hold", they did not charge my credit card yet, AND, since then I cannot get an answer from them. Before i put the order, they answered 2 e-mails almost instantenously. Now, my mails are still unanswered (tried five times!)...

 

[Pherdinand]

price.....

 

[Harry Lime]

thanks guys - how does this film loading actually work ?

You need to buy a film loader and some cartridges. Both can be purchased cheaply in stores and loaders show up on ebay all the time.

Do a little research on the web regarding the different brands of loaders and their quirks.

As has been mentioned above, you can do this in a dark room, but do you really have access to a place that is 100% light tight? The bulk loader can be used in daylight and is probably a faster way of doing this. You also won't end up with fingerprints on your emulsion.

 

[foolproof]

As has been mentioned above, you can do this in a dark room, but do you really have access to a place that is 100% light tight?.

got darkrooms and processing rooms in college, so thats no prob, but i like the idea of these loaders. will look into it, thanks

 

[oscroft]

http://www.7dayshop.com/ in the Channel Islands has pre-packed film at prices that compare quite favourably with bulk film.

 

[DavidH]

I'll second 7dayshop.com...I have a bulk loader as well but often 7dayshop offers rolls of your favourite films at comparable prices...

 

[kully]

Cheers ManGo, I went a little mad and ordered four rolls of the bulk film.

Loading the bugger in my bulk loader was a complete pain in the arse. Those plastic end plates were a tight fit and getting the film fed into the loader mech and then jigging it around...

Shot a test roll to see what speed to set it at, negatives are drying but things seem to look nice around the 160 - 200 range.

Do you know why this film is so thin?

 

[Trius]

Mango: Those are great. IMO they are quite unlike the "regular" APX400. Maybe it's the HC110 that's doing the trick.

 

[Screwy]

Picked up two bulk rolls of APX 400 the other week , Looking at those pics ManGo I may just have to pick up a couple more 😎



Paul

 

[EmilGil]

A few weeks ago I was going through a lot of my parents' stuff before they're moving out of their house right after christmas. I was absolutely sure that my father had an old bulk loader (the pear-shaped one) but I couldn't find it. My father thought he might had disposed of it already.

This morning he presented me with a brand new AP one as a birthday present and I just found out that Freestyle had shipped my four bulk rolls of PanF that I ordered along with some chemistry. That's one birthday present! 🙂