Considering bulk loading

[Morca007]

As of late I've been trying to tighten up my workflow to meet the constraints of where I am. I'm a student, living in a dorm, not much space, not much cash, but plenty of time.
So far I have:
-Gone to B/W only so that I can do all my own development.
-Switched to Diafine to make development easier/cheaper.

The last real loose end is buying film. I don't like buying too many rolls at once because, quite frankly, it's expensive, even at the price-point of Arista. I also like to be able to switch up the amount of film in a roll, but never know when I'm ordering if I want 24 or 36.

According to my calculations, I can save ~$14 per 100' roll of Fortepan, and $20+ if I move up to HP5 or TX.
Of course, there is the up front investment to account for.
-Loader: $50 for a fancy new one at freestyle (Everywhere else is out of stock) or roughly $18 for a watson on eBay.
-Cassettes: ~$.50 apiece.
I can recoup investment in savings in about two 100' rolls if I buy a used loader.

At my current rate of film consumption, this is about 2-3 months, however, I think having more film around might encourage me to shoot more.

Thoughts? Opinions? Admonitions?

 

[cosmonot]

Go for it definitely. The bulk loader you can get really cheaply. The cans, you can just go to the one hour lab and ask for old film cans and tape the film onto the little tongue sticking out.

I recently loaded about 400' of film into 35mm cassettes I got from the photo lab at my local big box store. I asked about them, the guy said they just throw them out. He told me to take as many as I wanted and when I asked if they had a bag or box to put them in, he just put the whole box into my cart.

I sorted through ~400 cassetes. Most were in good shape, but there are some that you need to look out for. A handful were obviously reloaded & resold before and had shady adhesive labels with chinese/european writing on them. I tossed those. The ones from disposable cameras were OK, but some were of very thin metal while some were nice and heavy duty.

Be careful, some of these were obviously damaged in the attempts to retrieve the leader. Some were so mangled it is hard to believe they did not fog the film while trying to 'unload' them for processing.

After I had sorted the box I had about 20 - 25 that I either would not trust my film in, or had the film retracted inside. Not bad, out of ~400 total.

 

[RayPA]

As of late I've been trying to tighten up my workflow to meet the constraints of where I am. I'm a student, living in a dorm, not much space, not much cash, but plenty of time.
So far I have:
-Gone to B/W only so that I can do all my own development.
-Switched to Diafine to make development easier/cheaper.

The last real loose end is buying film. I don't like buying too many rolls at once because, quite frankly, it's expensive, even at the price-point of Arista. I also like to be able to switch up the amount of film in a roll, but never know when I'm ordering if I want 24 or 36.

According to my calculations, I can save ~$14 per 100' roll of Fortepan, and $20+ if I move up to HP5 or TX.
Of course, there is the up front investment to account for.
-Loader: $50 for a fancy new one at freestyle (Everywhere else is out of stock) or roughly $18 for a watson on eBay.
-Cassettes: ~$.50 apiece.
I can recoup investment in savings in about two 100' rolls if I buy a used loader.

At my current rate of film consumption, this is about 2-3 months, however, I think having more film around might encourage me to shoot more.

Thoughts? Opinions? Admonitions?

I'm sure there is a cost savings involved in bulk loading, but I do it because I enjoy having the flexibility of rolling my own at any length at any time. It also cuts down on packaging waste. Also, I develop my own b&w, and for me it's much easier to work with the reusable canisters.

Good luck!


.

 

[payasam]

Matt, I rolled my own for many years and never had a bulk loader.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Do a search and you'll find this comes up fairly often. You may also find it useful to look at some of the modules on my own site:

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps how load bulk.html

which deals with how, why and the lengths you need;

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps how choose cassetes.html

which deals with cassettes. You might also want to look for Shirley Wellards:

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/photoschool/ps shirley wellard.html

Cheers,

R.

 

[pfoto]

I hate to say this to you, but buy a new one from a retailer if you can get a good price. I think Freestyle also gives student discounts. I have bought several off eBay and they've all turned out to be poor quality so I ended up buying new from Freestyle myself. I highly recommend bulk loading and I've had no problems using cassettes from 1 hr. labs. 🙂

The site search here doesn't work. Enter this into Google:

site:rangefinderforum.com bulk loading film

and you will get a page full of relevant links here at RFF.

 

[thetooth]

i am a fan of the lloyd bulk loader . i own 6 of them and like their simple design . i have bought 5 off ebay and all but one were in great shape . i wouldn't pay more than $5.00 for a used ebay one though maybe $10.00 for a new one . good luck

 

[bcostin]

I'd go for it. It's easy and very flexible. I found two bulk loaders among my late father's camera equipment (a very early model Watson and a slightly newer Lloyds) so my initial investment was very low. I bought an inexpesive 100' spool of Arista film from Freestyle to try it all out, and have used mostly bulk film ever since.

I have a bunch of Kalt reloadable cartridges (most came with another bulk loader from ebay) that I use for B&W. For occasional bulk color I get empty cartridges from minilabs, like cosmonot already suggested. That way I can drop off a roll for 1-hour processing and not worry about asking for the empty cartridge back.

 

[hans voralberg]

I bulk load as well, I only load 15-20 frames per cassette because it takes me a lot of time to finish 36. That waste quite alot on leaders but I still like the flexibility 😀

 

[Max Power]

Another vote for bulk loading!

The loaders can be had for cheap on eBay. I've got a few of them loaded with different emulsions. I just keep them in Ziplock bags in the refrigerator. Furthermore, keep an eye out and you can get the 30m rolls on sale at places like Freestyle. Just buy a few and refrigerate them until you're ready to load.

Cheap reloadable canisters can also be had on eBay for a song.

Kent

 

[moonwire]

I have an AP bulk loader (freestyle carries them) and I get my empty canisters from the minilab. I do save a considerable amount of money. Also, I find 24 shots not enough and 36 too many, so I load them for 30 shots a roll. Perfect.

 

[bsdunek]

Here's another bulk loader - for at least 40 years.
I'm pretty picky about the canisters, though. I have lots of plastic ones with bayonet locking end caps, and also have a bunch of Nikon ones. Of course these are for my B&W. I wouldn't send them to a lab. For color, I get the bulk metal ones.
I think in all the years, I have had a couple of light leaks, which were my fault. I'm sure I've save a lot of $$$. 😎

 

[le vrai rdu]

I bought 30 m of agfa APX 400 and used to load myself my cardridge on my own (no lader, just my hands) IT is easy, just make sure not to have light leaks when you have the roll out of his box. I stopped now for I can't stand APX 400, one of the ugliest film I have ever met : (imho) . I use trix and It doesn't cost me more If I buy the film in cardridge rather than loading on my own

 

[BillBingham2]

I did a bit of bulk loading years back. It saved a LOT of money. I built a loader from an old Leica winder and some plywood. I used it in my darkroom and never had a problem.

B2 (;->