First time with roll film - advice please!

bmicklea

bmicklea

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Last week I dug my father's old bulk film loader out of a box in his basement. I've now found a source for 100ft rolls of Ilford Delta 100 and 400 in Canada so I'm all set.

Then it occurred to me - how do you deal with two bulk film rolls and a single loader? Do people just load up ~20 cartridges of film to finish off one of the rolls and then do the other roll as needed? Or do you just switch the bulk rolls as needed in the loader? Or do you put both rolls into cartridges right away and drop the filled cartridges in the freezer? I was leaning toward the last option but wanted to hear what others are doing / have done.

Thanks!
 
Bulk film loaders are very inexpensive now. I have one for each type of film I buy. In years past I had just one and just repooled off one type at time.

I figure that each time you handle a bulk roll of film, it just increases your opportunity to accidentally expose it. That's why I nerever switched back and forth.

-Paul
 
Brad

I got three bulk loaders, the photo shop has a cardboard box, with 'make us an offer' on it.

Noel
 
I just sit down and take the half-hour or so to spool off the entire roll onto cassettes. Then I don't have to keep the loader in the 'fridge; not enough room, anyway!

Duane
 
I've done the same as Duane. I haven't loaded from bulk rolls for some years, but then I chose to make 30-exp rolls as more convenient for file storage later. As I recall this resulted in 18-20 rolls per 100' length, so it wasn't a really big task to just run it all off in one session once already set up with the bits and pieces, the spare time and such.

As an advantage this never left a partial bulk roll in the loader, so no concern about cold storage, condensation, labeling or remembering what the stuff was, etc. I only ever had the one bulk loader, so I got very familiar with its feel and operation.
 
Thanks all, sounds like both options work. I'm inclined to get a ton of cartridges and just roll up both 100ft rolls at once. I've got a small fridge/freezer so that's probably the better option.

Thanks!
 
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