How many exp. do you get from 100'/film?

K

Kyle

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I did some searching around here because I'm considering getting in to bulk loading. The one thing I didn't find was how many exposures does a 100' roll of film normally give?

Also, do people normally buy a 100' roll then load all of it up into canisters and put them in the freezer or do you roll up a few cassettes and then place your loader (with film) in the freezer?

Does anyone have any other tips or tricks they use when bulk loading? Based on my readings I have a good idea as to how its done, so I'm not asking about the basic process. Mainly I want to know things like your system for keeping track of how many times you've used a canister before you toss it, etc? If you have any tips like that that you can share to help things go smoothly, that would be appreciated.
 
kyle said:
The one thing I didn't find was how many exposures does a 100' roll of film normally give?
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You should be able to get 18 to 20 rolls (36 exposure) from a 100' roll of film.

kyle said:
do people normally buy a 100' roll then load all of it up into canisters and put them in the freezer or do you roll up a few cassettes and then place your loader (with film) in the freezer?
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When I did bulk loading with 100' rolls, I usually loaded a few film cassettes and kept the bulk loader double-bagged in the fridge. With 50' or 25' bulk rolls I usually loaded it all into cassettes in one sitting.

kyle said:
Does anyone have any other tips or tricks they use when bulk loading?
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If your loader has a felt light trap KEEP IT CLEAN! A single speck of dust can ruin a lot of film. Ditto with the cassettes. I usually figured about 5 reloads was safe for felt light trap cassettes ... the number of loads for the cassettes without felt is pretty much infinite if you keep them clean.

Peter
 
Wow, film is expensive in Australia!

A tip: I usually vacuum any dust or dirt from my empty cassettes before I reload them. This helps prevent any scratching.
 
kyle said:
I did some searching around here because I'm considering getting in to bulk loading. The one thing I didn't find was how many exposures does a 100' roll of film normally give?
Click to expand...
Someone already answered question, but here is math (in metrics, sorry. 100'=30.5m):
30.5 m / 1.6 m = 19 rolls (36 exp).
I just want to emphasize the lenght of 36 exp roll, it is 1 m 60 cm. It is common mistake for beginners to put more film in cassette. Don't do this unless you have special developing tank/reels that can handle more than 165 cm.
Eduard.
 
ed1k said:
. It is common mistake for beginners to put more film in cassette. Don't do this unless you have special developing tank/reels that can handle more than 165 cm.
Eduard.
Click to expand...
Thanks to everyone for the help. I'm still considering whether or not I want to bulk load. I have a little while to figure it out as I have a lot of film stocked up in my fridge.

As far as this warning goes, one of my main reasoning for going with bulk loading is the ability to go with less exposures if I like. I'd like to be able to make 20exp rolls.
 
Kyle, you can safely load less exposures, if you like. 20 or 12, it's up to you. But you will waste some film for leader. Probably this (and goal to change film in camera not so often than usual if there is plan to shoot a lot) is why I saw some people trying to load more than 36 exposures.
And I have a question on this subject too. I recently bought some metallic cassettes (made in Spain) and the reel has a slit very wide with some three teeth in it. I have no idea on how to hold film in this construction. Old soviet cassetes were usually with reel that had a narrow slit, narrow enough to get film thru it, flip tip back and tight film back so it's securely held in a slit. I can use scotch tape, but that slit probably meant to work somehow. May be someone knows how?
 
Lately I've been using empty cassettes from a lab to load bulk film. Processing machines generally leave 5-10 mm of film sticking out of the cassette -- you can use electrical tape to attach the end of the bulk roll to this and then load it in as usual. This makes for a steady supply of "fresh" cassettes.

To keep track of how many rolls I've loaded, I just use tick-marks on a strip of tape on the side of the bulk loader.

For me, bulk loading makes major economic sense. I've gotten 100' rolls of outdated Velvia (looks great!) for US$5 from Freestyle. An outdated 100' of Efke 25 (also looks great!) came my way for C$20. These days I'm using Neopan 1600, which I got in a 100' roll from the Megaperls Webshop (Japan). Even after taking shipping costs into account, loading from bulk costs about 1/3 as much as buying the pre-loaded film locally.
 
I'm with Mark Goody. There isn't the price differential there is in the UK but there is a substantial difference in the film I am currently using most - Neopan 1600. I get it from Dirk at Megaperls and it is <$29 per 100ft roll. It works out to about 50% of the cost of regular NP1600 from a discount store. I have not had a problem with scratches (yet) and so far going the bulk route has definitely been worth it.

 
I get 20 rolls measured out using an AP bulkloader. From start arrow back to start arrow I'll get ~33-34 exposures. The last exposure is usually half-killed (this is the part that gets exposed when you tape the first bit to the spool ;) ).

I shoot ~1-3 rolls in a normal week (just walking about with no special events or anything to shoot) and find that I save almost 50% in film costs. It's also much more convinient to load up films at home then have to go down to the shop and buy new films all the time.
 
Before I reuse a cassette, I run the sticky side of some masking tape over the felt to catch any grit that may have stuck there. The loader I use doesn't have felt, so I don't have to worry about that.

Earl
 
Thanks again for all the help. From doing the quick math, it looks like I'll save about 50% on film costs by doing my own bulk loading (this is using the better net prices, if I were to make comparisons based on prices I can pay locally for film, the savings will be more). I have a buddy that works at a local Ritz, so maybe I'll talk to him and see if he'll give me some canisters.

Also, the reason I asked the question about loading up the entire roll at once or putting the loading with partially used rolls in the fridge, was I remember reading comments on here saying things like "if you have multiple films you want to bulk load, you need multiple loaders." That really doesn't make much sense. Seems like it would be easier to just load up a 100' roll of one film, then load another roll of another.
 
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I use reusable cassettes and empty Foma film cassettes: those are easy to open/close with your fingers. I only roll up a few cassettes at time. My bulk now is 60m (~200') Fortepan 400; it makes for 36 rolls of 1.65m (36 exp).

I don't have a bulk loader, but my hands spread at full width are just the right span, give or take a centimeter.
 
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