rolling your own film from bulk rolls

[Carlsen Highway]

people, what is the ins and outs of loading your own cassettes from bulk rolls? What are the basics?

I have read of you guys doing it on this forum - and the person who taught me darkroom work many years ago used to do it too - but I payed no attention to this at the time for some reason.

What do you need to do it if i bought a 400 ft roll of film?
Can you reuse old cassettes somehow or do you buy special ones?
Whats the deal if I want to start doing this?

 

[David William White]

Good move.

Some people reuse their factory cartridges, but you have to make sure you remove the cap without damaging it.

Frequent (or exclusive) users of bulk film purchase either plastic or metal reusable cartridges. The metal cartridges have snap-on caps and the plastic have screw on caps. Reusable cartridges are also optionally available with DX coding on the side, generally both 100iso and 400iso, if your camera demands DX coded-cartridges. Ultrafine and Freestyle sell a variety of re-usable cartridge (sorry I don't know suppliers on your side of the world), along with bulk loaders.

With 400ft. rolls, you probably won't care to load a bulk loader and will probably just sit in the dark, pull off a meter, tape the end to a spool, and wind it up by hand. Within half an hour, you can probably do a dozen rolls, give or take.

After I trim the leader into a tongue, I mark it with a Sharpie.

 

[Keith]

people, what is the ins and outs of loading your own cassettes from bulk rolls? What are the basics?

I have read of you guys doing it on this forum - and the person who taught me darkroom work many years ago used to do it too - but I payed no attention to this at the time for some reason.

What do you need to do it if i bought a 400 ft roll of film?
Can you reuse old cassettes somehow or do you buy special ones?
Whats the deal if I want to start doing this?

Now you're talking ... this what sensible black and white photography is all about and it was the smartest decision I made along with deciding to develop my own black and white film.

Cassettes (used) ... I get these from the local Kodak one hour. They put them aside for me and I pick up a bag full occasionally when I'm passing. (free)

They have a tongue of film left sticking out which allows you to tape the new length of film onto it ... cheap sticky tape works fine wrapped around the join which should be overlapped slightly.

Bulk Loader ... 'Computrol' or 'Watson' seem very simple and easy to use to me and have given me no problems at all with scratching film etc!

Instructions for above loaders ... stare at one for long enough and you should figure out exactly how to use it if you have a higher IQ than a raisin! 😛

400ft won't fit into a bulk loader ... they are designed for 100ft rolls.

Plenty of people seem to have bulk loaders laying around that they don't use any more ... likely as not someone reading this thread will offer to sell or give you one or two. I have managed to get four this way!

Sitting at the computer checking out RFF threads while bulk loading a few cassettes is very relaxing ... and you're saving the planet by not consuming new cassettes but re-using old ones! 😀

Once you master it you may never go back to paying full price for film and you can load as many frames into a cassette (up to 40) as you feel you want to shoot ... I load 24's!

It's all good as they say! 🙂

 

[Roger Hicks]

The first module is about how and why to bulk-load; the second is about cassettes; the third is the instruction leaflet for the Shirley Wellard 'Universal' labyrinthine cassette.

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

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

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

Cheers,

R.

 

[johannielscom]

Brilliant Roger, thanks.

I'm already bulk loading myself, but found this a good read nonetheless.

I feel we should encourage bulk loading with anyone interested in it:

• it allows for the use of some exotic film that is used in the motion picture business but never made it to consumer level,
• it saves waste
• and it's cheaper too!

 

[tenderobject]

i love reloading film.. though im out of reloadable casettes!

get one! you'll be happy with it! 🙂

nice links roger 🙂

 

[Carlsen Highway]

Thanks a lot guys, I understand now.
Keith I dont have much on a raisin, but a dim bulb is going on in my head saying this is a very good idea...Ive actually even got some rewinds lying around somewhere from my film making days might come in handy maybe...

 

[Carlsen Highway]

Sadly not going to work out economically it seems (which was my main motivation)
Cant get bulk rolls in New Zealand, Kodak closed down their big place over here.
Best I can do is order 100ft from Freestyle but with the international shipping works out the same as if I bought 20 rolls in anyway...
Hmmm. This is the disadvantage of living on a bloody island in the middle of the Pacific.🙁

 

[Mablo]

You can always arrange a group order 🙂 People do it sometimes here as some of the European online shops have silly minimum order restrictions.

 

[gdi]

Sadly not going to work out economically it seems (which was my main motivation)
Cant get bulk rolls in New Zealand, Kodak closed down their big place over here.
Best I can do is order 100ft from Freestyle but with the international shipping works out the same as if I bought 20 rolls in anyway...
Hmmm. This is the disadvantage of living on a bloody island in the middle of the Pacific.🙁

The best way to save money is to find expired bulk rolls - I bought a lot of Pan f for about $8 a roll (50ft rolls), I recently bought a few 100ft rolls of T-Max for around $13 each.

You can sometimes find good deals from Ultrafineonline.com. I just buy individual rolls from Freestyle because bulk isn't much cheaper.

 

[hans voralberg]

What exotic film, care to recommend some ?

Brilliant Roger, thanks.

I'm already bulk loading myself, but found this a good read nonetheless.

I feel we should encourage bulk loading with anyone interested in it:

• it allows for the use of some exotic film that is used in the motion picture business but never made it to consumer level,
• it saves waste
• and it's cheaper too!

 

[Al Kaplan]

The list of "exotic" films has shrunk a lot. Digital pretty much killed off the slow ultra-fine grain microfilms. Eastman Kodak still makes Double-X 5222 ISO 250 and Plus-X ISO 80 motion picture films, but XT Pan ISO 40 (I think) and 4X Pan ISO 500 are gone. The ISO 80 Plus-X NOT the same film as the 125 Plus-X in cassettes. Hi-speed recording films were also pretty much killed off by digital.

Regular bulk film comes rolled on a plastic core. Some exotic films are on a metal spool, which should fit in a bulk loader, but maybe not?

Alden used to make a bulk loader for up to 200 foot rolls. It was a twist to open the light trap like the Watson design, but I don't think that anyone still supplies 200 rolls of film. Some bulk film has frame numbers, some doesn't. You'll never get them to start at #1 on your reloads.

A lot of us just outstretch our arms, tear off the film against a thumb nail, and load by hand in the darkroom. Masking tape holds the film to the spool and is used for labeling the cassettes with a fine point Sharpie. Mark the loading date!

 

[Ade-oh]

The list of "exotic" films has shrunk a lot. Digital pretty much killed off the slow ultra-fine grain microfilms.

Maybe for cine film but quite a lot of exciting films have appeared for still cameras recently. I've had a lot of fun with Adox and Rollei Ortho, Rollei ATP and the Adox microfilm (can't remember what they call it...).

I've been buying up the Leica reloadable cassettes when I've seen them for the last year or so, and have about ten, which is enough to keep going with.

 

[TWoK]

I thought you only got about 18 36 exposure rolls from a 100ft real. For those prices it was much cheaper for me to buy 20 roll packs from B&H for fresh film.

 

[dfoo]

What prices?

 

[hans voralberg]

I thought you only got about 18 36 exposure rolls from a 100ft real. For those prices it was much cheaper for me to buy 20 roll packs from B&H for fresh film.

You get about 20 rolls, one of the good thing about bulk rolling though is you can control the frame per roll, yes you waste more film but hey, no need to shoot 36 frame to develop anymore

 

[thetooth]

i use lloyds bulk loader and inexpensive cassette's i found on ebay . i think for 2 dozen i paid around $6 or $8 . i find it very convenient to control the frame number on the roll . i usually roll a 30 exposure i find 36 can be a pain to get on my patterson reels some times .

 

[peter_n]

Bulk is very good for testing too, 12 exposures to a roll. I've also bought in large amounts from Photo Warehouse (ultrafineonline.com), especially when they had APX100 in bulk. The economics for me is that it costs about 1/2 the price of regular. NZ sounds like the key to savings may be buying in bulk.