You’re never too old to do something for the first time.
In the decades that I’ve been taking photos, I have always used prerolled, retail film. A twitter friend, Dev Samaddar, somehow found himself in possession of many 100 foot rolls of Fuji Provia 100 slide film and he was kind enough to sell me one. This started me down the road of loading my own 35mm canisters. I should have done this long ago since the normal 36 exposure roll has always been at least 10 or 15 too many. It’s pretty rare that I can finish a roll that size in one outing. Now I can load shorter rolls, allowing me to finish shooting and processing them before I forget what the heck I was taking pictures of.
My favorite black and white negative film, Kodak Tri-X, has always been easy to find and not too expensive. Lately, though, I have been experimenting with different emulsions and some of them can be pricey. Buying 100 ft. rolls cuts the expense by a few dollars and, thanks to Dev, I have a handy little bulk roller and 25 reloadable cassettes to play with.
Here are a few shots taken with my first ever roll of Eastman Kodak Double-X 5222 that I loaded from a 100ft. bulk roll. I developed it in my usual developer, HC-110, at my usual dilution, 1+49, but the results are not the usual results. The subjective quality of the photos aside, these are some good looking negatives. They really do appeal to me. The contrast and grain are exactly what I desire in a 35mm black and white negative.
I love this film.
I’m glad you now have a subscribe option to your site. I didn’t realize I was responsible for your adventures in bulk loading. I have developed an aversion to it. I have rolled a couple or a few 100’ reels and every time invariably made some mistakes while doing it. But after reading this I’m thinking may be I should give it a shot again. I’ll just have to do it first thing in the morning after coffee instead of last thing before bed 😄
I was also looking at 400’ of 5222 from Kodak last weekend. But torn between that and 100’ of FP4+.
You might remember I was rather enamored by Rollei Retro 400S. After doing a head to head with XX and FP4+ that amor has vaporized. RR400S is good for a narrow set of conditions. It isn’t very versatile. Dodged a bullet there by not importing 50 rolls from Maco on a whim!!
I like the look of the Rollei Retro, but I haven’t picked any up yet. There’s too much swirling around in my head at the moment and another film stock wouldn’t help at all.
The bulk loading works out well for me. I rarely load 36 exp. so I’m probably losing film with all of the leader material, but I can finish the roll on a single outing without feeling like I am snapping away at nothing!