Bulk film

[cowasaki]

I have 30 odd refillable film cartridges and a bulk film loader and was given a 5m tin of Ilford HP5.

What is the overhead of film that goes into a carridge and is wasted ie loader strip etc.

Is there a limit to the minimum number of film cells I put in a cartridge?

Is there a set length of film that you load into the cartridge for 24 or 36 cells?

I was looking to make some 8 cell cartridges for testing and practicing, is there any issue with doing this?

 

[colpepper]

You won't have a problem with a minimum cassette length, within reason. Making up a 1 or 2 frame film might be an exacting business for obvious reasons.
If you're processing your own there's a lot to commend short films, the main downside being leader to shot length ratio - the longer the film the smaller the daylight fog length percentage.

The thing to be careful of is dirt in the cassette felt. Change them frequently to avoid tramlines. Very short film lengths can also be wasteful of chemicals.

 

[cowasaki]

You won't have a problem with a minimum cassette length, within reason. Making up a 1 or 2 frame film might be an exacting business for obvious reasons.
If you're processing your own there's a lot to commend short films, the main downside being leader to shot length ratio - the longer the film the smaller the daylight fog length percentage.

The thing to be careful of is dirt in the cassette felt. Change them frequently to avoid tramlines. Very short film lengths can also be wasteful of chemicals.

Thanks. I have 30 odd of the cartridges so will pick the best ones. Will probably work out the length required for about 10 shots and have a go. Not sure if the bulk loader is a daylight one or a dark room one will have to investigate tomorrow. I need to take a film asap so that I can try to develop it and then process some wet prints. I might do it the other way round though as I have plenty of B&W negs so I might end up doing a load of prints on Saturday from those.

 

[alistair.o]

The usual loading is leave 4 frames for the end off i.e. you want 20 shots on a roll then it will take 24 to do that.

Hope this helps

 

[cowasaki]

The usual loading is leave 4 frames for the end off i.e. you want 20 shots on a roll then it will take 24 to do that.

Hope this helps

Cheers, will have a play with the loader later.