Who loads their own film please?

tikkathreebarrel

tikkathreebarrel

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Being a Lancashire Lad, I'm allus interested in spending less rather than more and my wandering eye has settled on internet forum claims of saving money on film by buying bulk rolls and home loading it: I'm talking about 35mm but there's no reason why I shouldn't also consider 120 MF in this.

I'm always sceptical of the transferrability of alleged savings from one side of the Atlantic to the other: just 'cos someone in San Fransisco can buy film for apparently nothing doesn't mean that I'm going to be able to do the same here.

I'd be using the internet as a source, EBay or UK online retail outlets and I do not have a mate who works in quality control at Ilford etc.:bang:

So my question is this: who home loads film and what advantages do you actually get out of it please? Do you really slash the cost of the film in your camera or is it just another part of a total hobby?
 
When I shot lots of 35mm I used to roll my own.
Saved loads of money in the 3 years I did it and never had 1 problem with scratched film, nice thing was if I was doing a bit of testing I could have a 8exp film.

Still go the bulk loader somewhere if you want to buy one.
 
Nowadays, it is more about having the practicality of being able to have a choice on how many exposures you want to roll than about cost savings. For a 30.5m/100ft roll, with a good loader, you may get 18-19 rolls. Let's say optimistically 19. A bulk reel of T-Max 400 is £56.99 from Firstcall Photographic, add in the delivery and you get £65. 19 rolls mean it is £3.42 a roll. For comparison, each roll at 7dayshop would be £3.39, individually packaged, and the bulk load cost doesn't include the cost of getting cartridges, the initial expense of a bulk loader, the potential problem of dirt getting stuck in light traps in reusable cartridges...

Of course, if you get a good deal on a can then it changes, but bulk rolls of good film in the UK aren't especially cheap usually.
 
^^ this. I looked into it last year and even buying Arista (or whatever it's called that's the same as Tri-X) from America and buying 5 rolls at a time I couldn't beat 7dayshop prices for genuine Tri-X.
 
I use Ultrafine Extreme in 400 & 100 ISO, I have 3 bulk loaders, two of the Bobinquick style and one of the Computrol/Watson type. The Bobinquick type are much less wasteful of film than the Computrol/Watson type.

As said by others, the versatility of being able to load as much as you need is much better and more cost effective than shooting a dozen shots and then wasting the rest of a 36 exposure roll to be able to process it.

I tend to load mine in lengths of 6exp (rare testing only), 12exp, 18exp, 24exp as this allows up to 4 strips of 6 exposures which is the maximum my scanner takes in one hit.

Ultrafine available here 30mtrs of ISO400 & ISO100 is about $50, shipping for 2 rolls was $17, this works out at just over £42 for enough film for the equivalent of 36x 36 exposure cassettes (less than £1.20 a roll or about 3 pence an exposure).

Okay, it is not Tri-X but it is not the worst film I have used, and if you use a bit of trial and error to discover the best way of processing it will be more than acceptable.
 
`i do.....but I tend to just spool manually by stretching the film to an arm's length and taping it onto a reloadable cassette.

Very quick that way....
 
Happy_medium said:
`i do.....but I tend to just spool manually by stretching the film to an arm's length and taping it onto a reloadable cassette.

Very quick that way....
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Don't try this at home folks unless you're in a darkroom or hard of thinking :LOL:
 
The Bobinquick type are much less wasteful of film than the Computrol/Watson type.
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Does that mean that you don't get any fogged frames at the end of the roll? That's what puts me off using my Computrol type - that and the v small price difference now. I usually end up cutting a 36 exposure in half in a changing bag for short lengths.

P.S very seasonal and funny QR code avatar from TheBigYin - rude, but still funny
 
NickT said:
Does that mean that you don't get any fogged frames at the end of the roll? That's what puts me off using my Computrol type - that and the v small price difference now. I usually end up cutting a 36 exposure in half in a changing bag for short lengths.

P.S very seasonal and funny QR code avatar from TheBigYin - rude, but still funny
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Yes, at the end of each bobinquick roll there is about a 1/2 frame loss, of course you loose a bit more when you load it (as with any 35mm roll) the leader needs about 2.5 frames.

This is because the light-trap in the Bobinquick loader is right next to the film cassette whereas in the Computrol type the light-trap is about 2.5-3 frames from the cassette. Not a problem at the leader end as you need that to load the film into the camera, but a big issue for me at the spool end.

I'll load a few spools later so will take some piccies to show you what happens if you are interested?
 
I'll load a few spools later so will take some piccies to show you what happens if you are interested?
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Thanks Ed, but I guessed that it must be something like that, so it's not really necessary. I've seen that type advertised new at about £45, which is more than I can afford at the moment. I've had this old Prinz loader since I was a schoolboy in the 60s I remember when FP4 came out, a mate of mine and I bought 200 feet of expired FP3 for about a quid. It kept us going for years! There are no cheap film options now, as all the Lomo loonies buy all the out of date stuff on ebay for more than the new price.

P.S. and the FP3 was perfectly OK too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47119506@N03/4441242933/in/photostream
 
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I get my film from Morris photo, load in a Watson bulk loader from the 70s I bought last month and have loaded my own for 30 years, saved a fortune.
 
Only problem I've found with using bulk is that when it's fogged, it's not just 1 roll, it's all 19 or so. I'm currently firing my way through some fogged hp5 because I can't justify throwing away that much film, even if it is a bit f***ed. My fault for buying VERY cheap from a new Ebay seller :bang:
 
Joenail said:
Only problem I've found with using bulk is that when it's fogged, it's not just 1 roll, it's all 19 or so. I'm currently firing my way through some fogged hp5 because I can't justify throwing away that much film, even if it is a bit f***ed. My fault for buying VERY cheap from a new Ebay seller :bang:
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Never had a fogged film in my life, ever.

Load it into the bulk film loader in a dark / changing bag (assume this IS what you do) not daylight, and then follow instructions for casette loading, is so simple.
 
JSER said:
Load it into the bulk film loader in a dark / changing bag (assume this IS what you do) not daylight, and then follow instructions for casette loading, is so simple.
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This doesn't prevent mishandling by the eBay seller, which is what I assume Joe is talking about.
 
freecom2 said:
This doesn't prevent mishandling by the eBay seller, which is what I assume Joe is talking about.
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That's exactly what I'm talking about. I've always used a darkroom to load/unload film, so it's definitely not me!
 
The lab I use for any colour film I shoot has a very nifty thing for retrieving the end of the film out of the canister - not the usual solution for this, it's a thing they put the canister in then they pull a lever and voila. Given this, I can't see why the machine would then go on to destroy the canister.
 
some of the larger processing labs (the ones that process thousands of films a day) have a system where you put the entire film canister into the machine - it peels the caniste away like a orange, and just strips the film spool - splicing it onto the end of a MAHOOSIVE roll of films - these are then processed in a similar way to a motion picture reel. Most of the "minilab" setups have a "leader retriever" as described by fixedimage, which allows the film end to be introduced into the processing line, and the empty canister is left undamaged - though you'd have to mention to the processing guy that you wanted to keep the film can as it was re-useable.
 
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