Bulk Loading Economics & Film Selection

It's time for the annual Film Buying Event -- I'm down to 5 rolls.

 

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Unfortunately, I'm struggling with the fact that economics is against me right now. I'm considering getting Keynes, Marx, Smith, et al. back on my side by bulk loading.

 

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I had been using TMX and D3200 and was going to go with TX and TMZ for the next year. I figured out that TX is much cheaper to self-load: the break even point is 45 rolls if you get 3 uses from a film cartridge. TMX and HP5+ have similar costs.

 

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TMZ, though, costs 58% more to bulk load not including the equipment! Since most of the time I want big grain & EI 800 when I use 35mm, I was wondering about the viability of TX or HP5+ as EI 800 films for everyday use. Is there any soup (preferably as a liquid concentrate) which makes EI 800 palatable for these films? (My previous work with them made them out to be about EI 250 in Rodinal 1:50 when metered in-camera.)

 

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(I'd be most likely to try Rodinal (1:25 + 25g/l sodium sulfite) or HC-110, if left to my own devices. And I could live with some loss of shadow detail: I print the shadows down fairly often to assure a full black. De gustibus...)

 

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Assuming EI 800 is possible from TX or HP5+, what bulk equipment is recommended? Right now I'm thinking Watson loader and screw-top plastic cartridges...

STOP! I'd like to discourage you from pursuing this bulk-loading idea

any farther. The economies you speak of are false, especially if you

are reusing cartridges. You will get light leaks from the cartridge

sides and scratches from the cartridge felt at the worst possible

times, ruining only your most wonderful photos.

 

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Unless your luck is a whale of a lot better than mine, save yourself

some genuine heartache and buy pre-loaded film. Buy in bulk, look for

specials, do whatever you have to do, but avoid subjecting your film

to twice as much handling and potential for scratching.

 

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As for developers, sorry, my recommendations would all be powders: D-

76, XTOL, and Microphen. And, yes, all of them will take you to EI

800 with those films, but with significant loss of shadow detail, in

my experience.

I bulk load and have no problems with scratches. I will agree,

however, that it is very easy to scratch your film unless you are

careful.

 

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My practice is to avoid getting any grit on the film cassette by

putting the reloaded film in a snap-top film cannister immediately

after loading. I keep an empty cannister in my camera bag, and when

I finish shooting a roll, it goes directly into a cannister. Also, I

use the plastic screw-top cassettes (B&H-$0.45/), and I have never

had a light leak.

 

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I should point out to you, I am meticulous about keeping everything

clean. If you do the same, I don't think you'll have any trouble

with scratches.

 

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As for developers, you should check out Edwal FG7. It's an excellent

developer, but seems to have fallen from favor of late, and I don't

know why. It yields nice tight grain, very good tonality and

excellent sharpness. Another liquid concentrate that is worth a look

is Ilford Ilfosol S. Both these developers employ phenidone and thus

provide a real speed increase of +/- 1/2 stop. Another developer

that might suit you well is FX-2 or TFX-2. You can buy them from

Photographer's Formulary in liquid form. TFX-2 is PH's proprietary

modification of the original FX-2 formula. I've used both and don't

find any significant difference. FX-2 is very simple to make, so you

could save considerable money by buying the chemicals from PH and

making your own stock solutions.

 

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Finally, if you decide to forego bulk loading, you can get a great

deal on Fuji SS100 film from B&H; they sell it for $1.99 a roll. It's

an excellent conventional type film, similar in properties to FP4+.

The also often have Fuji Neopan 400 for $2.49 a roll; it's

considerably better than TX and about equal to HP5+, and it pushes

very nicely to 800.

Unlike Brian, I highly recommend bulk loading your own film. As long

as you're reasonably careful you should have no problems. I've been

bulk loading Tri-X using a Watson loader and Kodak snap-cap

cassettes. I replace the cassettes after 20 loading cycles -- a

magic number I picked out of thin air. I always shoot a test roll

through a cassette before I commit it to, ahem, serious work. I keep

the Watson loader in a resealable freezer bag and the cassettes in

plastic canisters from preloaded film.

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I don't have an opinion on bulk loading other films since I like the

results I get with Tri-X and D-76. The only other developer I've

tried is XTOL with Delta 3200 (EI 1600/1+1/13'30"/24C). I'm indebted

to John Hicks for that development data (though John does

1+1/15'/74F).

I'm going to take a middle of the road view here. I bulk load TMX,

FP4+, and HP5, using a couple of second hand Watsons and a nearly

identical Alden-74. I've also used Lloyds and have nothing against

them. If you can find a photo flea market, bulk loaders are usually

cheap and easy to find- I don't think I paid more then $5 for any

of 'em. Most of the easily available metal cassettes are junk, and

the plastic ones are only a little better. Ah, for the days of the

original Kodak snap-cap with it's soft and perfect velvet. Anyway, in

spite of extreme attention to cleanliness, I've had scratch problems.

Testing individual cassettes before doing anything serious is an

excellent idea. No amount of visual inspection revealed my bad

cassette, but bad it was. And it only takes one in the mix to drive

you completely crazy. Now that my cassettes are proven, and with only

reasonable attention to cleanliness, the results are scratch free.

So, you can certainly bulk load with no problems once you get a

system down. OTOH, if there is a scratch, it will be on the best

frame of the roll. Also, if you bulk load in room light, the best

frame will be on the exposed tail of the film- the last frame or two,

because you forgot to stop before the end! Caveat emptor.

I don't understand those who say its not economical, unless they know

of places that sell pre-packaged stuff at great prices (in which case

they should let us all in on the deal!).

 

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Using a conservative 47 inches per 24 exposure roll, I come up with a

little over 25 rolls out of a 100' of film (38mm per frame and 140mm

at each end, obviously you will do better with 36 exp rolls). Using

current B&H prices for bulk film we have the following:

 

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Delta 100 @ $36.95/100' = $1.48/roll

Delta 400 @ $39.50/100' = $1.58/roll

TMAX 100 @ $24.95/100' = $1.00/roll

TMAX 400 @ $24.95/100' = $1.00/roll

TMAX 3200 @ $89.95/100' = $3.59/roll

 

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And B&H pricing for pre-packaged film:

 

Delta 100 $2.59/roll

Delta 400 $2.79/roll

TMAX 100 $1.89/roll (import)

TMAX 400 $1.99/roll (import)

TMAX 3200 $3.19/roll (import)

 

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TMAX 3200 seems to be an exception. Even recalculating for

36 exp rolls (65' a roll) the results are similar (I'll leave the

math as an exercise for the reader).

 

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Ignoring the "scratch" factor, it seems obviously cheaper to use bulk

film.

The economics become dramatic when you load a speciality film like

Tech Pan. The film cost is about $2.50 for a 36 exposure roll,

compared to $6+ for a prepackaged roll. Keep every thing very clean

and protected from dust and you should have no problems. I keep my

loader in a sealed freezer bag inside a tight box in a drawer. Same

for the empty cassettes. Also the being able to roll any length of

film is a money saver.

 

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As to the last frames, I use the exposure counter on my motor drive to

stop the film before I hit the exposed end.

Another tip for anyone interested in bulk-loading: if you use a camera

from the "Golden Days" of mechanical cameras (Leica M, Alpa SLR, Canon

RF, etc.), these manufacturers all made bulk-loading cassettes that

have no felt trap to scratch film. They are designed to open inside the

camera and to give the film a free path. You can sometimes find these

cassettes at flea markets or in the junk drawer at older camera shops.

Unfortunately, they usually don't work with newer camera models. I have

a dozen of the Leica N-cassettes that work well with all Leica M models

to about mid-way through the production of the M6's, when they

eliminated the internal key that opens the cassette in the camera when

you close the base. That tells you how rare bulk-loading has become

these days. The cassettes were all well-used when I got them, from a NY

area newspaper photo department, but there's really nothing to wear

out. They are made from black-painted brass, so they will probably last

forever.

Another way to cut both cost and the risk of scratching is not to use

reloadable cassettes at all. Rather, get once-used cassettes from

the waste box at a local one hour lab. They will have a small piece

of film sticking out; tape the end of your film to that piece, wind

your film into the cassette with a bulk loader, and throw the

cassette out after one use (after all, it was free, and there are

plenty more where it came from).

Re the metal feltless cassettes. Nikon made one as well. It was usable with all the rangefinder models and the F & F2. I don't know if it was compatible with the F3 or newer models.

For a speed increasing developer I suggest you forget Rodinal and HC-

110. Check out Ilford DD-X.

I find that I never use the reloader anymore, too much trouble. Just

wait until dark and go into a closet and roll it onto your cassette

from the bulk roll, stop when the film you are winding is almost

flush with the ends of the spool, close the cassette and turn the

lights back on. If you need to be more precise about how much film

you are winding on the spool cut a string the length that you want

the film to be, I seem to recall that '52 inches is about 36 exp. but

you could measure a page of your negatives and add a few inches.

Pull the film off of the bulk reel the length of your measured

string. I never have had a problem with scratches or light leaks and

I use the black metal cassettes.

If you really need to avoid scratches - stay away from one hour labs!

To echo Ted, somewhat, I think you might like Edwal FG-7. I

underexposed HP5 Plus by one stop (EI 800), and developed normally for

EI 400, and got a very nice 8x10 print, although with slightly higher

contrast printing. Extending the development time slightly would seem

likely to yield good results for EI 800.

I believe Edwal FG-7 and TG-7 are now handled by Brandess Kalt

(of Acufine and Diafine fame)and no longer by Falcon Safety Products.

BTW, TG-7 is a very nice liquid concentrate which has given me

great results with T-Max 3200 at 1600 and 3200.

Good Luck!

Dave

I've been bulk loading HP5+ and shooting it at 800 for several years.

Haven't had much in the way of scratches, and never had a canister

open up when I didn't want it to. I use Kodak Snap Caps, and blow

them out with air before each loading. I tend to put a bulk roll in

the Watson loader and load up all 17 (I think it is) 36 exposure rolls

at once, putting them in Ilford green top plastic canisters that I've

saved from commercially purchased rolls. I mark the caps of the

reloaded film canisters with an "R" (using a Sharpie) to easily

identify reloads. I've found that they work fine in all of my manual

wind cameras and motorized Nikons, but sometimes the little point and

shoots don't have enough muscle to wind a particular cassette. I keep

some commercial rolls around for those cameras.

 

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For processing I've used Ilfotec HC at 1:31 with good results, using

the Ilford recommended times for starters and adjusting a bit from

there. It's an easy to mix concentrate (like HC-110, I'm told) and

the stock solution seems to keep well. Results of my kids'

participation in theater productions and indoor horse shows are just

fine at 800. I've tried a lot of other film/developer combinations in

side by side tests, and haven't found any that were materially better

for these purposes (for me and my equipment and my technique - your

mileage may vary.)