No of frames on bulk rolling film

I am looking at buying bulk rolls of film and loading it myself.

 

How many frames can I get into a roll of film.

 

I just bought an EOS 3 and aquatech water housing, I don't go stupid when

shooting in the water but I don't want to have to get out and change rolls

every 36 shots. Is 50-60 frames out of the question on a roll?

Even if you did, it makes it quite difficult to fit on the spiral in the dev tank.

When I first started bulk loading as a teen in high school we used to try and stuff as much

as possible in a cartridge. We could get over 50 frames. But in the dark room, once we

spooled as much as we could on a reel; it was a random snip and a lost frame. The

remainder went on another reel.

 

I still bulk load but don't over load the cartridges. It puts a lot of pressure on the

cartridge and they seem to be a bit cheaper in a construction so it is possible it could pop

open and you loose everything. You may also have issues with feeding and rewinding; it

was all manual when I did it.

 

This is all assuming you will be doing your own processing. I've never had any bulk

loaded film processed by a service.

I know a wedding photog who got 44 into the Leica brass cassettes. He has a leica tank that take tank many.

 

He went back to 36 when he used Nikor reels later as his volumn increased.

there are several issues,

I recall a test report that some canon film cameras would auto-wind the film on the takeup spool. as you took photos the film was rewound back into the cartridge, frame by frame. is this true? this would limit you to 36 exp.

 

second, If i were running a \lab, I would not touch a roll of film that was in a unmarked cart. that means, unless you develop your own, including c41 and e6. don't even go there,

 

third, when kodak sold the " notched and tounged" 28 foot rolls of bulk film ( 5-36 exp rolls) they were frame numbered up to 43 frames.

That then is the real and true maximum.

 

back in yester year kodak had one film on a thin base, the bulk roll was 125 feet. But prevoius comments regarding "how much fits on a reel still apply.

 

there is the Morse G-3 tank that will hold about 100 feet of either 35mm or 16mm film. it has 2 s.s. spools ( no reel) and you wind the film back and forth. I have one and the manual. + a pdf

 

I do not know what those with the huge backs for 35mm cameras do I think they were 250 exposures. possibly a commercial machine.

 

The only thing I can think of is the konica slr that would do half-frame.

72 exp. you could possibly stretch that a few more frames

I'd easily get 72 frames when bulk loading film on a thin film base (usually found in aerial films). I think Kodak's version is an ESTAR base?? The problem you might have is will the camera recognize the extra film? My Rebel 2000 would only recognize 36 frames. I'd end up with 36 frames with 3 feet of leader! I developed them with some high capacity reels I got on sale from Porters years ago. I still have some of them. You have to add 20% to developing time due to the limited space between film surfaces.

The safe limit, and this is pushing it a bit, is about 40 frames. That's hardly worth it since you'll probably have a bit of the tail hanging off a standard reel when you load it. Thin base stuff, if you can find it, would most likely be too fragile form most 35mm SLR cameras. Aerial cameras use large film and are designed to use this material.