Bulk film roll: how to load film without a loader?

Odot · Oct 13, 2016

I really love HP5 plus so i want to use bulk film to save money. Those film loaders are somewhat pricey (cheapest loader i saw was 50€..getouttahere) so i want to look for alternatives Thanks in advance

Agulliver · Oct 13, 2016

I picked up three bulk loaders from eBay auctions....paid no more than £8.50 each. One even had about 70 feet of Kodak Tri-X in it.

You can load reusable cassettes without a bulk loader, but every time you open that packet of bulk film will have to be in a dark room or changing bag. If you can spend a couple of hours loading enough cassettes to use the entire bulk roll, then it might be an option. But most of us prefer to use a bulk loader, in which case the dark room/bag is only used to load and set up the loader....everything else is done in daylight - allowing you to load a few cassettes at a time.

Bear in mind that the cost of a brand new bulk loader and a few cassettes could be offset by just two or three 100 foot (30 metre) rolls. A used one will pay or itself the first time you use it.

mehguy · Oct 13, 2016

I don't think theres anyway around it. You need a bulk loader for bulk loading film. Look at ebay or local classifieds, Im sure you can find one for cheap.

MattKing · Oct 13, 2016

There are used ones around, and I would look for one.
That being said, there certainly are people who load without one. It involves having a reference so you can measure the length of the film, and most would do it in batches - several rolls at a time. I certainly wouldn't try it in a changing bag.

Theo Sulphate · Oct 13, 2016

Back in 1971 I didn't even know bulk loaders existed. Since I had no money, a friend gave me a 50' spool of expired film to get me started. For many years later this was my procedure:

- go into closet at night (all lights off in apartment)

- put wire coat hanger on high bar in closet

- open bulk roll, attach film to hanger with clothespins

- lay and secure bulk spool on small shelf (film still going up to hangar)

- attach two clothespins near to where film is coming off spool (one on each edge of film)

- holding film below lower clothespins, cut film with scissors (your fingers should hold film to prevent it snapping back onto roll, clothespins will weigh down the lower part of the film; at this point you've got a strip of film hanging down from the wire hanger)

- put bulk spool back in can

- put narrow wrapping (?) tape on bottom of 35mm film strip, remove lower clothespins, wind film onto 35mm spool, moving upwards towards hanger

- when done, insert spool into cassette

I've done this countless times for years, no mishaps, no damaged film, no dust. I didn't know exactly how many frames I would have this way - usually 20-22.

Primitive? Yes - but enjoyable (at least for my simple mind).

DWThomas · Oct 13, 2016

Yes, if you can lightproof a closet -- or have a darkroom -- I've dealt with this by driving a finish nail (or common nail with head cut off) into the door trim as high as I can comfortably reach and leaving about 1.5" (4 or 5cm) sticking out. Angle the nail about 45º off the wall so it is pointing away from the door opening (mostly for safety to avoid snagging). It is also be good to tilt the nail a few degrees upward so the spool tends to not slide off while working.

Then drive a small nail -- or more recently I used a thumb tack with a spherical plastic head -- into the door frame at an appropriate measurement below the big nail. In the dark you tape the end of the film to the spool and hang the spool on the upper nail, then unwind enough film from the bulk roll to get to the marker nail/tack. Cut the film at that point, roll it onto the spool, and stick it into the cassette -- done!

I won't say you can't screw something up, but it is a method. I did it that way decades ago as a money-challenged youngster, but also recently to check out a gift roll of very expired film. I can easily afford a bulk loader, but don't shoot enough 35mm to want to invest in or store an "official" setup for bulk loading.

Odot · Oct 13, 2016

Guys, i live in a typical east-Berlin building from the 60s, with thick walls and no windows in the kitchen or toilet. Perfect setting to try my luck without the film loader

removed account4 · Oct 13, 2016

how about ... in a dark room just wind some onto a spool in a film canister and dont' worry about how many exposures you will have
pull a fair amount off the bulk core and just wind. you dont' need to be exact ...

AgX · Oct 13, 2016

I started using bulk film with my 4th roll of film ever. Never heard of a bulk film loader back then...

Aside of what was is said about darkening the room, take with you a soup dish to place the roll of film in. Also a pair pair opf scissors, and a piece of sticky tape.
Think in advance in what orientation the end of film has to be put onto the spool.
Roll the film until it reaches the flanges of the spool. No need to measure anything. Makes life easy and will provide some extra frames if the camera allows for that,
That's all. No magic.

hacked - sepiareverb · Oct 13, 2016

I've read that we have 36 exposures because that was the length of film ol Barnack could pull of a bulk roll between his outstretched hands. Oskar seems to have been a little shorter than me.

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 13, 2016

Odot said:
Guys, i live in a typical east-Berlin building from the 60s, with thick walls and no windows in the kitchen or toilet. Perfect setting to try my luck without the film loader

I was on a research fellowship in Poland in 1989. There was hardly anything in the photo stores except for bulk rolls of high contrast copy film--perfect for copying books and documents, which I needed to do. I got old reusable cartridges from a film lab, put two pieces of tape on the wall of the bathroom just like your East German bathroom, and measured the film in the dark on the wall using those pieces of tape, and loaded the cartridges. The lab that gave me the cartridges processed the film.

rpavich · Oct 13, 2016

I've bulk loaded a few times this way; go into your light tight room and lay everything out and memorize where everything is so you don't fumble. Then lay the spool on a table. Make sure you have something to contain it so it doesn't unravel and go all over.

Just pull out about 5' it's not important if you are exact. Then tape it on the center of the bulk spool and snap everything together and repeat.

You CAN pull out multiple 5' lengths and just keep them in a developing tank until you want to spool them.

If it were me, I'd look for a loader, I've found two under $10.00 and really, we spend a LOT more on lots of other things in photography, where there's a will, there's a way.

This one is $12.00

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WATSON-66C-...464762?hash=item1a1d76a63a:g:FtEAAOSwZJBX~DZ-

benjiboy · Oct 13, 2016

The only alternatives risk exposing the whole roll of bulk film.

Wallendo · Oct 13, 2016

Another advantage of a loader is that it provides a light-tight storage container for your film.

Gerald C Koch · Oct 13, 2016

sepiareverb said:
I've read that we have 36 exposures because that was the length of film ol Barnack could pull of a bulk roll between his outstretched hands. Oskar seems to have been a little shorter than me.

Considering the long leader needed for bottom loading Leicas 36 exposures would be the maximum that could be loaded into a cassette without the film binding.

Colin Corneau · Oct 14, 2016

Just get a used loader. Have some respect for your film and your photography...it's good to save money but cheaping out, you always pay - sooner or later.

Just do it right from the outset.

mshchem · Oct 14, 2016

Buy a Nikon F2 with 750 exposure bulk film back. Problem solved

AgX · Oct 14, 2016

Colin Corneau said:
Just get a used loader. Have some respect for your film and your photography...it's good to save money but cheaping out, you always pay - sooner or later.
Just do it right from the outset.

"Right"?
I do not see anything wrong with the way I proposed.

MartinP · Oct 14, 2016

Knock two nails into a long piece of wood, darken the room, put the film between the nails using the perforations, cut film, fix film to cassette-core with pre-cut length of tape, wind, put core in cassette-body, repeat.

Bulk loaders are unnecessary, quite likely to scratch film, imprecise regarding film-length, as well as being fiddly to use and (depending on the type of loader) exposing your last frame to light. They are popular because they are an extra bit of gear that you can baffle ordinary people with. Gear-worship should stop.

BMbikerider · Oct 14, 2016

MartinP said:
Knock two nails into a long piece of wood, darken the room, put the film between the nails using the perforations, cut film, fix film to cassette-core with pre-cut length of tape, wind, put core in cassette-body, repeat.

Bulk loaders are unnecessary, quite likely to scratch film, imprecise regarding film-length, as well as being fiddly to use and (depending on the type of loader) exposing your last frame to light. They are popular because they are an extra bit of gear that you can baffle ordinary people with. Gear-worship should stop.

More or less the way I do it, but I also put nails part way down at the 24 exp length as well as 36 exp. To gauge the distance between the nails. for 36exp multiply 36 x 1.5 and add 7 (No of exposures x 1.5 inches + 7" for the leader, trail and the gap between each frame) Use the same formula for 24 exposures.

pdeeh · Oct 14, 2016

Colin Corneau said:
Have some respect for your film and your photography..

It's important to respect that that others may not need wish or be able to do things the same way as you, nor that if they do not , they are not therefore somehow being "disrespectful" to inanimate objects or pastimes.

Making moral imperatives out of a difference of method isn't helpful.

pdeeh · Oct 14, 2016

OP: eBay, boot sales, fleamarkts and so on should turn up a bulk loader very inexpensively. If Berlin has something like the "Freecycle" network, you might be able to find all sorts of photographic goodies for nothing.

How curious, by the way, to see the phrase "east Berlin" again. There is a beautiful book by Anna Funder called "Stasiland" which is worth reading. Though I have to say, the saddest book I ever read.

splash_fr · Oct 14, 2016

I load my Cassette in a changing bag, about three at a time since I mostly won't shoot more than three rolls a week. I find it very relaxing... My rolls are between 25 an 36 pics, you never really know. I simply take one roll extra...

Agulliver · Oct 14, 2016

German eBay usually has lots of photographic bargains....I've picked up some great Praktica gear via ebay.de and super 8 cameras in the past...My three bulk loaders all came from eBay UK auctions, but all work perfectly and I paid very little for them.

But if you want to try without a bulk loader first of all, the methods described of using a dark closet (or your toilet/kitchen) can work. Just be aware that you will either need to spool off the entire bulk roll in one session, or you will need to repackage the roll in it's protective bag and box each time you use it. This can lead to scratching the film and as others say your number of exposures per roll will vary....but it is an option.

Not quite the same but my mother still tells the story of how she came home from work one day late, and worried I had not come back from school....she eventually found me sitting in a closet making contact prints from my dad's old glass plates, using her roasting pans as developing and fixing trays. Closets are good for makeshift darkrooms!

darkosaric · Oct 14, 2016

Odot said:
I really love HP5 plus so i want to use bulk film to save money. Those film loaders are somewhat pricey (cheapest loader i saw was 50€..getouttahere) so i want to look for alternatives Thanks in advance

Send me your shipping address on private message - I have one bulk loader that I don't need, I will send it to you for free (I see you are in Berlin, so it is cheap from Hamburg).

Bulk film roll: how to load film without a loader?

Odot

Agulliver

mehguy

MattKing

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Theo Sulphate

DWThomas

Odot

removed account4

AgX

hacked - sepiareverb

David A. Goldfarb

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rpavich

benjiboy

Wallendo

Gerald C Koch

Colin Corneau

mshchem

AgX

MartinP

BMbikerider

pdeeh

pdeeh

splash_fr

Agulliver

darkosaric

Bulk film roll: how to load film without a loader?

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