Bulk rolling 120/220 film

[MCB18]

i have all the stuff to do it. tried a few rolls and it is much more labor intensive then I thought. lots of time, patience and a steady hand are needed. its the little things that add up that make it harder. 35mm bulk rolling is very easy and i know many who do. I have been saving all my backing paper for this reason. I did get a lot of the aviphot film as I love shooting B&W slides and that film works great for it. having 220 rolls of that makes travel a lot easier, especially in my mamiya 6, my fav travel camera.

this thread has me wanting to get back at it. Its a fun project but dont expect perfect results the first time. cut a few lengths of practice rolls to do trial runs in the light so you can get an idea of whats involved. for me, the hardest part is/was setting up a repeatable way to get the proper film length and then getting the backing paper secured properly (straight and tight)! my bulk film really curls and makes getting it flat a lot harder then I thought. there are a few 70mm bulk roller things, like what I use for 35mm that people 3d print and im tempted to get one of those

john

For what it’s worth, I do have a thread on how I make my 120/220 rolls, it’s not too terribly difficult, although it does take some patience, and as mentioned, time. It is in my signature. It also includes a video that shows basically the complete process of making a 120 roll in the light.

 

[blee1996]

I think I will start bulk rolling 220 as well. I still have some 70mm bulk rolls and even a 70mm to 120 slicer.

 

[loccdor]

Honestly I'd like to be able to shoot 220, which is nonexistent as far as I can tell.

You can still find some of it expired in decent condition. It has the advantage that it doesn't get age-related defects from the backing paper like 120 does since it doesn't have any. Since it's less popular, its price on the secondhand market relative to 120 can be favorable.

In 2024 I took a long trip with about 20 rolls of 220 film. A combination of expired stuff and rolls from MCB18. I used it in a 645 camera and liked that I got almost as many shots before a reload as 35mm. There was a lot of moving around and not a lot of time to stop, so it helped.

Shanghai GP3 makes film in 220, although whether you will like it depends on your tolerance for film defects.

I had good results with expired 220 Plus-X.

 

[gorbas]

Please don't forget that you can also make #828, 127 or 116 rolls or any other long forgotten roll format. Back in the day my son used a lot of 127 and I bought 70mm perforated film to roll our own 127 and it was fun and way cheaper than buying overpriced old stock. 70mm rolled on #116 does not require any slitting and it's the most straightforward of all. For proper 120 you need to slit unperforated 70mm stock.

 

[MCB18]

Please don't forget that you can also make #828, 127 or 116 rolls or any other long forgotten roll format. Back in the day my son used a lot of 127 and I bought 70mm perforated film to roll our own 127 and it was fun and way cheaper than buying overpriced old stock. 70mm rolled on #116 does not require any slitting and it's the most straightforward of all. For proper 120 you need to slit unperforated 70mm stock.

If I ever get a big film slitter made, I’ll be able to (hopefully) make anything from minox to 8-inch cirkut film at home. Possibly even 12-inch rolls if I design it to take 32cm rolls along with 24cm rolls. Definitely in B&W, but maybe in color too if I can find a way to get single rolls of Aerocolor. But like I said earlier, this is a daunting project and I’m not sure when/if it’ll happen.

 

[lt_col_gordon_tall]

There used to be thousands of feet of it in 70mm on there, which is what I bought. Much easier to handle. I have been thinking about how to make a 9.5 inch roll slitter, but that is a very big project so I have yet to make much progress besides saying “This is the concept for how it should work.” If I can get that made then I can offer many more old and obscure film sizes to folks.

Well I just looked on eBay and saw one 70mm roll of Aviphot 200. Expired in 2012, seller claims it has been frozen but also said exposes best at IS0 50. I went ahead and bought it. Price obviously isn't as good as the 9.5" rolls but not bad and the seller is US based, so no tariffs.

 

[MCB18]

Well I just looked on eBay and saw one 70mm roll of Aviphot 200. Expired in 2012, seller claims it has been frozen but also said exposes best at IS0 50. I went ahead and bought it. Price obviously isn't as good as the 9.5" rolls but not bad and the seller is US based, so no tariffs.

Just an FYI, I poked that guy about that roll as well. I asked him who the seller he initially bought the roll from India was, and it was not the same person that I bought my stock from, which is why I didn’t pull the trigger. So I would just keep in mind that this stuff might have some pretty noticeable issues, which is probably why they suggest you overexpose it.

There were multiple sellers of the stuff from India, and from what I understand, depending on who you got it from, you could get very good results or very bad results. I happened to find a seller that had film that was stored well, although I know that some folks on here have bought from different sellers and I’ve had extremely heat damaged film

 

[lt_col_gordon_tall]

Just an FYI, I poked that guy about that roll as well. I asked him who the seller he initially bought the roll from India was, and it was not the same person that I bought my stock from, which is why I didn’t pull the trigger. So I would just keep in mind that this stuff might have some pretty noticeable issues, which is probably why they suggest you overexpose it.

There were multiple sellers of the stuff from India, and from what I understand, depending on who you got it from, you could get very good results or very bad results. I happened to find a seller that had film that was stored well, although I know that some folks on here have bought from different sellers and I’ve had extremely heat damaged film

Thanks. I'll keep my fingers crossed and let you know how it works out.

 

[Cholentpot]

Yep, my stuff is useful but quite toasty. I use it but don't expect much.

 

[blee1996]

My three cans of Aviphot have different level of mottling. But it was so cheap that I accepted it as is.

 

[Theodor Bader]

Yep, just did it today as a matter of fact!

You can get the film from a few places if you’re willing to buy an entire master roll, but as of right now, Astrum is the only place I can find 61.5mm rolls at reasonable quantities. After shipping and tariffs a roll of FN-64 in 61.5mm costs around $180, ≈$5/roll.

Backing paper is also possible to get, Shanghai sells it for $4/roll, although I bought some for 127 and it was awful so I’m not sure if I’d recommend them.

I have also gotten giant rolls of red/black paper from Astrum, but you need to cut them and mark them yourself. I do this for 220, not for 120 though.

I usually just ask people for used backing paper.

As far as bulk rolling film goes, I honestly wouldn’t recommend it to many people. Can it be done cheaper? Yes, but it takes a lot more time and effort than 35mm.

To put this in perspective, I just rolled about 30 rolls of 2424 infrared film and it took me about 4-5 hours just to roll already slit film into pre-prepared backing paper. including the time it took to prepare the paper and slit the film, it probably took closer to 10 hours.

Meanwhile, I think it takes me maybe 30-45 minutes to break up a 100 foot roll of 35mm in my darkroom without a loader.

Hello and thank You very much for sharing Your discription of the bulk -rollfilm procedure!
I was at the internett site of Astrum LLC and tried to find a salespartner/company who sells the rollfilm in bulk. Where did You buy this?

 

[MCB18]

Hello and thank You very much for sharing Your discription of the bulk -rollfilm procedure!
I was at the internett site of Astrum LLC and tried to find a salespartner/company who sells the rollfilm in bulk. Where did You buy this?

Their website is extremely outdated, but the contact form should work, and they also have an IG account (@svema_official). At the moment they’re being a bit slow on account of the whole war situation, but they will, eventually, get you film if you get in touch.