Ilford HP5 PLUS 400 Bulk roll - exposed and how to load?

dugrant153 · Jun 9, 2014

Hi all,
So I received a gift of Ilford HP5 Plus 400 (100' roll) just today. The only thing is that this person said that they accidentally exposed the roll to light (i.e. took it out of the bag briefly and quickly put it back in). I believe it was still tightly wound.
I'm thinking that the roll is still salvageable but the outside bit would probably be ruined instead of the whole roll.

Any one have any experience with this? Also, where should I start in terms of looking up how to bulk load this film?

Thanks!!

Dr Croubie · Jun 10, 2014

How to bulk load? With a Bulk Loader of course.

As for the fogging, it may or may not be good. Snip off about 1' of film in a dark bag/room, load it onto a reel and develop it. If it was exposed only very briefly the end will be black, which should eventually taper to just black edges around the sprockets. If it doesn't taper off, snip another foot and try again. If you do this 10 times and it's still black it's probably cactus.

Xmas · Jun 10, 2014

This is a frequent occurrence people don't read the small print in eight languages and the caveats are missing from some Kentmere packs!

You need at least

a changing bag,
a bulk loader and
reloadable cassettes
or
a darkroom and
reloadable cassettes

and a dev tank, chemicals etc.

Load cbag with scissors, loader, film box & zip up.
open box inside bag remove film from bag and snip and discard first 4 meters, load rest into loader.

Id not do a wedding with first film you load from the remIning 26 meters... You might only need to discard 2 meters.

A mini lab will have a large bin bag full of cassettes with 1/2 inch of film sticking out if you don't want to buy a five pack of cassettes from Calumet. The Kentmere or Forma is good film.

5222 400 foot even cheaper per cassette.

You lose one or two frames with loader unless you load cassettes in the cbag ie forget about frames 35 and 36...

newtorf · Jun 10, 2014

I had experience like this. The inner films are definitely usable - with minimal to no impact. The first one or two rolls probably will be exposed. Just shoot as usual. Once you pass the exposed part, the rest are just fine.

Dennis S · Jun 10, 2014

I had an incident where my bulk loader cap was not fastened properly and the large roll dumped on the floor. I thought it was a goner but after a few ft. there was just edge markings. If you are nervous about the damage and loading etc. you can send into me and I will dispose of it properly.... ;o)

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 10, 2014

When I started out bulk loading I had no bulk loader or darkroom, I set up in a non light tight bathroom in the dead of the night with pre scotch taped ends of mini lab throw out 35mm cassettes. I would tape the bit of left out film with 3-4 inches of tape and attach the bulk film in the dark to it. Did about 40 a session. So you don't need much to load. I would toss out a few wraps and cut a section off and develop and fix a section to check if light penetrated or if there banding through a section.

AgX · Jun 10, 2014

Dr Croubie said:
How to bulk load? With a Bulk Loader of course.

Of course one does not need a bulk loader.

Just a dark room. Needed anyway to load that loader...

Xmas · Jun 10, 2014

AgX said:
Needed anyway to load that loader...

Not true I use a changing bag eg

To respool 1000 feet of cine from core to 100 foot spools
To load spool into daylight loader
To minimise length of film flashed at cassette end

I only use the loader for counting frames

gone · Jun 10, 2014

Human nature being what it is, or isn't, I'm wondering why they gave it away if it was still useable? Might be OK once you get past a few turns on the roll, might not be OK. If someone gave me that roll, I would put it in a change bag or an absolutely light tight dark closet, strip off a few turns on the roll, and load some into ONE cassette and see what's up before going for the whole enchilada. Light moves pretty fast, so that "brief" exposure probably exposed some of it to, oh, lets say, 500,000 miles of light. Which is why I like the one cassette idea. If you got lucky it's only the edge markings.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 10, 2014

The edge of the film where the perforations are will be fogged for the rolls entire length. How far this fogging intrudes into the image area of the film is problematic. Good luck.

Xmas · Jun 10, 2014

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/booklet/watson_film_loader/watson_film_loader.htm

There are two generic types of loader

tear drop with shutter door
box with velvet light trap

This manual is for the year drop.

Disciples of one will tell you problems of other

Post a wanna buy...

David Lyga · Jun 10, 2014

Gerald C Koch said:
The edge of the film where the perforations are will be fogged for the rolls entire length. How far this fogging intrudes into the image area of the film is problematic. Good luck.

I think that this might not be true. The perforations are overlapping 'between the perforation' film stock and, thus, probably fully half as 'dense' as the film stock itself. True, the perforation area (which includes the equally 'edge' area), will be affected the most, but I think that you will be surprised how little, after a few feet, fogging the edge gets, overall.

I once bought a roll of Fuji color RA-4 paper from a guy in the suburbs. I bought it. When I got back to the train station, I had time to look further. To my shock and dismay, the package had been ripped open beforehand and, lo and behold, there was this blue emulsion (of course, emulsion side out!) staring me in the face in broad daylight. Of course, I quickly repackaged it the best that I could. After testing, to my great surprise only about three for four feet were ruined, and at that, only partially. The narrowness of fog band on the balance of the 'edge' area was very restricted and satisfying to me.

Sometimes, fear begets fear and becomes the driving force. Test your 'fogged' film a little at a time until you reach the safe area. My only other concern is the end of the roll, where there MIGHT be fog due to openings, slits, etc, on the plastic spool. Maybe, maybe not. - David Lyga

Gerald C Koch · Jun 10, 2014

David Lyga said:
I think that this might not be true. The perforations are overlapping 'between the perforation' film stock and, thus, probably fully half as 'dense' as the film stock itself. True, the perforation area (which includes the equally 'edge' area), will be affected the most, but I think that you will be surprised how little, after a few feet, fogging the edge gets, overall.

I am worried about light piping through the two edges of the roll rather than through the perforations which would fog only a few turns.. It will be interesting to know just how bad the damage is.

Xmas · Jun 10, 2014

If it was PET film the light piping would be real bad, but HP5+ is very good.

The effect depends on how long it was out of the bag and how bright the environment was.

It was free film.

cliveh · Jun 10, 2014

Throw it away.

alienmeatsack · Jun 10, 2014

I did this very same thing with the same exact roll of Ilford. I had been using another brand of bulk before that which came in the can inside of a light tight bag.

Mine was exposed along both sides along the sprockets through the whole roll and the first layer was ruined but 2 cassettes worth and the roll was otherwise normal. Note that the sprocket holes will have left an interesting exposed pattern down through the film but it should not be in the 35mm frames of any of it except the first few layers. When cropped to a typical .94/.95" frame size, you shouldn't even see the "damage".

I found it to be quite normal, and I actually enjoyed using it in some of my cameras that expose the sprockets to make a cool look on each shot if I wanted.

Just load it up in a changing bag, take out 2 rolls worth to play with knowing they are fogged and then shoot the rest normally.

AgX · Jun 10, 2014

cliveh said:
Throw it away.

Never throw film away.

(Unless you need that space to stock more cameras...)

cliveh · Jun 10, 2014

AgX said:
Never throw film away.

(Unless you need that space to stock more cameras...)

If it's fogged, why chance it?

Tom1956 · Jun 10, 2014

Reminds me of the sign up in the local auction hall: "If you want nice clean fresh oats, they come at a fair price. If you don't mind oats that have already been through the horse, they come a little cheaper".

AgX · Jun 10, 2014

Clive, my reply in first instance was meant as a Dogma.

In second instance: all the other replies hinted at the chances that it might be only slightly fogged and a clip test be useful.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 10, 2014

Light piping is usually mentioned for polyester base but the problem is a matter of degree and does occur with acetate base. We usually think of it as light entering the film tongue and then travelling several inches into the roll. But for light entering the edges of a bulk roll the light need only travel 3 to 4 mm to cause damage to the whole roll.

AgX · Jun 10, 2014

You overlook the different entry areas.

Dennis S · Jun 11, 2014

I have a few extra bulk film loaders if you want one. Beau Photo has cheap reloadable cassettes. And like I said if it is still rolled tight you'll only loose the first few ft.

Xmas · Jun 11, 2014

Hi Denis

Super all we need is some one with a changing bag and we have a new 'bulkie'

Noel

Tom1956 · Jun 11, 2014

I rolled off and shot 12 exposures in 3 days. Now I have a new roll to develop, and no loaded cameras in the house. I don't like having loaded cameras around the house. You could shoot somebody. If it had been 36, I'd still have to struggle with wondering how I could legitimately click them off to get it out of the camera. That could go on for months. Can't sleep at night with worries like that on my mind.

Ilford HP5 PLUS 400 Bulk roll - exposed and how to load?

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