Mt. Gwanak or Gwanak-san

I will soon be rolling my own 120 film for a series I will be starting for 100 peaks in South Korea.
Kindly wanted to inquire where people obtain backing paper. I have retrieved spools from developing labs in Seoul; however, they throw out all the backing paper. Can they be purchased in bulk rolls? Are there manufacturers that sell them in rolls?

AFAIK this is all custom manufactured to order and not available on the market. People who hand-roll 120 seem to make do with salvaged backing paper from commercial film.

Perhaps @MCB18 can comment.

Good luck with your project, sounds awesome and I'd love to see the outcome when the time comes!

Many of us save the used rolls so we can pass them along to someone who can use them rather than toss them in the trash. If you are a subscriber here you can post a wanted ad and probably get more than you need.

jyhn said:

I have retrieved spools from developing labs in Seoul; however, they throw out all the backing paper.

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What if you kindly ask them to set aside the paper as well and hold it for you?

jyhn said:

I will soon be rolling my own 120 film for a series I will be starting for 100 peaks in South Korea.
Kindly wanted to inquire where people obtain backing paper. I have retrieved spools from developing labs in Seoul; however, they throw out all the backing paper. Can they be purchased in bulk rolls? Are there manufacturers that sell them in rolls?

Click to expand...

I get most of my paper from folks on here that send me paper from rolls they develop. You can buy it new from Shanghai in China, however their 127 paper was horrible so I don’t expect their 120 papers to be any better.

I know that @Light Lens Lab is currently setting up a manufacturing line for new paper, but they haven’t made much paper yet, and idk if they’ll sell paper in bulk. But they are the only other place I know that makes if besides the big film companies and Shanghai.

I have cut my own 220 backing paper from big rolls of Soviet red paper from Astrum, but that is very time consuming.

Welcome to Photrio!

koraks said:

AFAIK this is all custom manufactured to order and not available on the market. People who hand-roll 120 seem to make do with salvaged backing paper from commercial film.

Perhaps @MCB18 can comment.

Good luck with your project, sounds awesome and I'd love to see the outcome when the time comes!

Click to expand...

thank you for your comment and encouragement, will be sure to update everyone with the process and any tips if it goes smoothly

Rick A said:

Many of us save the used rolls so we can pass them along to someone who can use them rather than toss them in the trash. If you are a subscriber here you can post a wanted ad and probably get more than you need.

Click to expand...

that sounds like something possible, but I'm not so sure on the forum rules and was hesitant to create "ad" type posts, but this otherwise seems like a nice way to get to know the photo community online

MCB18 said:

I get most of my paper from folks on here that send me paper from rolls they develop. You can buy it new from Shanghai in China, however their 127 paper was horrible so I don’t expect their 120 papers to be any better.

I know that @Light Lens Lab is currently setting up a manufacturing line for new paper, but they haven’t made much paper yet, and idk if they’ll sell paper in bulk. But they are the only other place I know that makes if besides the big film companies and Shanghai.

I have cut my own 220 backing paper from big rolls of Soviet red paper from Astrum, but that is very time consuming.

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Hello, that is good insight. Cutting film in bulk, about 400 rolls, itself, seems like an arduous task but I was hoping if there was a bulk roll, I would be able to cut and then tape the film unto it after cutting the strips.
I have attempted to reach out to local development labs and was met with either: silence (no response), a firm "no" as it would be additional "work" to store them aside in a busy lab; and some who only store spools.
May I kindly ask how you went about obtaining the 127 backing paper? and was it "horrible" due to light leaks?

jyhn said:

Hello, that is good insight. Cutting film in bulk, about 400 rolls, itself, seems like an arduous task but I was hoping if there was a bulk roll, I would be able to cut and then tape the film unto it after cutting the strips.

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Oh wow, 400 rolls! I am very curious what film you found and where you got it! I can get a 300m rolls of 61mm film, which gives me 360 rolls of 120, but at $1800 that would be a massive investment. But yes, after cutting the film into strips, you roll them into the paper and then tape it. Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to spend lot of money, there’s no real good way to automate this process. You’re going to be spending a couple weeks working on this. I do actually have a video and also a thread on how to do this if that helps.

jyhn said:

I have attempted to reach out to local development labs and was met with either: silence (no response), a firm "no" as it would be additional "work" to store them aside in a busy lab; and some who only store spools.

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It’s actually quite surprising that you weren’t able to get any from labs, I know at least one person who runs a lab and they’ve told me that they’ll just throw them in a box and ship to me when full if I ask.

jyhn said:

May I kindly ask how you went about obtaining the 127 backing paper? and was it "horrible" due to light leaks?

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As far as the Shanghai paper, it was super thin and didn’t have all the markings I needed to easily prep the paper for film. It also didn’t hold its shape well, wanting to constantly unroll. One of my rolls actually unraveled in daylight, even though I taped it, which ruined the film.