Tri-X or HP5+ 35mm for cheap?

film_guy · Feb 6, 2007

Where can I buy multiple rolls of Tri-X or HP5+ for cheap? All the local photography stores sell Tri-X for CAD$5.99/roll and HP5+ for CAD$5.98/roll for 36 exposures. The reason I need multiple rolls is that I'm thinking of shooting lots of B&W this coming Spring/Summer.

The cheapest place I've found is Ebay where there's online stores which sell pro-packs for cheaper, but I'm not sure how reliable are they in terms of expiry dates or whether has the film been stored properly.

Is buying bulk roll a better option? Where do I buy the film canisters to store them in?

AirTimid · Feb 6, 2007

http://www.photo-co.com/securestore/c59963.2.html

Cheapest place i've seen for 100ft in Canada. You need to bulk roll your own film. Shipping is like $5 for Canadians.

JBrunner · Feb 6, 2007

film_guy said:
Where can I buy multiple rolls of Tri-X or HP5+ for cheap? All the local photography stores sell Tri-X for CAD$5.99/roll and HP5+ for CAD$5.98/roll for 36 exposures. The reason I need multiple rolls is that I'm thinking of shooting lots of B&W this coming Spring/Summer.

The cheapest place I've found is Ebay where there's online stores which sell pro-packs for cheaper, but I'm not sure how reliable are they in terms of expiry dates or whether has the film been stored properly.

Is buying bulk roll a better option? Where do I buy the film canisters to store them in?

Bulk is the way. Click on the APUG logo in the upper left to go to the home page. Scroll down to the sponsor banners. look for Freestyle, or Photo-wharehouse. All you seek is a click away, loaders, canisters, everything.

copake_ham · Feb 6, 2007

film_guy said:
Where can I buy multiple rolls of Tri-X or HP5+ for cheap? All the local photography stores sell Tri-X for CAD$5.99/roll and HP5+ for CAD$5.98/roll for 36 exposures. The reason I need multiple rolls is that I'm thinking of shooting lots of B&W this coming Spring/Summer.

The cheapest place I've found is Ebay where there's online stores which sell pro-packs for cheaper, but I'm not sure how reliable are they in terms of expiry dates or whether has the film been stored properly.

Is buying bulk roll a better option? Where do I buy the film canisters to store them in?

I also agree with the others that if you can roll your own, bulk is the way to go. But, if you do not want to buy bulk, then I can recommend Hunt's Photo who regularly lists on eBay.

It is a bricks and mortar store in New England that clears out its fresh, but close to expiry date, film on eBay.

This evening I bought 20 rolls of Velvia 100 with a current (2/07) expiration date for a good BIN price. I noticed that someone grabbed 100 rolls of the discontinued Velvia 50 (also 2/07) at around $3 a roll.

Last month I bought a 20-roll brick of HP5+ from them with a 12/08 date etc. at a great price.

These are good folk and I highly recommend them even though they are up in the Boston area and I am a Yankees fan. If you know what that means, then you know I have no connection with these fine folk except as a satisfied customer!

EDIT: BTW, no guarantees of course, but often when I've bought from a listing showing a certain expiry date - the actual film I get has a later date. I think that sometimes they don't "update" their listings until they need to. For example, that 12/08 HP5+ I got was from a listing saying it's expiry date was 4/08.

film_guy · Feb 7, 2007

AirTimid, thanks for the link. The prices look great on that site, far better than B&H photo in NY. JBrunner, thanks for the help, I'll look through the banners. George, I saw Hunt's photo on ebay last week, I guess I was hoping for cheaper prices on B&W film since I think I'm going to be shooting at least 25+ rolls this Spring and Summer.

I think I'm going to go for bulk Tri-X film from Photoco since their prices are really awesome, and I like how their Tri-X prices are lower than HP5+ for bulk rolls.

For the film spools, should I get metal or plastic ones? Here's the link to B&H for the film spools

metal film spool

plastic film spool

and is this a good bulk film loader?

bulk film loader

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Roger Hicks · Feb 7, 2007

If you're taking the bulk route, take a look at the free 'How do I...?' section in www.rogerandfrances.com, where there are modules on choosing 35mm cassettes for reloading, and bulk loading.

Cheers,

R.

Neal · Feb 7, 2007

Dear film guy,

I have used both metal and plastic. Neither have caused me problem and they have been equally easy to use. One caveat, avoid the ultra cheap metal ones, they are a PITA.

Remember that most reloadable cassettes do not have DX coding. Be sure your camera allows you to set the speed manually.

I use the model loader that you have noted and it works well. However, I do all my loading in a changing bag to avoid the problem of the exposed last frame. It is not difficult at all but it is boring, I do it while watching television.

Neal Wydra

AirTimid · Feb 7, 2007

You could also go the cheap route and drop by your local 1hr photo lab and ask if you can have their used cassettes and plastic containers. That's what I do, and it's free!!! I normally only use the same cassette a couple of times then chuck it. Walmart gave me their box of empties, which is probably about 300-400 cassettes I don't think i'll need any more for a while. Also, I look through all the cassettes and pick out the nicest, with clean felt, so as to avoid scratching. As long as you don't roll too fast with the loader, you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck.

AirTimid · Feb 7, 2007

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimoconnell/tags/film/

Good visual tutorial of what I do. I use a Watson loader, he looks to be using an Alden?

dynachrome · Feb 7, 2007

Bulk Loading B&W Film

If you are thinking of bulk loading film and plan to shoot in the summer then you should probably consider a bulk roll of some film slower and with finer grain than Tri-X or HP5+. Some nice medium speed films are Plus-X, Fuji ACROS, Kodak TMX and Ilford Delta 100. Fuji is phasing out bulk B& W film but you might still be able to get some from the Megaperls Webshop in Japan [www.unicircuits.com].

David A. Goldfarb · Feb 7, 2007

Actually, if you need DX coded cartridges you can get them as well as DX coded stickers from places like B&H and Porter's Camera.

luke_h · Feb 7, 2007

A year ago when I started shooting film photography, I was buying gray market Tri-X in 100ft rolls for $29.99 and didn't realize the deal I was getting. I used it all up and my only options are to pay 45.00/roll now, it seems. I just bought 200' of HP5+ from B&H for 38 bucks/roll. I'll probably spring for the Tri-X the next time around.

I love both films though.

I own 6 bulk loaders now. I use esnipe.com to put out cheap bids on ebay and if I win them, I win them.. I have never paid more than $5.00 for a Watson loader. I just got a Lloyd's loader at an antique store last week (with ancient PX pan in it!!) for $4.00.

I've been reusing my plastic and metal cassettes and none have leaked light yet. I've read that a lot of people use them maybe 5 times and discard them.. I have had better luck.. I always store them in the clear Fuji plastic containers though when they're not in the camera.

I figure that bulk loading is about 3 times as cheap as buying single rolls at retail price.

PatTrent · Feb 7, 2007

copake_ham said:
I also agree with the others that if you can roll your own, bulk is the way to go. But, if you do not want to buy bulk, then I can recommend Hunt's Photo who regularly lists on eBay.

It is a bricks and mortar store in New England that clears out its fresh, but close to expiry date, film on eBay.

This evening I bought 20 rolls of Velvia 100 with a current (2/07) expiration date for a good BIN price. I noticed that someone grabbed 100 rolls of the discontinued Velvia 50 (also 2/07) at around $3 a roll.

Last month I bought a 20-roll brick of HP5+ from them with a 12/08 date etc. at a great price.

These are good folk and I highly recommend them even though they are up in the Boston area and I am a Yankees fan. If you know what that means, then you know I have no connection with these fine folk except as a satisfied customer!

EDIT: BTW, no guarantees of course, but often when I've bought from a listing showing a certain expiry date - the actual film I get has a later date. I think that sometimes they don't "update" their listings until they need to. For example, that 12/08 HP5+ I got was from a listing saying it's expiry date was 4/08.

Do you recall the exact eBay ID/name for Hunt's Photo? I searched for them on eBay through the member search field but they did not turn up.
Thanks,
Pat

copake_ham · Feb 7, 2007

PatTrent said:
Do you recall the exact eBay ID/name for Hunt's Photo? I searched for them on eBay through the member search field but they did not turn up.
Thanks,
Pat

I cannot get onto eBay from the office (thankfully!) but I think its "Hunts Photo Video".

Go onto the 35mm film listings and use the option to show the newest listings first - as their stuff sells out quickly. I think they post most days around 3PM Eastern time.

Follow Up: I got home and found the eBay id is: huntsphotoandvideo.com

PatTrent · Feb 7, 2007

copake_ham said:
I cannot get onto eBay from the office (thankfully!) but I think its "Hunts Photo Video".

Go onto the 35mm film listings and use the option to show the newest listings first - as their stuff sells out quickly. I think they post most days around 3PM Eastern time.

Follow Up: I got home and found the eBay id is: huntsphotoandvideo.com

George:

Thanks! I really appreciate your getting that information.

Pat

copake_ham · Feb 7, 2007

PatTrent said:
George:

Thanks! I really appreciate your getting that information.

Pat

Pat,

I just checked this evening and they posted another nice mix of film. I usually only look at the 35mm but now that I'm also beginning to shoot MF I am seeing nice offerings in that format from them also.

Oh, the reason why I say they are good folk is that in one eBay session I separately bought chrome, then mailers and then the HP5+. I sent them a note via PayPal that there was no way to combine these things so I was getting hit with 3 separate shipping charges. They heard me and reversed the two HIGHEST charges on my account.

They are good folk.

film_guy · Feb 7, 2007

I have a few more questions about bulk loading.

- 100 feet of 35mm roll film = 19-20 spools of 36 exposures, right?
- do I have to store the rest of the unused bulk film in the fridge? Is it better to leave everything in the bulk film loader? Or is it better to roll up the film into the spools? I'm thinking of only buying 10 reusable spools.
- In terms of savings. $38.19 for bulk roll of Tri-X. $7.50 for 10 iso400 DX-coded spools, $5-10 for a watson loader = less than $3 per roll of film. That's about savings of 60 cents/roll. Are my calculations right?

MattKing · Feb 7, 2007

film_guy said:
I have a few more questions about bulk loading.

- 100 feet of 35mm roll film = 19-20 spools of 36 exposures, right?
- do I have to store the rest of the unused bulk film in the fridge? Is it better to leave everything in the bulk film loader? Or is it better to roll up the film into the spools? I'm thinking of only buying 10 reusable spools.
- In terms of savings. $38.19 for bulk roll of Tri-X. $7.50 for 10 iso400 DX-coded spools, $5-10 for a watson loader = less than $3 per roll of film. That's about savings of 60 cents/roll. Are my calculations right?

- can't comment on the yield - I adjust my roll length to my needs (28 being most common for me)
- cool dry storage is fine - the fridge isn't necessary, unless you are expecting long term storage, and may in fact create problems with condensation
- I leave the film in the loader, because it allows me to use different lengths, as needs dictate
- if you only ever expect to use one bulk roll, than don't go this way. The savings aren't worth it. If, however, you expect to re-use the cassettes and the loader, than the savings are significant
- some people buy various types of film in bulk and store the unused part of the rolls separately. This allows you to have an inventory of a variety of film, at lower cost

One further point - in my experience, it isn't light leaks that cause you to want to replace worn cassettes, it is worn felt, that may be more likely to scratch.

Hope this helps

Matt

Roger Hicks · Feb 8, 2007

film_guy said:
I have a few more questions about bulk loading.

- 100 feet of 35mm roll film = 19-20 spools of 36 exposures, right?
- do I have to store the rest of the unused bulk film in the fridge? Is it better to leave everything in the bulk film loader? Or is it better to roll up the film into the spools? I'm thinking of only buying 10 reusable spools.
- In terms of savings. $38.19 for bulk roll of Tri-X. $7.50 for 10 iso400 DX-coded spools, $5-10 for a watson loader = less than $3 per roll of film. That's about savings of 60 cents/roll. Are my calculations right?

You can of course re-use both the cassettes and the bulk loader, so you probably end up saving $1 to $1.50 per (36-exposure) roll -- or across the 19 or so rolls you get out of the bulk roll, a maximum of well under $30. To me, that's not enough saving to make it worth while, after allowing for the hassle and inconvenience of reloading, though I used to do it.

When I did roll my own, I found bulk loaders baulky and inconvenient, and much prefer the small hand-crank devices for darkroom loading as illustrated on the site as already mentioned.

Cheers,

R.

luke_h · Feb 8, 2007

I have never had a problem with bulk loading other than the 6" of film that is lost at the end of each roll... I don't consider it a burden. I have a 20x30" changing bag that I can quickly load the film into the loaders. Like I said, I have 6 loaders now, so I have different types of film in each one, which makes it very convenient if I plan my day needing a bunch of Tri-X and some PanF+ and some APX100.. I can just load up how much I need, quickly instead of having to go to the only photo store in town (that only sells HP5+ by the way)...

I love the convenience. Over the long run my cost per frame is less than half of retail price. Closer to a third of retail price paid at a photo store.

I shoot a lot of cheap film.. I bought a bunch of the PanF+ on freestyle photo for 12 bucks/100 feet.

I love Fomapan T200, which is 20.00/100 feet at Freestyle as Arista EDU Ultra 200.

As often as I shoot film, I use it up quickly enough I don't need to put anything in the fridge, but I do have about 800 feet of various films sitting in a little dorm fridge in my basement so I don't have lag between running out of 100'. You never really know when you'll run out since your rolls will vary in size. Yield is stated as 18 rolls of 36exp with a Watson 100B loader. I shoot mostly rolls of 24-30exp. 36exp is winding kind of tight in the cannisters.

I'd say give it a try... I see a lot of people say it's inconvenient and burdensome and not worth the cost savings.. They must be Rockefellers.. because I don't make enough money to just throw it away like that

Just like anything, the first time you do it, it might be slow going and clumsy, but it's just 2nd nature to me.. (like loading 120 film onto patterson plastic reels in about 15 seconds' time)

Mark_S · Feb 8, 2007

dynachrome said:
If you are thinking of bulk loading film and plan to shoot in the summer then you should probably consider a bulk roll of some film slower and with finer grain than Tri-X or HP5+. [/url].

My wife and I teach a basic B&W photography class out of our home, and use almost exclusively HP5 for the students (we provide film and paper as a part of the course fee). We have them rate the HP5 at 200, and underdevelop which makes it hard to generate unprintable negatives. We have used bulk film that we roll ourselves, but it has created confusion so we just purchase our film mostly from B&H where it costs us about $3.50 per roll. If we purchase the film bulk and roll it ourselves, we can save about $1 per roll, but we usually only do that if we want non-standard length rolls (we sometimes do things where we use 12 exposure rolls)

dxphoto · Feb 9, 2007

I have being using BULK for a few years. Back then HP5+ 100' was 24 bulks. I loaded them in the closet without a loader, and it was fine, then I bought a daylight loader and it was fine too. I go to Ritz and get those cassettes from them. I only use them once since I open them with a can opener. I have some plastic ones I bought but I found them intend to break.
It saves money and to me the budget is tight.
I also get the forma400 and shoot it at 320 now. it is like $20 for 100ft from freestyle.

efreddi · Feb 10, 2007

film_guy said:
Where can I buy multiple rolls of Tri-X or HP5+ for cheap?

This may be not helpfull for you, but in Europe a good source for cheap 35mm Tri-X is Fotoimpex: they sell Tri-X packaged by Profilm, I guess in Mexico. The price is very good and I used many rolls without any problem.

Regs

Elia

Jordan · Feb 10, 2007

film guy, I'm in Canada too, and I second the recommendation for bulk film from Photoco.

I did an extensive price comparison on 100' rolls of 400-speed B&W film shipped to Toronto a few months ago, and found that buying from Photoco was the least expensive option. Though the Arista films from Freestyle are cheap (and good), by the time you factor in currency conversion, minimum order, shipping, and GST+PST applied at the border, these Eastern European films turn out to be pricier than Tri-X bought from Photoco. Same applies to B&H, where shipping to Canada is expensive.

Photoco is located in Pointe-Claire, Que. (suburb of Montreal). If you live outside Quebec, you won't have to pay PST on the order. Shipping is cheap. I highly recommend placing your order by phone rather than on-line -- I have had my on-line orders "lost in the shuffle" there in the past.

film_guy · Feb 10, 2007

H Jordan, thanks for the review on Photoco. I'm definitely going with them for my bulk film needs.

Tri-X or HP5+ 35mm for cheap?

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