Which medium to high speed bulk film (and developer to go along with it) should I get?

[abruzzi]

I roll short rolls, as few as 8 or 12 when I'm shooting zone or know that I will not shoot 24 or 36 on a given day.

+1

More than cost savings, the thing I love about bulk rolls is short rolls. At the moment I have three bulk loader filled—Pan-F 50, Fomapan 100, and TriX.

 

[Minolta93]

rodinal will not help you with fine grain. you can mix from scratch many finer grain developers that will be cheaper and you mix up the amount you need so no worries about it going bad. I mix up pyro-M. its cheap. lasts long and gives finer grain that is just as sharp to my eyes as rodinal.

I prefer the kentmere/ultrafine 400 over foma 400. smaller grain and a true 400 speed for me. I prefer foma 200 but its for me its really a 100 speed film. while its a lot more, tmax 400 is the top of the bunch in my mind for 400 speed films with delta 400 and tri-x right behind then Hp5, which I shoot in 4x5. all are true 400 speed films as well. I just never got along with foma 400 but its me as others like it.

i have some ultrafine 400 I dont shoot so if you want a roll or 2 to try let me know

john

Now I've seen some posts in this thread about the proper developer getting fine (enough) grain from Foma but the fact that they seem to shoot better a stop lower makes me want to go for kentmere or ultrafine instead. I would love to try a couple rolls of that, but do you think it's worth trying considering that at the moment I'd still be using Rodinal? My worry is that my choice of developer might not show me what the film can really do.

 

[MattKing]

Now I've seen some posts in this thread about the proper developer getting fine (enough) grain from Foma but the fact that they seem to shoot better a stop lower makes me want to go for kentmere or ultrafine instead. I would love to try a couple rolls of that, but do you think it's worth trying considering that at the moment I'd still be using Rodinal? My worry is that my choice of developer might not show me what the film can really do.

Rodinal is a great developer that will give you one type of results with the film you choose.
Something like X-Tol is also a great developer, that will give you another type of results with the film you choose.
If you are relatively new to film, you will notice some differences between the two, but they will be fairly subtle.
Sort of like the differences back in the day between a Ford and a Mercury, when the guts of the two cars were essentially the same.
Kentmere would be a good choice because of quality, availability and price.
I've been in this for a long time, and I bite the bullet and pay the price for the film that I consider the best black and white film ever, T-Max 400.
But that only makes sense right now for someone in your shoes if you have excess money available to you.

 

[madNbad]

Guess I was lucky. Pro Photo Supply in Portland had a few short dated bulk rolls of Tri-X for $99.99 usd. I bought two and tossed them in freezer. A week later the new price was $149.99.

 

[Agulliver]

It's easy to overestimate the cost advantages of bulk roll film. Savings are modest, at best. One faulty cassette (the end cap pops off, for example) and there go the savings on that bulk roll. I roll my own HP5 and FP4 with good results in D76. I generally aim for 30 frames per cassette, which is the main reason for me to continue bulk rolling.

One ruined roll and you lose the savings for the entire 100 foot bulk roll? Methinks you're either paying too much for your bulk film, or you've found an amazing deal on the regular 135 cassettes.

I reckon I'd have to ruin 6 or 7 to negate my savings.

 

[cmacd123]

One ruined roll and you lose the savings for the entire 100 foot bulk roll? Methinks you're either paying too much for your bulk film, or you've found an amazing deal on the regular 135 cassettes.

I reckon I'd have to ruin 6 or 7 to negate my savings.

lets look at say HP5+

B&H wants 89.99 for 100ft. so almost exactly 5 dollars a 36 exp roll.
a factory roll is 8.12 so each roll saves 3.12 (X18 is 56.16) 18 rolls at full rate would cost 146.16 - 89.99 == 56.17 so you save enough to pay for 11 rolls at the bulk price. so yes, you could make a mess and still come out ahead as long as you detect your error in time to NOT use the damaged rolls. alos your cassettes don't cost you anyrthing for wear, (you have them and the wear for one cycle is minimal)

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

It's easy to overestimate the cost advantages of bulk roll film. Savings are modest, at best. One faulty cassette (the end cap pops off, for example) and there go the savings on that bulk roll. I roll my own HP5 and FP4 with good results in D76. I generally aim for 30 frames per cassette, which is the main reason for me to continue bulk rolling.

I bulk loaded (apart from using real rolls) for testing film before using it, with short rolls, for many years.
I agree with you.
I prefer real rolls as savings are small, and sometimes a relevant frame can be born scratched...
I've bulk loaded Tri-X, HP5+, FP4+, TMY and Kentmere400.
HP5+ makes the most sense IMO in 35mm.
TMY is a technical luxury I prefer when speed and little grain are wanted together, so I buy more TMY in 120 than in 35mm.
I stopped bulk loading: I photograph everyday, but I don't hit the shutter too much.
About developers, get Xtol if you want fine or no grain.
Or get Rodinal if you want grain but you don't need speed.
Microphen if you like speed and grain with classic films.
DDX/TMax for the same with modern films.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

I understood film when I compared HP5+ in Ilford's three powder developers: Perceptol, ID-11 and Microphen.

 

[McDiesel]

Is the Ultrafine Extreme 400 film any good? It's cheap and if I can push it to maybe 1600 with OK results that would be great. I mainly want something less grainy than Foma with a bit better speed, something that I can push if needed and generally be a versatile film for me as it would be my first foray into bulk loading. Any advice will be appreciated.

Ultrafine Extreme 400 was a pretty good option, especially considering its price. Unfortunately, it has not been available in a very long time.

If you are looking for something cheap yet better than Fomapan 400, you may take a look at another off-brand ISO 400 film, Ultrafine Finesse:

Ultrafine Finesse 400 35mm x 100 ft Black and White Film - Ultrafine finesse Black and White Film

BACK IN STOCK Ultrafine Finesse Black and White 400 ISO 35 mm x 100 Foot Roll All purpose affordable bulk loading film 68°F/20°C Ultrafine 76 Powder Developer Stock 7.5 Min Ultrafine 76 Powder Developer 1:1 12.5 Min Ultrafine Endurance Developer 1:9 7 Min Ilford ID-11 Developer Stock 7.5 Min...

www.ultrafineonline.com

Only $62 per 100ft. You can find a thread or two here on Photrio where folks were discussing it. Ultrafine Finesse is not a rebranded Fomapan 400, and I am not aware of anything that's worse than Fomapan 400, so it will be an improvement.

 

[Wallendo]

UltraFine Xtreme, when it was available, was a great bargain film.
I shoot a lot of Fomapan 100 with a bilk loader, but I just like the look of Fomapan, many don't.
I am currently shooting a couple of bulk loaders of UltraFine Finesse 400. It is a decent film developed in XTOL 1+1 at 12-13 minutes. I had issues with it at first, but when I reduced development time from published numbers it worked well (UltraFine recommends XTOL stock at 7:30 - I developed 1+1 at 15 minutes and had harsh contrast. reducing to 12-13 minutes made a big difference).
I use bargain films for testing and fun shooting, but for anything important, I stick to TX400 or FP4+.

 

[John Wiegerink]

I have six bulk loaders, with five of them loaded. Foma 100, Foma 200, Delta 100, PanF and a loader with some Delta 100 long-dated (2016) just for testing cameras and lenses. The empty loader is for TMY2 if I ever get the courage to spend the extra money to buy it. I agree 100% with Matt when he talks about TMY2. HP5+ works very well in 35mm with Xtol-R, but TMY2 is the best high-speed 35mm film you can buy, in my opinion. The main reason I shoot bulk is I will almost always have film on hand that way and, like others, I like rolling short rolls. The only problem I have with bulk loading or even 35mm factory rolled stuff is that I just don't shoot 35mm very much at all. It's a little wasted space in my fridge, but it's worth it, I guess.