Time to start rolling my own!

Finally received the last components of the goodies needed to "roll my own":



Bulk loader, 10 reusable canisters, a 100' of Ilford PanF Plus and a dark bag. Now I'm really gonna be smokin'!

 

So how many shot can you fit in a canister, are you limited to 36

John.

 

If I had the process down pat, I might. But at $10/36x roll at the local brick'n'mortar store, it gets expensive to try each variation in the process. This way, I can roll off 4-5 frames and develop it to see where I need to go.

And even if I did roll nothing but 36x rolls, this whole shebang cost me the sum total of $111. It would garner me 22 rolls of 36x rolls, which would be $220 at the camera store. BAM..... half off even if I never buy another 100' roll.

Should I buy yet another 100' roll.... 44 rolls @ $162..... $3.68 per........ $277 of savings. And with each 100' roll, the cost per roll will continue to dwindle. Third roll would net a total of 66 rolls.... $214 rolling my own, $660 at the store. Net $446 in my bank account.

Now, who wouldn't like $400+ towards some nice glass?

The only darkroom time needed is to put the film in the loader. Everything else is daylight.

 

I've been bulk loading for a while now - great way to save money.

Be aware though - I also recently (well, not "recently", but I've been using it pretty slowly) bought a 100' roll of Pan F+, and it has *horrible* reciprocity characteristics.

Exposures longer than 1/2 second need compensation, and flash exposures when the flash is at or below roughly 1/2 power also need compensation. (Any flash power that will put the flash duration under about 1/10000 sec. will need correction. I've been meaning to shoot a test roll to find out exactly how much compensation is required, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.)

It's probably the worst film I've ever used as far as reciprocity failure goes. It looks great when it's properly exposed though.

 

AFAIK, all film has this property. It's just a matter of knowing when you're getting into the 'zone' and how to correct it.

 

Yes, all film has reciprocity failure to some extent - but modern film is pretty good about it.

Pan F+ needs a LOT of correction as soon as exposure times are measured in full seconds. Fuji Acros only needs minor correction after metered exposure times exceed 2 minutes.

There is a huge difference in old films like Pan F+ and modern films like Acros in this regard. With Acros, you can forget that reciprocity failure even happens for the most part. With Pan F+, you must ALWAYS have the corrections in the back of your mind, or you will come home with nothing. 1/8000 to 1/2 - that is your "correction free" window with Pan F+ - that is a small window.

It DOES look great when you expose it properly though - you just need to be aware that with this particular film, you need to be mindful of the exposure time. Print out the datasheet for the film and keep it in your camera bag. You definitely will need to refer to it for reciprocity correction.

 

And when I shoot 99.999% from 1/500 to 1/8, I guess 99.999% of my shooting still ends up between the window panes made by No Need to Worry, Inc.

 

Do you always shoot 50 ISO? Exposure times tend to be longer...

Hey man, do what you want - I'm trying to help you. I thought this was supposed to be a community or something.

 

I have owned three different Watson bulk loaders, and used four or five different others at multiple newspapers; the ones made back in the 1980's were rock-solid bulk loaders. They work great! There's no (t much) advantage in loading more than 36 frames per roll, mainly due to the PITA aspects of negative sleeve page storing and contact printing of the negs!!! Who gives a rat's patootie if there are one or two or even three bonus frames, when all that means is a giant PITA keeping the negatives together both as a contact sheet AND as stored negs! The bigger decision is what brand and model of negative pages to buy, and how many frames per strip!!!

The next thing is keeping GRIT out of the light-trap lips on the reloadable cartridges, which is where film canisters are a great solution. If one's not careful, the light trap felt lips can pick up grit that ends up scratching the film on advance/and/or on rewinding.