As I write this article in November 2021, film photography blogs, podcasts and social media are abuzz about rumors (or promises) by Kodak to raise prices on film again in January 2022 — the latest of a seemingly endless series of increases. It’s not just Kodak; Ilford has raised prices, as have secondary brands like CineStill, Lomography, Adox, Foma and others. And as is customary for companies recently, they’re all blaming COVID-19 and supply chain difficulties and their own rising costs as the reason. Whether you believe that story or sense opportunism, it doesn’t matter: film photography is getting more and more expensive, nearly every day. So, what do we do about it?
One option is go back to digital. (Would we really do that?) Another is to explore bulk loading of film — a practice for users of 135 (i.e., 35mm) film. (Unfortunately, bulk loading will do nothing to help medium format shooters.)
In the 1950s, bulk loading was probably at its apex. Photographers were far more DIY then than now, there was such a thing as “war surplus film,” and there were good reasons to bother with it. But, 70 years later, there are still good reasons to do it, it’s just that few people know about it, and the options might be narrower these days. After diving-in head first and becoming quite a convert, I present this article with everything you need to know about the practice, including why you should consider it, and how to do it.
What is Bulk Loading?
The term is somewhat self-descriptive, I suppose, but bulk loading is the process of taking large rolls of raw, unexposed, unpackaged 35mm film — generally supplied in 100 foot (approximately 30m) rolls — and winding a length of it into a 135 film cassette (a/k/a cartridge or magazine), vs. buying those cassettes pre-loaded with film as is most common today.
When 35mm still photography first became popularized in the 1920s, there was no 135 film — 135 being the roll designator that Kodak assigned to the combination of 35mm film stock inside of a standardized metal and/or plastic cassette, the sort that virtually all of us are familiar with and still use today. No, 135 wouldn’t come onto the market until later.
Early 35mm cameras like the Leica Ia from Leitz (introduced to the market in 1925), and the Contax from Zeiss Ikon (1932), used a proprietary film magazine instead, and photographers had to load their own films into the magazines in their darkrooms. Thus, the first bulk loading was done purely out of necessity; it was the only way to load film into the cameras.
When Kodak introduced 135 roll film in 1934, it was the first time that pre-loaded 35mm film for still photography was made available, and once it was, loading one’s own film into a cassette or magazine became unnecessary. The 135 cassette was cleverly designed to fit early Contax and Leitz cameras, among others, but it wouldn’t be long before it was widely accepted, with new cameras being designed specifically to use it.
By the time the 1950s arrived, photography for the masses was already well underway, numerous 35mm cameras existed, and the post-war economic boom only propelled it further. While cameras still existed that had to be bulk-loaded, ads from the 50s (see below) positioned bulk loading as a cost-saver. War surplus film was readily available and cheap, and virtually all the mainstream film stocks were quite commonly available in bulk rolls too.
Why Bulk Load?
There might well be others, but for me, there are just two reasons to bulk load:
- Custom Roll Lengths
These days, virtually all 135 films are available in 36-exposure rolls, most of them only in 36-exposure rolls; a relatively small selection is available in the shorter 24-exposure rolls. To be honest, I shoot enough different cameras that getting through even 24 shots on any one of them can be challenging. Many older cameras’ film counters are marked for the previously common 20-exposure rolls, so I sometimes load 20-exposure rolls since it’s a convenient match for the markings on such cameras. But often, for me, 15-exposure rolls is a sweet spot. Factoring-in the leaders and trailers needed, there is overhead (i.e., wasted film) on each roll, so the longer the rolls you load, the less waste there is. But that said, I still find the ability to load shorter rolls of any length I choose to be very convenient indeed. - Cost Savings
As suggested in the headline of this article, in most cases, you can save a considerable amount of money bulk loading — often 50%. The savings vary by film stock, and of course, the size rolls you load, due to the leader/trailer overhead I mentioned above. (I’ll talk more about that later.)
What Do You Need to Bulk Load?
While you could theoretically measure, cut and spool film by hand in complete darkness, again from a practical point of view, one generally uses a bulk loader — a device that measures the film; shields it from light so that you can do the loading in normal room light vs. total darkness; and, performs the winding of the film into a 135 film cartridge or cassette.
The only currently made bulk loaders I know of include the LegacyPro Lloyd, and the AP Bobinquick. Both are available from a range of retailers.
There are also a lot of vintage ones on the used market as well, and I’ve opted for the classic Watson 66 loader from Burke & James, a Chicago company now long defunct. The Watson was made in the USA with a body of Bakelite along with several components in metal and injection-molded plastic. I’ve now acquired four of these bulk loaders, and find them easy to use and reliable, although the Bakelite construction is somewhat brittle, so many examples have chips that can affect their light-tightness.
You can see how this ad from the late 1950s promotes the Watson, and bulk loading as a practice:
For the record, US$11.95 is the equivalent of US$115 in today’s money (2021), so the Watson wasn’t cheap, but it would certainly eventually pay for itself.
One thing to note if you go the Watson vintage route: As I mentioned above, Bakelite is not the most durable material on the planet, and I’ve seen multiple examples with access doors that are chipped or broken. The door must be whole, complete, and undamaged in order for the unit to be light tight. The goes for the cap that goes over the film roll chamber. It can be difficult to determine that from eBay photos (for example), but this is what they are supposed to look like:
I actually accidentally got one with a door whose keyed edge was broken off, which would have resulted in light leaks. It was a bit of a chore, but I was able to grind-down the Bakelite, and glue a replacement edge into place using a piece of scrap black polystyrene from an old CD case. It worked wonderfully — but it was a major pain in the backside, and I don’t recommend it.
In addition to the loader, you need something to load the film into: one (or ideally several more than one) 135 cassette(s). There are three basic approaches:
Recycled from Home Developing
My preferred method is to simply save 135 cassettes from commercially-loaded film that I’ve developed at home. In the past, I simply opened them up with a can opener in my darkroom, and disposed of them. Now, I typically am careful when rewinding my film not to wind it all the way back, allowing its leader to remain outside the cassette, which makes it all much easier. But you can also get the leader back out of the cassette with a film retriever, like the popular one from Kaiser. They’re fiddly to use, but with practice, it’s not too bad.
When you load your film onto a reel for home processing, simply pull the film out of the cassette as far as you can (obviously in the darkroom in complete darkness!), then cut, leaving a couple of centimeters or half an inch or so (minimum) of film hanging out of the cassette, as shown in the photo below. I’ll pick-up the story from there in a section below.
New Empty Cassettes
You can also buy empty cassettes from many suppliers. Quality levels seem to vary — a lot. Some are metal, some are plastic, but my only advice is to try and read reviews so you can to make sure others have had good experiences with the product in question. The ones I’ve tried are, to be candid, garbage, so I’ve gone back to the recycling route.
Recycled from a Film Lab
You can also ask your local film lab (if you’re lucky enough to have one) if they’re able to provide a handful of discarded cassettes for you for free, or at a nominal cost — assuming they extract the film in a way that the cassette can be reused.
Beyond the loader, and cassettes to load your film into, you of course need bulk film to load.
What Bulk Film is Available, and How?
Bulk film stocks for 135 loading are generally supplied in 100 foot or 30 meter lengths. The choices available on the market are fairly limited, and the dealers that stock these rolls are pretty much going to be limited to mail order vendors, since there’s not enough demand for most brick-and-mortar retailers to stock them.
You should also note that with one exception I know of, only black and white films are available for bulk loading at this time. The only remaining manufacturers of color films do not choose to offer it. That one exception? Kodak Vision3 color negative motion picture film (which is a family of four films, actually). Kodak itself doesn’t offer it in rolls shorter than 400 feet, but Photo Warehouse in California cuts it down to 100 foot bulk rolls themselves, and repackages it.
NOTE: Vision3 films are correctly processed ECN-2, not C-41, and regardless, require special handling and processing technique due to their remjet coating. If you’re unfamiliar with remjet removal and what it entails, I would suggest avoiding it. Do not send any ECN-2 film stocks to a commercial lab, unless they expressly process ECN-2, and you probably identify the film as such. The vast majority of labs do NOT process ECN-2.
Here’s a list of some of the films you can expect to find available in 100 foot or 30 meter bulk rolls; I’m quite certain that there are others:
Black and White
- Ilford Delta 100
- Ilford Delta 400
- Ilford FP4 Plus (125)
- Ilford HP5 Plus (400)
- Ilford Pan-F (5)
- Ilford XP2 (400)
- Kentmere 100
- Kentmere 400
- Kodak T-Max 100
- Kodak T-Max 400
- Kodak Tri-X 400
- Adox CMS II 20
- Fomapan 100 (and rebrands like Arista 100)
- Fomapan 200 (and rebrands like Arista 200)
- Fomapan 400 (and rebrands like Arista 400)
- Rollei Infrared 400
- Rollei Retro 80S
- Rollei RPX 100
- Rollei RPX 25
- Rollei RPX 400
- Rollei Superpan 200
- Ultrafine Finesse 100
- Ultrafine Finesse 400
- Orwo N75 (400)
- Orwo UN54 (100)
Color
- Kodak Vision3 50D (Eastman 5203)
- Kodak Vision3 250D (Eastman 5207)
- Kodak Vision3 200T (Eastman 5213)
- Kodak Vision3 500T (Eastman 5219)
You’ll also be able to find some unusual specialty films in bulk rolls, including Eastman Double-X (Kodak 5222), Kodak 2238 Pancro, and perhaps a handful of others. Astrum (sometimes referred to by their old name, Svema) films are sometimes found in bulk rolls, but rarely, because like Kodak Vision3, a 400 foot length is the minimum length the company itself will sell.
In terms of where to source, for readers in the US, try:
- Photo Warehouse (many, incl. Kodak Vision3 and Ultrafine)
- Glass Key Photo (most mainstream choices)
- Freestyle (wide range of offerings)
- Orwo NA (for the Orwo films specifically)
Readers in the UK should try Analogue Wonderland; Europe, try Fotoimpex. I’m quite certain there are many others globally as well.
How to Bulk Load
The process may vary somewhat depending on which specific loader you’re using, but broadly:
Initial Preparation
Put the bulk roll into your loader, where it will remain until you’ve consumed the entire roll. Be sure to find and follow the directions for your loader; the film must be oriented the right direction. After you load a roll, it is possible to remove it and return it to the light-tight packaging it came in so you can swap-out different films. This added step, however, is a pain and is the reason I own four bulk loaders; each can have its own bulk roll in-place and ready to use, providing an array of choices.
Step 1
Open the access door of the loader, and tape the end of the bulk roll onto the stub of film in your recycled cassette, then wind the spliced portion by hand into the cassette. Or, if you’re using reusable cassettes, check the orientation of the cassette’s core (spool) and secure the end of the bulk roll to the core, then insert it into the cassette (threading the film through the velvet-lined slit in the side), and put-on the end cap.
Step 2
Place the cassette into position in the loader, secure the door, reset the frame counter on the loader, and open its light trap. “Resetting” the counter likely involves setting it to a specific number that takes the necessary trailing length of film into account that will already have been exposed as you were taping the film in place in room light. It’s generally three frames; follow your loader’s directions.
Step 3
Wind the desired length / number of frames into the cassette. Follow your loaders directions, but be certain to wind an additional length to account for the necessary leader — generally three frames.
Step 4
Close the light trap, open the access door, cut the film and remove the cassette.
Step 5
Use scissors to cut the end of the film and create a standard leader for loading the film into the camera.
With practice, the entire process can performed in under two minutes. Store your loader(s) in a cool, dry location; you could refrigerate them, as many people do with commercially-purchased rolls of film, but I prefer not to deal with the potential for condensation problems. The film will certainly last long enough at room temperature not to degrade noticeably by the time I use it up, especially given that I store it in a basement closet that stays cool year-round.
Film Yields
Photographer Roger Hicks’ website contains information that is valuable to bulk loaders. For months, the article he wrote years ago disappeared. I only recently discovered that he did a complete website revamp, and the article was merely relocated from the URL I’d bookmarked. I have no interest in plagiarizing in full his well-researched material, so I would encourage you to click here to read his take on this subject.
Among other things, Hicks provided lengths of film required for rolls of various lengths, from just one single frame all the way to 36-exposures rolls — taking into account the required overhead of leaders and trailers (the start and end of the film that are not actually exposed for photographs). Visit his site for the full table.
I will summarize a few key items here, however. Since I personally load 15- and 20-exposure rolls for the most part (as explained above), and since commercial rolls are typically 24- or 36-exposure, these specifics values are relevant to this discussion:
- 15-exposure rolls require 33 inches of film
- 20-exposure rolls require 40.5 inches of film
- 24-exposure rolls require 46.5 inches of film
- 36-exposure rolls require 64.5 inches of film
The math is pretty basic, then. If you buy a 100 foot roll of film, you get approximately:
- 36 each of 15-exposure rolls
- 29 each of 20-exposure rolls
- 25 each of 24-exposure rolls
- 18 each of 36-exposure rolls
If you’d prefer to think metric, Hicks’ website has those numbers, but these yields would of course be the same regardless, and with these numbers you can calculate the savings.
Potential Cost Savings
To use an example with pricing as of late November 2021, from Freestyle Photo in LA, a 100 foot roll of Ilford Delta 100 film costs about US$105.00. Pre-packaged 24-exposure rolls are about US$7.50 each, while 36-exposure rolls are about US$11.00 each.
Again, the math is easy; bulk loading would:
- Save you about US$82.50 total if you bought 24-exposure rolls; or,
- Save you about US$93.00 total if you bought 36-exposure rolls.
That’s a non-trivial cost savings — nearly half for 36-exposure rolls.
As I mentioned earlier, there are no color negative films designed for conventional C-41 processing that are currently available in 100 foot bulk rolls, so for color, I’ll do a mixed comparison. Photo Warehouse (Ultrafine Online) sells Kodak Vision3 250D color film for about US$100.00. The least expensive Kodak color negative film (at about the same ISO speed) from Freestyle in 24-exposure rolls is Kodak Gold 200, and in three-packs, it’s the equivalent of just over US$5.00 per roll. Purchased in three-packs of 36-exposure rolls, it’s about US$5.75 per roll. That’s actually pretty affordable.
But, as long as you can deal with ECN-2 process and/or remjet removal by whatever means (see my note above about that), bulk loading the Vision3 stock instead would:
- Save you about US$25.00 total if you bought 24-exposure rolls; or,
- Save you only about US$3.50 total if you bought 36-exposure rolls.
The problem is that I don’t think Kodak’s Vision3 250D stock is comparable to Kodak Gold 200; it’s more in the league of Ektar or even Portra, in that it’s a professional-grade stock. That’s subjective, of course, but compared to either, the savings is more pronounced. You would:
- Save about US$95.00 total if you bought 36-exposure Ektar; or,
- Save about US$89.00 total if you bought 36-exposure Portra 160.
We’re back into the nearly half price savings range in this case. These prices are from the same source (Freestyle), on single rolls, again as of late November 2021. (Neither film is sold in 24-exposure rolls.)
Obviously prices are subject to change. But it’s quite likely that there’s always going to be a cost benefit to bulk loading — just as there has been for several decades now.
Reasons Not to Bulk Load
I think there’s an argument to be made in favor of bulk loading for most film photographers who shoot 35mm cameras, but it’s not for everyone. Here are some reasons you might avoid it:
- You Don’t (Yet) Have a Favorite
If you’re still somewhat new to film photography, even if you shoot a lot, you may not have landed on a favorite film or two that you’re ready to commit to. I wouldn’t recommend bulk loading to anyone that doesn’t have a strong favorite that they shoot very regularly. - You Don’t Shoot That Much
If you don’t shoot regularly, you’re likely better off just buying pre-made rolls . - You Tend to Shoot a Wide Range of Films
If you tend to move around a lot between film types and brands, committing to 100 feet of any one particular film may not be for you. - You Tend to Shoot a Narrow Range of Films
If you tend to move around between two, three or four different films, you might still find economy with bulk loading. But you might find (as I did) that you end-up wanting multiple loaders with multiple films, which adds cost and complexity — and adds to storage requirements. - You Shoot Mostly Color Film
If you primarily shoot color film — and unless you’re familiar with, use, and home process Kodak Vision3 film stocks — bulk loading really isn’t for you, since as I already mentioned, there are no other color film stocks currently offered in bulk rolls.
If you decide to try bulk loading, I hope that your experience with it is as favorable as mine has been, and I hope it offers you the sorts of savings and convenience that it’s provided me.
Happy shooting.
