Bulk loading 35mm black and white film
I shoot a lot of 35mm black and white film and when I started shooting film again, which goes back around three and a half years now. I began by simply purchasing individual factory packaged rolls of film, but as I experimented with various brands and film speeds I also began to look for ways to become a bit more budget minded. Within a couple of months I then purchased a 35mm bulk film loader and began buying my favorite film stocks in 100 ft. rolls, which I then load into individual reloadable film cassettes. A 100 ft. bulk roll is large enough to load eighteen 36 exposure rolls film.
 
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| During my search to find some of my favorite 35mm b&w films, I've tried many different types and brands until I found the ones that best suited my needs. I did this for film speeds ranging from 100 to 400 ISO. |
The alternative to buying a bulk loader could have been to just find and shoot more budget friendly black and white film stocks, vs. shooting some of the bigger name brands such as Kodak or Ilford, and of course based on ones personal opinion, there are many nice budget films to choose from, but even the budget films are available in 100 ft. rolls making the economical choice even more economical.
Now in 2023 brands like Kentmere and Fomapan which were considered budget films are not as budget friendly as they were in 2020. Making even a stronger case for bulk loading my favorite films. There are still some rebranded versions of Foma films for less money such a s Freestyle's Arista EDU brand but who knows how long that will last. I do still purchase single rolls from time to time, especially when testing out a particular film to see if I like it, but for my favorite film stocks, I purchase those in 100 ft. bulk rolls.
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| Fomapan 200 is one of my favorites and a 100 ft. bulk roll which currently runs $79.99 will equal a quantity of eighteen 36 exposure rolls of film making the price per roll $4.44. Considerably less expensive than paying $7.99 for a single factory packaged roll. |
Keeping in mind again that a 100 ft. bulk roll will equal approximately eighteen 36 exposure rolls of film and basing my pricing information from Freestlye Photo in California, which is where I purchase a lot of my film supplies, here's a few examples. One of my favorites as shown above, a 100ft. bulk roll of Fomapan 200 at $79.99 will give me an average cost of $4.44 per 36 exp. roll, compared to a single factory packaged roll which is currently $7.99 per roll. There's Ilford HP5 which is a favorite of so many photographers that runs $119.99 per 100ft. averaging $6.67 per 36 exp. roll, vs. a factory single packaged of $9.49 per roll.
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| I purchase this roll Rollei RPX400 last year just before the price increase which I stored in my freezer and am now just getting ready to load in to my bulk loader. |
Now the percentage of savings is going to vary from brand to brand, for instance another one of my favorites, and I do have several, is Rollei RPX400 which is currently priced $124.99 for a 100 ft. averaging $6.95 per 36 exp. roll, vs. a factory single packaged of $7.99 per roll. Not quite as big a savings as the Ilford or Fomapan but none the less its still just over a $1.00 less per roll. But there are still plenty of choices to give me saving similar to Fomapan 200 and Ilford HP5 if I need to search elsewhere. There's brands like Kentmere and rebrands like Arista EDU from Freestyle as well as the Ultrafine films from the Photo Warehouse.
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| Freezing will keep film fresh, even beyond the expiration dates and a couple of bulk rolls will certainly take up less space in my freezer than 36 individual packaged rolls of film. |
I was fortunate enough to buy a roll of RPX 400 and Fomapan 200 just before the last price increase which I promptly stored in my freezer for future use. That can temporarily take the sting out of any price increase such as the increase from $84.99 to $124.95 for RPX 400. Freezing also keeps film fresh even way beyond the expiration date and storing two 100 ft. bulk rolls is certainly less painful than trying to stuff 36 single rolls of film into my freezer. An important note though, when getting ready to load a roll of film into the bulk loader that has been if the freezer, let the film sit out for a day or two before opening the package to avoid any condensation issues.
Ok, up to now it's been all about the film, so let's now talk about the initial cost for the equipment needed to bulk load film, and of course that would include a bulk loader, and there are still several types to choose from, both used and new but the one I chose was the Lloyd's daylight bulk film loader, which I feel is probably the most user friendly and what's nice is that it's still available brand new for around $50.00. Then there are the reloadable film cassettes, a 5 pack of Arista plastic reusable cassettes will run $7.50 and if you don't have a darkroom you'll also need a film changing bag and Arista has a 27"x 30" one for $34.99. So for the initial cost of $92.49 plus the price of your favorite film your ready to go to it.
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If you would like further information on how I use my bulk film loader, please click on my YouTube video and I will walk you thru all the steps I take to use and also maintain the Lloyd's daylight bulk film loader, and if you choose to do so, I thank you so much for checking out my blog and video (-: