Film gets expensive fast. A single roll could eat away a small breakfast, not to mention getting it developed and scanned, which would turn it into a full lunch. I had to find a way to keep my venture a bit more economical. This is when I turned to bulk roll film.
A Brief Introduction to Bulk Roll Film:
I have had brief encounters with bulk film in the past. Almost all film stocks in the cinematic 35mm Kodak Vision3 ECN-2 line exist in the form of bulk rolls, which makes sense for the purpose of shooting motion picture. With the exception of few others, rarely is fresh film sold in this way. For example, I have never seen a bulk roll of Portra 400. Maybe I just haven't dug deep enough, but you get the picture. I never thought about getting 35mm ECN-2, because there is not a single lab in San Francisco that develops it due to its complicated process involving the removal of the rem-jet layer (without getting too deep into it, you either have a football-field-sized motion picture processing studio blasting off this carbon layer off the base of the film, or you have to manually remove it, which is a huge pain, and you risk scratching the emulsion). However, I recently got into expired film, which is when I started seeing decades-expired bulk roll in great condition. They are super interesting film, too, nothing that would be made today. On top of that, it is generally difficult to test expired film if you only have a handful of canisters. However, with bulk roll film, you can control exactly how many frames to put in your test roll, and then shoot the rest of it accordingly. Much safer this way.
Anyway, the idea of bulk film is simple. Instead of one roll of 36 (or 24) shots, you get somewhere around 50 - 100 ft worth of frames. These come in a light-sealed tin can that has to be handled in darkroom, otherwise you risk exposing the entire roll at once and they would all go to waste.
Loading Film:
First off, we need special equipments.
Darkroom changing bag;
Bulk film loader;
Reusable film canisters;
Tape & scissors.
I want to elaborate a bit on the film loaders. There are essentially three main types on the market:
Lloyd type - felt light trap, no counter;
Watson type (the one I have) - open film path, frame counter;
Bobinquick type - open film path, frame counter, remaining film on roll indicator.
I settled on a Watson because it was cheap and seemed sturdy/reliable from what I read online.
I am not going to add too much detail on how I got through loading my first roll, just know that it was scary, frustrating, and took forever. A couple things I think I did right:
I read and re-read the manual and made sure I knew how it operated, and I took my time playing with every part of the loader - how the frame advance lever works, how the film gate closes/opens, how to load a film canister shaft, etc.;
The loader came with a tiny bit of Ilford HP5 from the 70s, which I used to practice, inside and outside the changing bag to get a hang of things.
And of course, something I did not do right:
When I was finished loading, I forgot to tape the end bit down onto the shaft, so I decided to let the film unwind, tape it, and rewind with my hands. Of course, this was slightly problematic, because there were definitely times I accidentally touched the emulsion side, which could mess up picture quality. I also did not tape the film down tightly enough, which caused problems at the end of the roll.
And remember when I was talking about expired film earlier? That's right. This this Kodak Vericolor III Type S 5026 color negative film, C-41. It was phased out in the 80s and discontinued in 1997 in favor of Kodak Portra 160NC. And I found a quick bit from the internet that reads as the following:
KODAK VERICOLOR III Professional Film is a medium-speed color negative film. Its speed, sharpness, and grain make it an excellent choice for portraiture and wedding photography.
The fact that this film only has ISO 160 meant that it would age better than its high-ISO siblings. As in, even with three decades, it is most like safe to only overexpose at ISO 64 - 80. I rated my test roll at ISO 64.
Unloading Film:
This part was annoying and tricky. When I got to the end of the roll, I pulled the film advance lever a little too aggressively since I wasn't checking the counter, then the end of the film detached from the shaft in the canister. I had to put the camera in the light-sealed changing bag, press down the "R" button, and manually pull the film out and put it back into the canister... in complete darkness. It was challenging and I was pretty sure I accidentally touched the emulsion side multiple times. I had to just trust that at least some of the photos wouldn't be ruined.
Results:
I aimed for around 24 frames for my test roll, ended up with 21 full pictures. None of these were edited.
I can see how this film works well with portraits. The devil is in the details.
Overall, I say this was a success. My lab was kind enough to accommodate my ridiculous requests (again), where I also asked for the reusable canister back when they finish processing/scanning. Hopefully next time I hand roll film, it wouldn't be such a pain.