Over the last couple of years I have been quite happily developing my colour films and getting consistent results with the chemicals I was using. I saw no need to change anything. Then in September of last year I developed my first roll of Ilford XP2. Here. To get black and white images and still develop them in my colour chemicals seemed like a perfect solution to my desire to try black and white film. All this without having to delve into the unknown world of different developers/film combinations that had put me off for so long. The seeds had been sown, I liked black and white film!
With the arrival of covid lockdowns, I began to read more, which watered the ‘seeds’ that ultimately led to them blossoming into my first foray into the world of black and white film developing, with some Kentmere 400.
Still more reading and the desire to try other black and white film stock grew. Always on the lookout for ways to make my hobby cheaper brought me to the point of trying to load my own film cassettes using a film bulk loader and 100ft of Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO. According to my calculations 100ft of film should get me about 15 rolls of 36 exposures, each at a cost of £4.50. Adding the developing costs and I will be looking at something like £6.00 in total. 🙂
Pictured below is the Computrol bulk loader obtained from that online auction site for the princely some of £13.20 including postage!
I have to say I was delighted to find it in good condition. Image how pleasantly surprised I was to find what looks to be a reasonable amount of unused colour film!! I plan to see if this is any good, but that’s for another time and post.
So I had to take out the film that was already in the loader and replace it with my Ilford HP5+ while all inside my film changing bag. I took out the colour film from the loader and placed it in a light tight container. I then opened up the changing bag, took out the bulk loader and wound on the counter, you can see the gold coloured numbers in the photo above, so that it registered 100 ft so that I would be able to see in the future how much is left. The loader then went back into the bag, the Ilford HP5+ taken out of its box/black bag and then placed in the drum of the loader and the circular lid screwed back into place (the big red dial in the photo above) and locked (the the red lever in the photo above).
I have to admit to being a little nervous about whether I could put the film in the drum and feed it through the gate while out of sight in the changing bag. But as the photo below shows I needn’t have worried.
Since I have a number of cameras that will only take DX coded film I decided to use some of the empty film canisters that I have accumulated and reuse them, to load my film onto as can be seen below
All I have to do is join both ends of the film with some tape, refit the film canister chamber door, open the film chamber door and wind the film into the canister. Before taking the film canister chamber door off I must remember to close the film chamber door, otherwise I would expose the 100ft of film to light. 😦
So now which camera should have the privilege of using my first hand made roll of film? There is only one choice……To Be Continued……
arhphotographic 