Film black and white film

lucien

Legend
Hi I just acquired an Canon prima zoom 90u. The battery is shot and it's a film camera. I don't want to spend alot on film. Does anyone have any suggestions where to start? I was thinking ebay. This would only be occasionally and for fun. I cheap way to get into film.

Thanks in advance
 
The price usually depends on where you are. At the moment, Fomapan 100 can somewhat be pricey on eBay, but if your local photo shop stocks them, they usually are cheaper and you can buy them in bulk. Fomapan 100 is ridiculously affordable in the EU.
 
I'm seeing 3 rolls of 35mm 36 3xp for around $30 cdn. Is that considered cheap?

Is Ilford hp5 plus iso 400 any good? Can I use expired film rolls?
 
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Where are you?

I get mine from BH. Arista EDU films are pretty inexpensive, about $4.59 US for 24 exposures. I like the 100 best, but I'm not a huge fan of grain. You can also get 200 and 400. Rollei 80 Retro 80 is fantastic and a little pricier, but not awful.

Expired film is fine as long as you know what to expect, which is the unexpected. You could get anything depending on how it was stored. Magentas, fogging, or for that matter, perfect. If you buy expired put it in the freezer as soon as you get it to stop any further deterioration. Store fresh film in the refrigerator. I have a freezer full of expired that I picked up here and there.

This was made on a prewar 1940's Argus A3 with Rollei Retro 80:

51286502974_6a7b11a552_o.jpg
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000459210004 by Shotglass Photo, on Flickr
 
Fantastic shot, and very useful tips. I live in Canada. I could go the ebay route as an alternative. It's about $9 cdn for a roll of ilford 400 b and w. To convert to US dollars and shipping will probably dig into any savings. I think ebay and bulk expired would be my route. Is BH (b and h photos) in new york? Ilford also has a house brand I forgot the name which would knock a few more dollars off the price.

thx,

store my brand new monochrome roll in the freezer or fridge? It doesn't expire til march 2025?
 
Fantastic shot, and very useful tips. I live in Canada. I could go the ebay route as an alternative. It's about $9 cdn for a roll of ilford 400 b and w. To convert to US dollars and shipping will probably dig into any savings. I think ebay and bulk expired would be my route. Is BH (b and h photos) in new york? Ilford also has a house brand I forgot the name which would knock a few more dollars off the price.

thx,

store my brand new monochrome roll in the freezer or fridge? It doesn't expire til march 2025?
Fridge is fine.
 
If you want to go really cheap, you can do what I did and buy some refillable film cassettes (a four pack cost me under $10) and a bulk roll of inexpensive B&W film (Fomapan or Arista or Kentmere) and hand-roll it without the added expense of a daylight bulk film loader. Those cost about $50 and they certainly make things easier, but as long as you can black out a room or closet, you can load film onto the spindle of the cassette by hand. If you keep the film tight as you roll it, then you can get very close to a 36-frame roll when the film is about even with the sides of the spindle.
 
If you want to go really cheap, you can do what I did and buy some refillable film cassettes (a four pack cost me under $10) and a bulk roll of inexpensive B&W film (Fomapan or Arista or Kentmere) and hand-roll it without the added expense of a daylight bulk film loader. Those cost about $50 and they certainly make things easier, but as long as you can black out a room or closet, you can load film onto the spindle of the cassette by hand. If you keep the film tight as you roll it, then you can get very close to a 36-frame roll when the film is about even with the sides of the spindle.
I picked up a really nice loader for $25 on eBay. I bought the cassettes from B&H for about $1.50 each. Someone from another forum gifted me three cannisters of Kodak color film. I think you can get Arista EDU 100 for $54/100'.
 
I think I like your idea the best Andrew. I went on ebay and had a look at this. If it's the right kind of refillable you mentioned could you let me know

Empty Canisters Cassettes Cartridges Case For Kodak Fuji 135 35mm Vintage Film​


the actual ebay link is way to large. If you can find what your referring to on ebay, you could pm me with the link. Thx

I will go with the daylight bulk film loader. I don't want to waste any of it, learning how to do it and I don't have a totally dark area. Nor any experience
 
@ Brownie I'm in Canada and B&H won't be really worth it for me with the exchange rate, and the wait. What was the name of your loader :)
 
I think I like your idea the best Andrew. I went on ebay and had a look at this. If it's the right kind of refillable you mentioned could you let me know

Empty Canisters Cassettes Cartridges Case For Kodak Fuji 135 35mm Vintage Film​


the actual ebay link is way to large. If you can find what your referring to on ebay, you could pm me with the link. Thx

I will go with the daylight bulk film loader. I don't want to waste any of it, learning how to do it and I don't have a totally dark area. Nor any experience
Those ones are what they use for Shanghai 100 B&W film, they are dreadful and I would stay away. My understanding of the weird hinge on the cassette is that the Chinese factory which makes them had no access to metalworking in order to make the normal metal caps.

I use these, they're easier to open and close: https://www.adorama.com/blcp4.html
By the way, this forum will automatically adjust the link you put into text so it's not super long, you can put whatever length link you want.

My only caution with the ones I posted from Adorama is, you need to clean up the felt a bit and get rid of lint and loose strands, otherwise they might stick to or overlay your film when shooting. I used canned air and tweezers to get rid of the loose bits and they have worked just great.
 
Those ones are what they use for Shanghai 100 B&W film, they are dreadful and I would stay away. My understanding of the weird hinge on the cassette is that the Chinese factory which makes them had no access to metalworking in order to make the normal metal caps.

I use these, they're easier to open and close: https://www.adorama.com/blcp4.html
By the way, this forum will automatically adjust the link you put into text so it's not super long, you can put whatever length link you want.

My only caution with the ones I posted from Adorama is, you need to clean up the felt a bit and get rid of lint and loose strands, otherwise they might stick to or overlay your film when shooting. I used canned air and tweezers to get rid of the loose bits and they have worked just great.
Pretty sure that's the same ones I use.

There are some vintage Russian all metal cassettes on eBay that are supposed to be really good, but they're not cheap.
 
thanks again, the bulk stuff does pay off in the long run doesn't it ? Couldn't you just convert the old canister's into refillable ones? I have tweezers and Dynex Compressed air. Can I use a Rocket fish air blower as well?
 
thanks again, the bulk stuff does pay off in the long run doesn't it ? Couldn't you just convert the old canister's into refillable ones? I have tweezers and Dynex Compressed air. Can I use a Rocket fish air blower as well?
Converting regular cassettes is tricky. Usually you need to sort of flex or bend the metal caps and they lose seal, possibly allowing light inside. The screw-cap refillable ones are well worth whatever few bucks you spend over trying to salvage them from regular consumer films.

A single 100' roll is about 18 36-exposure rolls, so for $50 that works out to about $2.70 a roll, and if you roll somewhat shorter rolls you can easily go beyond that number.
 
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thanks again, the bulk stuff does pay off in the long run doesn't it ? Couldn't you just convert the old canister's into refillable ones? I have tweezers and Dynex Compressed air. Can I use a Rocket fish air blower as well?
There's an easier way. Buy a 'film retriever' to grab the end of the exposed film and pull it from the cassette. Once the film is pulled all the way out, cut it about an inch from the cassette leaving a stub. Then you use tape to connect the new film to the stub. I do think you'd want a loader to do this because slightly off-square and you'd have a mess as it rolled up.

It's nice to be able to load up a small roll of 8 or so frames to test a camera. It costs more that way because you still have the leader and tail waste for every roll regardless of how many frames, but sometimes I just don't want to shoot 24 exposures. The longer the rolls, the more you'll get per reel.

The bigger problem I run into is developing. A batch of chemicals will do X number of rolls, and once mixed it has a shelf life. Cinestill for C-41 color will do 10 rolls but only last for a short period of time. I mix half a batch at a time, but you still need 5 rolls ready to go. I save exposed rolls in the refrigerator until I have enough to develop.

I've only been developing for a short while myself, so still on a learning curve.
 
The bigger problem I run into is developing. A batch of chemicals will do X number of rolls, and once mixed it has a shelf life. Cinestill for C-41 color will do 10 rolls but only last for a short period of time. I mix half a batch at a time, but you still need 5 rolls ready to go. I save exposed rolls in the refrigerator until I have enough to develop.
Rodinal is nice for B&W, it's a one shot, so you use a small amount at a time and mix with water - a partially used bottle keeps for literally years. Color, though, that's much more temperamental stuff. I still haven't worked up the courage.
 
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