Bulk loading film has important advantages:
- it’ hands on and therefore fun
- you can make yourself film of any length, for experiments, for impatient folks like myself
- it’s cheaper
- Update: this article reminded me that it is also more ecological, less wasteful
It has also some disadvantages:
- you just have to do it if you want to have film loaded (and sometimes – laziness you know)
- reusable film canisters can leak light, mine does. Although only on first frames and just a little, but still…
- if you accidentally let light on the whole roll than I can imagine it can be a real bummer
- Update: this article reminded me of at least one more disadvantage (relevant to me at least) – last frame is usually ruined. And yes, there can be issues in some more automated cameras.
Like in many areas around shooting film, you can just buy things that are seemingly necessary. Like one of these bulk loaders.
But as I don’t really like to buy just another thing (you’ll see) and they can be pretty expensive, I’m here to tell you that you really don’t need them. If you have access to darkroom, it is actually in my experience very easy to load a film without loader just with your bare hands.
Great video on how to do that, that helped me the most I think, is this 15 years old one.
As you can see – very easy, recommended. I have only one kinda surprising problem that seems a little funny to me. One of those things I think one cannot foresee until one tries to do the thing.
It’s surprisingly hard for me to tape the spool to film in such a way that tape is nicely parallel to film. I almost always tape it askew. But you know what? I kinda like it. I like to think it reminds me of how easy things are with functional eyes and how hard “basic” activities can be without them.
Oh, and have you noticed that tape emits light, when stripped of roll fast? I was amazed when I saw that. Can it expose film a little bit, fog it perhaps? Better do it slowly.