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  #1  
Old 1st October 2019, 01:04 AM
JulioF JulioF is offline
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Default Weight of bulk film (Ilford)

Yesterday I loaded Ilford bulk film and had the crazy idea to weigh both the loader and the film carton, before and after loading, in order to determine the weight of film.

I found that 100 ft of FP4+ weighed 181 g according to my scale (a digital kitchen scale, which reads down to 1 g and comes close to a traditional lab one, that I use from time to time). The central plastic core was an additional 7 g.

This means that a 36-frame roll takes about 10 g of film. Now I can just weigh my old Lloyds loader and estimate how much film remains inside.

BTW, I did the same with HP5+, it hit the scales at 181 g as well.

Not a Nobel Prize discovery but it may come useful in a photo trivia contest.
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  #2  
Old 1st October 2019, 07:54 AM
John King John King is online now
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Default length by weight

That sounds to be an awful fiddle. How are you going to weigh it when it is still attached to the main roll?

I have a daylight loader and that is easy but easier still is to have a strip of plastic the same length as the film you want to load. After measuring I load in my totally blacked out darkroom, it is really quite easy.

The formula to get the right length is 1.5" x the number of exposures needed + 6". The extra 5" are to cover the gaps between each frame and the leader/trailer. So a 36 exp film = 54" plus the additional 6". A 24 exp film = 48" + 6" = 54"

Try it - it works.
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Old 1st October 2019, 10:05 AM
Michael Michael is offline
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Julio, that's a good idea. I may be getting a roll of XP2 whenever I have a vacant loader and I'll use your idea. Thank you.
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Old 1st October 2019, 11:51 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Yes short of keeping a log of lengths used, it can be diffcult to know what remains as it appears some loaders don't have a dial to say what is left. Other do but how accurate the dials are I have no idea so while it's a "faff" as we say it would appear to be one way of keeping track of what's left without a log.

If it were me I am sure that on several occasions I'd forget to enter lengths in a log

Mike
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Old 1st October 2019, 12:03 PM
Anon01 Anon01 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Yes short of keeping a log of lengths used, it can be diffcult to know what remains as it appears some loaders don't have a dial to say what is left. Other do but how accurate the dials are I have no idea so while it's a "faff" as we say it would appear to be one way of keeping track of what's left without a log.

If it were me I am sure that on several occasions I'd forget to enter lengths in a log

Mike
My loaders tell me ? Even if approximately

And anyway, you have one ready to re load when you run out always have a spare


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  #6  
Old 1st October 2019, 10:00 PM
JulioF JulioF is offline
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John,

Quote:
That sounds to be an awful fiddle. How are you going to weigh it when it is still attached to the main roll?
Easy:

a) Weigh the empty loader but still with the empty central plastic core of the bulk roll inside

b) Take out the plastic core and load the full 100 ft roll, which also has a plastic core. Better done in the dark.

The difference of (b) - (a) is the film weight, provided that the weight of the plastic central cores is not too different in the old and new bulk rolls (which is a reasonable hypothesis).

Michael, please post your XP2 results about film weight, I am curious to check if C-41 film is lighter or heavier than traditional B&W!
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Old 1st October 2019, 10:41 PM
Michael Michael is offline
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Julio, Surely; but it may be a while. I have rolls of PanF+ and FP4+ to clear out first (actually, the FP4+ was the short length, as one of my loaders won't take 30 metres).
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