Kodak Tri-X 400 on a 30.5 m bulk roll is the same black-and-white film as the ready-made 135/36 cassette, sold for loading your own. One roll gives about 18 cassettes of 36 exposures, and each costs noticeably less than a factory one. If you shoot Tri-X all the time, this is the simplest way to bring the cost per frame down.
About the film
Tri-X has been made in 135 since 1954 and is still one of the most recognisable black-and-white films: fine grain for an ISO 400 stock, high sharpness and wide exposure latitude. Kodak builds in headroom for pushing — at EI 800 and 1600 it works with extended development, which is how press photographers shot it for decades. Its contrast has that documentary look: deep shadows and clean highlights without a hard cut-off.
Loading the bulk roll
The roll goes into a bulk loader once, in complete darkness — a darkroom or a changing bag. After that you wind cassettes in daylight, counting turns of the crank as frames. I use a Watson Model 100, but any loader made for 30 m rolls will do. Use reloadable cassettes with a removable cap, and treat the first 2–3 frames of each cassette, fogged during loading, as leader.
What it suits
Street, reportage, concerts, travel, learning — anything that goes through a lot of film. A bulk roll also lets you wind short cassettes of 12–20 frames: to test a camera, to try a push, or so a half-shot roll does not sit in the camera for weeks.
Practical notes
- Keep the roll in its original can somewhere cool and dark, and close it tightly after every loading session.
- Write the ISO on the cassette, and the real EI if you pushed, so the development can be matched.
- Do not wind more than 36 frames into a cassette: a longer strip is hard to get onto a tank reel.
Processing is standard black-and-white; I develop and scan Tri-X in my own lab. The same film in a factory cassette: Kodak Tri-X 400 135/36.
Specification
- Format: 135 (35 mm), 30.5 m (100 ft) bulk roll
- Speed: ISO 400, push to EI 1600
- Type: black-and-white negative
- Yield: about 18 cassettes of 36 exposures
- Process: standard black-and-white
