[Leica] Anyone out there load cassettes from bulk film?

[ealadner at comcast.net (Eric Ladner)]

On Sep 27, 2006, at 7:15 PM, Marc James Small wrote:

> I have bulk-loaded a lot.

I used to, also, for two reasons: cost and special films:

When I was doing photography and A/V work for biotech companies, buying 
100-foot rolls of Ektachrome saved me a LOT of money, especially when I 
needed to shoot just a few frames of text slides (the sort of things 
you'd do in Powerpoint now. I was on very good terms with a custom lab 
within walking distance, and they weren't bothered by short, 
hand-loaded rolls.

The special films included Kodak LPD4 for black and white text slides, 
an Agfa film (RA711p?) that made high contrast B&W negatives (or 
white-on-black slides), and another Kodak direct positive stock that I 
can't remember the name of, of much lower contrast than LPD4 - suitable 
for continuous-tone material, but with a blue cast. The Kodak films 
could go through an X-ray film processor, and the Agfa could go through 
their Rapidoprint processor. They all also processed just fine in 
standard chemistry.

I don't think it's just looking back to "the good old days" to lament 
the passing of some of these materials and processes. On the other 
hand, I haven't used any of them in years, and you can't expect 
manufacturers to continue products that don't sell.

--Eric