We compared surface tension measures of surfactants with various surface activities by using a pulsating bubble surfactometer (PBS) and a captive bubble surfactometer (CBS). Rabbit lung lavage surfactant (60,000 x average g for 60 min), bovine surfactant extract (Survanta), and a synthetic lipid surfactant mixture (dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine-egg phosphatidylglycerol-palmitic acid) were studied at 1.25 mg phospholipid/ml. The PBS was used either unmodified according to manufacturer's instructions or with the sample chamber capillary kept dry and the sample adsorbing at maximum bubble size (5 min). The CBS was used in a manner that imitated the unmodified PBS. We found that all three techniques indicated low surface tension on the first cycle for 60K. For Survanta, the CBS and the modified PBS reported low surface tension on the first cycle, whereas the unmodified PBS did not achieve this within 10 cycles. For the synthetic lipid surfactant mixture, only the CBS measured low surface tension within 10 cycles. Video observations indicate that the modified PBS performs better than the unmodified PBS because keeping the capillary dry prevents surface film from occupying this large surface during cycling, thereby allowing larger area compressions.