How do you cope with high film cost?

cosmonaut

cosmonaut

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I am down to six rolls of color film in the fridge. Five rolls of Reala, One roll of Ektar. So I checked the B&H catalog and color film prices and choices is going to make me quit color film all together. I still have quit a lot of B&W. 60-70 rolls.
Maybe someone will buy out Kodak patents and put out some more. I really love Ektar.
For those of you still using color how do you cope with high prices. Is there some where it is cheaper? Have you quit color all together?
 
I try not to look at the price. As a college student, film takes up most of my budget.

My school has a few Jobos we can use to develop our own film, so that helps. 4x5 Portra is nearly $4 a sheet, and 8x10 has become too expensive to ignore the cost of. I don't think I'll be able to afford 4x5 film after I graduate, as I won't be developing it myself. 35mm is cheap cheap cheap in comparison!!
 
I just pick up expired rolls whenever they become available. Fuji slide films (e.g. Provia 100F) are still good 5 years after the official expiry date. Their color negative films keep well too. For a while I was using their 800H that was a few years expired.
 
I don't shoot a huge amount, so the cost is not a big deal. However, there is cheap film, like Superia or Kodak Gold. To be honest, looking at the price of film now, vs. the 90s, taking into account inflation, it's probably a bit cheaper now. There have been recent spikes though, which make it seem pricey.

I just bought 5x120 rolls of Provia 400X for £8, so it's not too bad. And that was from the official Fujifilm shop.
 
Hi,

I keep my eyes open and buy whenever I see it going cheaply. As has been said, about to expire or just expired is very cheap. Sometimes I get silly bargains when they clear th shelves for no reason I can understand, f'instance 3 36 exp. cassettes of slide film for two pounds earlier this year...

BTW, when I sold my dSLR (a serious "pro" model) I got to wondering what each photo cost and discovered that each file from the digital was the same price (within a fraction of a penny) as the 7 x 5 prints I pay for with colour negative film. Add the cost of the printer, paper and ink etc and digital is dearer. For reasons that escape me, people seem to think film is dear and digital is free but ignore the cost of a new digital, etc, every few months or years. And you can buy a lot of film for the loss of money on digital.

Regards, David
 
cosmonaut said:
... how do you cope with high prices? ...
Click to expand...

Simple: I pay them when I want to use film.
If I don't want to pay for film (and processing), I use a digital camera.

Just got a stock of film for my Polaroid SX-70 in yesterday. Seven packs of film, 56 exposures, cost $160. I'll enjoy using it up, a lot, and I'll do my best to make every one of those exposures count for something.

Film and processing are the price of enjoying film photography. It's never been cheap.

G

​
 
Well for starters, Bulk roll film is a great price and you can load rolls when you need them and the film rolls fit in a small can and you can keep it frozen for years. Second I try use the idea that I am shooting "Cut Film" and only allow myself 3 or 4 sheets per day...force myself to slow down...think more and shoot less....means more productive creative output by me.
 
I'm finishing off the last of the film from the 99¢ store. I'll probably switch to Kodak Gold and Color Plus for everyday shooting, and use slide or Ektar when I'm shooting something special.
 
Last couple of months - no problem - I'm attending uni lectures at daytime and (try to) get work done at evenings/weekends so time and energy left to burn film is almost nil 🙁

But even with a normal schedule, I shoot low volume. I've tried cranking it up, especially with digital, but after a shooting spree I usually just feel bad, and even worse when looking at all the crap produced. Increasing overall volume doesn't seem to increase the number of keepers much in my case.

All colour gets shot on digital nowadays although I really liked Portra 160NC in my pre-digital days. Basic black and white 35mm films are still quite affordable locally (and I could save more by ordering bulk quantities from abroad when I finally decide to settle on a specific emulsion). I shoot a roll of XP2 every now and then and get lab proofs - and that is a bit more expensive. But that is still less costly than having four beers in a local bar and provides longer lasting fun than four beers.
 
Well I have heard this in the past as well. I have been doing a few portrait sessions lately and the last one I did I took 400 pictures. If I had done that with film the cost would have been incredible. I adds up quicker than you realize. Just that one time would have put a dent in the cost of a nice digital camera.


David Hughes said:
Hi,

I keep my eyes open and buy whenever I see it going cheaply. As has been said, about to expire or just expired is very cheap. Sometimes I get silly bargains when they clear th shelves for no reason I can understand, f'instance 3 36 exp. cassettes of slide film for two pounds earlier this year...

BTW, when I sold my dSLR (a serious "pro" model) I got to wondering what each photo cost and discovered that each file from the digital was the same price (within a fraction of a penny) as the 7 x 5 prints I pay for with colour negative film. Add the cost of the printer, paper and ink etc and digital is dearer. For reasons that escape me, people seem to think film is dear and digital is free but ignore the cost of a new digital, etc, every few months or years. And you can buy a lot of film for the loss of money on digital.

Regards, David
Click to expand...
 
For slides I had been buying Lomography "xpro chrome" which was just rebranded Kodak Elite Chrome. $19 for three rolls vs. near $14 for a single roll of velvia. Then Kodak axe-massacred all of their slide films, and consequentially the packs of xpro chrome disappeared not long after. I know I can get velvia for half as much online, but I prefer to support local shops. Apparently they've (lomog.) already released a "new" slide film, it might be rebranded Agfa Precisa, which is rebranded Fuji... again for $19 for three rolls

As for black an white, there's Arista, Fomapan, Kentmere all for basically ludicrously low prices (under $40 for 100') if you buy bulk rolls and spool your own.
 
Rollfilm, whether 135 or 120, is at a reasonable price these days I find. As long back as I have used them Portra, Vericolor III and so on were never as cheap as snapshot film. What I do think is disproportionate is the cost of sheet colour film. The pricing of Portra in 10x8 killed my 'colour-neg pinhole plus contact-print' project idea stone dead.

For black-and-white materials, film is probably as cheap as it has ever been, and of better quality, so I'm actually quite pleased with that. Paper is perhaps a bit more iffy regarding price and availability, but still survivable currently. All this pre-supposes buying almost nothing locally unfortunately, instead using bulk buying a couple of times a year.
 
1) Be more discerning with what I shoot
2) Buy something cheaper like Superia 400
3) Remember that the image is more important than the medium used and use my iPhone
 
Cost is relative. Where I live (northern Michigan, USA) people don't sweat over spending $5,000 for a used snowmobile.

For 35mm, I buy bulk film. For medium format, I buy whatever I want whenever I need it. Cost isn't a factor to me, at least so far.

Jim B.
 
What an odd thread, kind of different from person to person don't you think? And should it not read color film since black and white is still really cheap?

How I cope with it is make a good living off of photography and write off the expense of it. I also think that compared to things like the price of gas, a new car or decent home in a nice town, it has not gone up that much. Who can complain about 4x5 Delta 100 being a little over a dollar a sheet....you are kidding, right? Rollei IR400 in 120 is now at $10 a roll but what am I going to do, I would pay triple that considering what an important film it is to me and my business.

I also think I will pay a lot more to keep companies that make film in business.

I guess it depends on the person...
 
cosmonaut said:
Well I have heard this in the past as well. I have been doing a few portrait sessions lately and the last one I did I took 400 pictures. If I had done that with film the cost would have been incredible. I adds up quicker than you realize. Just that one time would have put a dent in the cost of a nice digital camera.
Click to expand...

Same with me .
I use more digital these days especially when taking stuff for others.

When I want film I buy fresh and when not I use digital.
 
The slow but inevitable trend towards reduced availability, and increased film and processing costs was instrumental in my decision to abandon film photography about five years ago.

The growth in smart phone popularity killed inexpensive 35 mm film because the number of casual family film users plummeted. Inexpensive film used be plentiful in drugstores and big box discount stores. Now it has all but disappeared here in the Midwestern US. Many casual photographers went directly from a compact P&S 35 mm film camera to a smart phone. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sealed the deal. The family that shot a roll or two of 35 mm film for family events and holidays no longer exists and they no longer subsidize our use of inexpensive film.

None of this is a suprise and none of it is welcome. Unfortunately it is reality where I live.

Recently I found five rolls of exposed film (Tri-X and C41 color) in the back of my fridge. They were five years old. I sent them off to Precision Camera in Austin for development and scanning. This was the end of the line for me.
 
I still have a 5 cuft freezer full of film. I mostly shoot digital when shooting color, so that helps conserve my color film stock... expiration dates ignored.. low iso. When I want to shoot black and white, I use Freestyle off label film.
 
cosmonaut said:
I have been doing a few portrait sessions lately and the last one I did I took 400 pictures. If I had done that with film the cost would have been incredible. I adds up quicker than you realize. Just that one time would have put a dent in the cost of a nice digital camera.
Click to expand...

If you find yourself shooting 400 shots on a single sitting that's way excessive IMO. Whether you use film or digital your subject(s) aren't going to be that patient with you–in fact they'll be bored after about 10-15 mins.
Unless you do burst type images 8fps style 🙂

Seriously at those rates I'd give up film! I do several portraits a week and I shoot between 1-3 rolls of 120 per subject, any more is just counter productive, I can normally get the shot I need within a few shots...

I pay £2 per 120 for B&W and about £4 for colour, 35mm film is cheap and plentiful at least here in Europe I pay £1 per roll for colour and about £2.50 for mono.
 
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