UK B&W Film Shooters

Thanks, sounds good until I read the small print about making a purchase:

In order to make a purchase intending customers are required to create an Account which will contain certain personal details and Payment Information… (my words used here).

Sounds a bit unusual to me. But that could be me.
 
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Ricoh said:
Thanks, sounds good until I read the small print about making a purchase:

In order to make a purchase intending customers are required to create an Account which will contain certain personal details and Payment Information… (my words used here).

Sounds a bit unusual to me. But that could be me.
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I have faith in Osborne's ability to read character. If Matt likes the guy I'd guess he is OK. But you can ask both of them what the deal is. PayPal would eliminate all of that but maybe he is avoiding PayPal fees. Write him and ask,"What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
 
I don't like or trust any YouTuber in any field or niche, personally. Too much clickbait and desire to drive up views combines with the total inability to edit or correct videos without removing them (which tanks your numbers & engagement), which means incorrect or outdated info is rife on there.

So let's do some maths (yep, we're in England, so.... maths):

First, how many rolls can you get from a bulk roll? One of my friends on Mastodon (seriously, give Mastodon a try, it's great) built a calculator for that. Using the default values, we get 19 rolls out of a 100ft roll.

So what's the cheapest 100ft roll out there? Well, if we don't go into expired films, weird niche stuff, and sourcing rolls intended for movie use, we're looking at Fomapan. Nik & Trick down in Folkestone sell a 100ft can of Fomapan 100 for £50. That works out at £2.63 per 36exp roll - 12.8% cheaper than what ol' "Mr Leica" is presenting as "the cheapest B&W 35mm film". So he's really not done his research.

But let's go further - he's diving down some weird routes, so we will, too. For instance, if you were willing to get a bit more experimental, you can buy directly from ORWO, for instance - 100ft of DN21 is only £44 if you're willing to use a duplicating film (and some of those can be very nice). That's £2.32 per roll - 25.2% cheaper. Not a bad saving.

But if you're a serious film shooter, you could go all in and buy 610m (!) of UN54 for "just" £944; according to our calculator, that gets you a ridiculous 381 36exp rolls if split correctly/efficiently, so you'd be set for life. And how much is that per roll? £2.48, landing you nicely between the DN21 and Fomapan 100 prices. And considering Lomography usually sell it for £8.90 (it's on sale at the mo), that's quite the bargain.

For the curious (i.e. me), buying a more reasonable 100ft of UN54 direct from ORWO gets you 19 rolls at £3.26 each. A bit more expensive than ol' YouTube boi's recommendation, but still not bad (and definitely a damn sight better than buying Lomography's rebranded stuff).

...can you tell I've got a bit too much time on my hands today?
 
boojum said:
I am glad you are keeping an open mind on this.
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I've been near-exclusively bulk rolling for about 15 years and living in the UK for a lot longer. I don't need to "open my mind" to things I already have better solutions for!

Nevertheless, thanks for creating the thread. If people in the UK stumble on this, at least they'll know they don't have to jump through YouTuber-approved hoops to do something that's actually pretty simple. 😅
 
...if you were to actually use a light meter on the accessory shoe of your III sitting behind the frame of Nooky Hesum and bearing in mind parallax, would it actually be reading the area you are hoping to take a picture of?

I'll get my coat...
 
Ricoh said:
Thanks, sounds good until I read the small print about making a purchase:

In order to make a purchase intending customers are required to create an Account which will contain certain personal details and Payment Information… (my words used here).

Sounds a bit unusual to me. But that could be me.
Click to expand...
But isn’t that just what you give any online retailer? It sounds like the sort of thing Amazon would require and it MAY be that having a statement like this is necessary for GDPR compliance.

Having seem the calculations above I agree that the savings are marginal compared to some of the cheaper films out there, but given that it comes ready spooled it is a reasonable buy for those who don’t bulk load. I just regret the plastic containers that are supplied with each roll however.

I think I’ll give it a try as my two bulk rollers are full at the moment (50D and Aerocolor); still not convinced about Aerocolor.
 
I didn't even clock that these come ready-spooled - I was only looking at the price aspect of the whole thing (and how incorrect the claim of "cheapest B&W film" is).

Part of the reason I bulk-load is that most of the cameras I use don't behave well with modern plastic cassettes. For instance, early Leicas - you know, like the weirdly set-up black Leica III in the thumbnail - really need FILCAs to behave properly and not get the image impeding into the sprocket holes, so having bulk film pre-loaded into modern cassettes would be massively counterproductive for me.
 
Ricoh said:
Thanks, sounds good until I read the small print about making a purchase:

In order to make a purchase intending customers are required to create an Account which will contain certain personal details and Payment Information… (my words used here).

Sounds a bit unusual to me. But that could be me.
Click to expand...

It's not as described, I ordered six rolls from Analogue Camera this morning and you don't need to create an account and you only have a PayPal option to pay (or card through PayPal) so no personal details are shared. I think 'opening and account' is for fast checkout next time, and I fail to see the sinister nature of giving them your address given they'll need to post you the damned film if you ordered any.
 
SWB said:
It's not as described, I ordered six rolls from Analogue Camera this morning and you don't need to create an account and you only have a PayPal option to pay (or card through PayPal) so no personal details are shared. I think 'opening and account' is for fast checkout next time, and I fail to see the sinister nature of giving them your address given they'll need to post you the damned film if you ordered any.
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That’s good to know from someone who’s actually used the company.
Address is (obviously) required for delivery, and I’m ok using PayPal.
Thanks.
 
Coldkennels said:
I didn't even clock that these come ready-spooled - I was only looking at the price aspect of the whole thing (and how incorrect the claim of "cheapest B&W film" is).

Part of the reason I bulk-load is that most of the cameras I use don't behave well with modern plastic cassettes. For instance, early Leicas - you know, like the weirdly set-up black Leica III in the thumbnail - really need FILCAs to behave properly and not get the image impeding into the sprocket holes, so having bulk film pre-loaded into modern cassettes would be massively counterproductive for me.
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I haven’t gone earlier than IIIc yet but I am sure I will have that pleasure to come as Barnacks are quite addictive.

I totally agree that rolling your own gives conveniences for us weirdos with strange cameras. As soon as you start doing your own repairs a ten exposure film makes a lot of sense.
 
Ricoh said:
That’s good to know from someone who’s actually used the company.
Address is (obviously) required for delivery, and I’m ok using PayPal.
Thanks.
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In the past six months I've ordered and received two perfect Leica R lenses from them, and at sensible prices and not eBay inflated 'wish list' prices. They have a good stock of analogue gear, and the recent divergence into film spooling took me by surprise but makes sense if they are truly serious in making an impression on film photography.
 
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