Canada Cheap film in Toronto?

I order all my film from the US. I've found B&H often has the best prices, but I've ordered from Freestyle as well.

When you order a decent amount (and it doesn't take much) you are waaaaay ahead of Henry's and Vistek (both of which charge outrageous prices for film IMO).

On my last order, which was MF chrome and colour neg, I figured I saved something like $100 after shipping. You will see right away that colour is about half the price of the two Canadian chains.
 
I forgot to mention you will be charged HST, but not duty. Note that you also want to avoid ground shipping when a courier is involved because you will often be hit be brokerage fees. And these fees will be more than the cost of air/expedited shipping.
 
I've been wondering about ordering from the US for a while, but I'm concerned about possible effects from X-rays, especially if it's delivered by air. These past few months in particular, with printer cartridges and combustible mail, leaves me feeling like ordering locally is the best way to go. (Yes, I realize that the film in the stores had to get here somehow, but I'm thinking that the distributors of x-ray sensitive materials must have a way of getting non-damaging inspections.)

Am I worried for no reason?

Has anyone developed film that's flown as cargo or passed the border by truck in the past month or two?
 
no reason to worry whatsoever keepright. been ordering from us for some time and all is well. this is from 35mm up to 8x10.

for 35 and 120 it's either freestyle or b&h for me. Would love to go local and I do for some film, but the markup is insane and probably due to the local distributor who is out to lunch and apathetic
 
Thank you all again
20 rolls of Arista EDU from freestyle (10 35mm and 10 120mm) was $73 including S&H
comparing it to $7.5 + tax here per roll....

(and, BTW, there's no tax on it)
 
IgalSc said:
Thank you all again
20 rolls of Arista EDU from freestyle (10 35mm and 10 120mm) was $73 including S&H
comparing it to $7.5 + tax here per roll....

(and, BTW, there's no tax on it)
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You should, I think, be paying tax. Taxes are calculated when the package enters the country and should be charged to you at the door. But then I don't know how reliable that is.
 
There are 2 films I use that are at the moment reasonably cheap in Canada when compared to B&H new all in shipping, brokerage and HST price.

Kodak Ektar in 35mm at Downtown Camera and Shanghai GP3 120 B&W sold at the Loma store as Lomo film. All the rest I can get at cheaper to very much cheaper at B&H.
 
freestyle and bh for me as well. I always order large enough to offset the shipping cost on a per roll basis (last order was 60 rolls)
usps for shipping is usually the most likely to avoid taxes at the post office, but i think they have a dollar value they look at and apply hst above it. My film orders have always been nailed for taxes, many other small items (IE single cheap lenses) have not YMMV
 
IgalSc said:
guys, thanks for all your replies
i'm interested mostly in B&W film, both 120mm and 35mm
freestyle for 20 rolls (10 rolls of 120 and 10 rolls of 35) will end at $3.6 per roll
I'm not sure if i will be charged any taxes on the post
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I try and order a minimum of 90-100 rolls at a time from Freestyle. The shipping charge is about the same for ordering 20 as it is for 100 rolls. Plus Fedex is going to charge duty and HST/GST. So your cost per roll drops significantly if you can order a larger amount.
 
you lucked out with no taxes this time .don't expect it to happen every time you order from the states. I've always gotten dinged when buying from Freestyle.
 
ruslan said:
Don't buy more than $90 and there will be no tax🙂
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Do you have any link/reference to the law/rules that support this statement? I was charged tax many times for shipments cheaper than 90 bucks. But anyway, if you see some price tag in photo store here in Toronto, that means you have to pay 13% more anyway.

I used to buy film in Downtown Camera. They have my name in their system and they normally give me discount. Last time I got Fuji Across 100 from them in 120 format, and I didn't find any decent film reasonably priced in 400 ISO range. Couple of years ago they were selling 400TX for $2.89 per 120 roll, but no such sweet price anymore. Now it's 5 bucks that makes me look across the border. In 35mm format I got 100" rolls of AGFA APX100 from this store (it was around $30 per can), still have 2 or 3 cans in my freezer. It always much cheaper and flexible to load bulk film into cassettes, I don't use any loader, if you have hands in place you are fine to load it.

Downtown Camera also is a good source for photo paper, if you go that far.

Here is the link
http://downtowncamera.com/

Cheers,
Ed
 
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