Film may not be dead but plenty seem keen to kill it off!

Our local pro camera store is a bad joke and has always been gouge central. I support local businesses, but Freestyle's film prices are half what they are locally.

Leukoplakia, erythroplakia, and tongue cancers are ample reasons for regular pipe smokers to be anything but sanguine. My grandfather succumbed to complications arising from tongue cancer. He was a self-employed boat-builder (wood, naturally) and smoked a pipe to his heart's content.
 
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It appears that film is alive and well but those that assume it's not aren't prepared to support it by stocking it unless they can sell X amount to justify their efforts. Ad this to the very poor lab/processing service that a lot of people seem to be receiving and you can see the trouble ahead ... it's becomng a self fulfilling prophecy in many ways!

As long as I can continue to get whatever I want from places like Freestyle and B&H I don't really give a cracker and if the local market isn't prepared to support my interests that's their loss I guess.

You'd have to wonder if Freestyle etc are actually having increasing sales because of this ... over the last couple of years they've added Arista Premium and Legacy Pro to their line up! I suppose that's a good sign?
 
All the pipe and tobacco shops in Miami are gone. There used to be one in every mall plus a few scattered about. I gave my son my pipe collection, about 30 quality briars, because it's easier to find tobacco in the Boston area. My former father-in-law still sends me rolling tobacco from Germany on occasion but lately Payasam turned me on to bidis from India.

I suspect that the age descrepancy between the life expectancy of pipe and cigarette smokers has to do with social class and access to health care more than anything.
 
Al, I think the pipe smokers live longer because you cant "stress" and smoke a pipe! We will sit down, fill the pipe, tamp it down, light it and puff on it for a while and then put it aside. In the meantime, heart rates have dropped, worldly problems receded below the horizon - and yes, mosquitos have gone away too!
Back to film - I am just organizing a bulk buy of Double XX - in the end it will be about 25-30 cans of 400 ft - split up between 4-5 of us. Some low volume users buy 1 can and some. like me are throwing 5-10 cans in the freezer. Good film, simple to use and nothing exotic required to process it. Ends up costing about $ 1,90 per roll of 36 when all is said and done!
 
marcr1230 said:
I work about 5 minutes from Central Camera in Chicago and 15 minutes from Calumet Photo.
Central has tons of film and darkroom supplies , all at still reasonable prices.
Calumet has a pretty full gamut of film and darkroom supplies as well.
It helps that Columbia College is down the street, as long as they have wet darkroom and film photograpghy classes, I'm in good shape.
Prices for B&W are around $3 to $5 a roll, and I'm happy to say they recognize RFF "membership" for a 5% discount as a film club member.
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That is awesome! I loved going in to Central when I visited Chicago, and I bought a ton of stuff from Helix when they were in hot competition with Central, Calumet and some others there.
 
From another part of Australia may I firstly say that what Keith said in his original posting is largely true of most of the remaining mainstream bricks & mortar camera stores in Australia, and probably for most of the rest of the world. However there are ways of buying film locally at better prices than quoted by Keith, albeit still roughly double Freestyle's prices but ignoring shipping cost.

For example, Vanbar in Melbourne and Sydney (www.vanbar.com.au) have good stocks of most films which can be bought over the counter in those two cities or by internet order to other places. To use the same 3 examples, and all in 135-36 size, BW400CN $10.45 (US$8.52), HP5+ $10.59 (US$8.64), and Velvia $24.98 (US$20.31). I say most films because, for example, we haven't been able to buy Kodachrome in Australia for years (you'll all be in that boat soon), Ektar 100 still hasn't arrived, and 127 size can only be bought from overseas. I am as guilty as any of buying overseas when it makes sense, but I would like to think that Vanbar will be around for a while yet for the speed and convenience. I know they won't be around if people like me don't support them but even if they did sell at US prices my usage quantity wouldn't keep them going for even a day.

Last night I picked my first camera out of my display cabinet of shelf queens. It's a Brownie Starflash which my parents gave me for Christmas in 1960. And embossed on the bottom are the words: "Made in Australia". It nearly brought a tear to my eye.
 
Keith, like you I haven't bought a roll of film Downunder for years. When you can buy a 20 roll brick of Provia for just over US$100 from Freestyle viz a viz A$25 a roll locally, well, need I say more. And it's not only film we're getting ripped off on. I bought a Zeiss 18 Distagon from Popflash for about A$1000 just over a year ago. Vanbar lists it at nearly A$2300. About the only exception to this collective ripoff is Scott at Mainline whose CV prices are internationally competitive. But then he's a confirmed film user.
 
alan davus said:
And it's not only film we're getting ripped off on.
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That's quite true, but the question I have is "just who is doing the ripping off?" For example, I know that for Canon pigment inks and "fine art" papers, I 'm being charged six times as much as B&H or Adorama pricing. I also know (though I can't say who from) that Canon Australia charges dealers way more wholesale than US retail prices and that's because of how Canon Japan prices it to them. As it happens, I can get Hahnemuhle papers (Canon badge-engineers them) at decent prices and order inks from New York, as do many others. In this case, Canon's pricing simply serves to hurt it's own distribution channel.

I wonder if film companies are doing the same. Huge mark-ups to countries like Australia are a long-standing tradition in many sectors, but I don't think they're really sustainable in an internet-enabled world (unless Stephen Conroy wants to censor that too).

...Mike
 
From hanging out in digital forums, I hear Canon DSLRs and lenses are silly expensive too. I do believe I could pack a bag of high end camera gear and take a vacation in Australia, sell the gear before I leave and pay for vacation.
I wonder if customs would notice a bag containing a digital camera and several blocks of BW400CN?
 
Keith, I have been quite happy taking my C41 film to BigW to develop and print for less than AUD 10 a roll of 36.

Two days ago, I found out they no longer accept C41 black and white ! C41 is C41, as far as I am concerned, and also as far as the lab guy was concerned, but BigW policy is in the way. Very unhappy about it. End of grumble for now ... ming
 
"I wonder if customs would notice a bag containing a digital camera and several blocks of BW400CN?"

😱 They'd probably detain you for psychological evaluation.
 
Hi Kieth,
Similar story in New Zealand I'm afraid all the little camera stores have closed their doors and the few that remain have limited amounts of unexciting film.
Better in the big cities but i can see a day when the supermarket has a better selection of film than the camera store in a smaller town.
I have been thinking about using a Kodak Vest Pocket camera that tales 127 film, I will have to get that from the USA ... Frugal Photographer i think and that will mean i will end up getting all my film from them.
I too used to enjoy smoking a pipe ... but any kind of smoking now seems to be very unpopular 🙁
 
Hi bgb,
There are some choices for buying 127 film but they are all overseas. I just bought some recently from macodirect.de in Germany for 3.45 Euros per roll plus shipping. You can also get them from freestylephoto.biz in the US for US$6.99 per roll. Those are both Efke R100 of course. Rollei Retro 80S is now available from macodirect.de but it is 5.95 Euros. I also read recently in the 127 group in flickr that there are soon to be C41 and E6 colour films released in 127 - something of a renaissance. I bought them principally for my recently acquired Yashica 44LM, but I also have a Kodak Vollenda which my father bought new in 1937. I haven't used it since 127 disappeared from the mainstream some years ago and I am going to try a roll in that.
 
wotalegend said:
FVanbar in Melbourne and Sydney (www.vanbar.com.au)
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Just as a heads-up for those here in Oz, Vanbar is quoting "Lucky" brand B&W ISO 100 and 400 film at AUD$2.50 per roll of 36 on their web site. I've ordered a bunch (why not, at the price: how bad can it be?) but am yet to see if they actually have the stock to hand. I sure hope so.

...Mike
 
wotalegend said:
Hi bgb,
There are some choices for buying 127 film but they are all overseas. I just bought some recently from macodirect.de in Germany for 3.45 Euros per roll plus shipping. You can also get them from freestylephoto.biz in the US for US$6.99 per roll. Those are both Efke R100 of course. Rollei Retro 80S is now available from macodirect.de but it is 5.95 Euros. I also read recently in the 127 group in flickr that there are soon to be C41 and E6 colour films released in 127 - something of a renaissance. I bought them principally for my recently acquired Yashica 44LM, but I also have a Kodak Vollenda which my father bought new in 1937. I haven't used it since 127 disappeared from the mainstream some years ago and I am going to try a roll in that.
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Cool huh 🙂 I have seen a Yashica 44 for sale recently but i didn't know you could get film. Then while looking at a 1912 Vest camera online i decided to let Google do all the work and found all sorts of wonderful 127 film.

http://www.frugalphotographer.com/cat127.htm

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/336/Other_Film_Formats_110_127_620_828.html

Getting very excited about finding a good example and taking some shots. Already have all the developing gear but it's been a while and the early efforts could be interesting.
Not sure why you would want to smoke a nun ! to smoke 3 nun must surely be bad for the health ... but if you must i would choose a .470 Capstick 🙂
 
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