How dependent on the internet is your continued use of film?

[squareshooter]

Let's see...eight bucks for a roll of 120 B&W from my (last surviving) local camera store, or two bucks and some change on the Internet. Never was good at math... I'm an artiste, after all, not a bean counter, but I think the Internet has it going away. The local camera store is going all-digital one of these days so I won't have such a difficult decision for very long....

 

[MikeDimit]

Only on line. Prices are CHEAPER! I've just opened my order of 200 rolls of Superia 400ASA/12exp. for the funny price of 20 euro cents each. In a store I could buy some color film, but only in rolls of 36 exp. for the price of 3 euros each. Now I feel rich and I guess everyone here do understand me.

 

[mbisc]

Im in Nuremberg, Germany and buy 99% of the stuff i need online. I wish i would not have to.

Yeah, I hear you. I was in Nuremberg in June and wanted another roll of 120 TMax (took too few with me on my vacation), and neither of the usual suspects (Fotomax, Seitz) had any in stock (which was surprising by itself) but would have been able to order it for me for a mere 15 Euros :bang:. Needless to say, I declined...

 

[Pfreddee]

I buy the stuff from my local full-service camera store. I figure I'm doing my bit to help keep them alive.

Just my $0.02.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[rwintle]

Hm... interesting question.

Buying cameras - kinda. But maybe I have enough cameras. Anyway living near Toronto I think I could find enough non-internet places to buy old film cameras if I tried a bit.

Buying film - no problem, I buy all my film over the counter anyway.

Developing film - no problem, I develop all my film over the counter anyway.

Showing off photos... yeah, there's a problem. Flickr is my friend. I'd have to put some effort into joining a club, or printing and mailing, or something.

Learning new things and seeing others' work... without internet, I might have to read "books" or something. 😉

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Only on line. Prices are CHEAPER! I've just opened my order of 200 rolls of Superia 400ASA/12exp. for the funny price of 20 euro cents each. In a store I could buy some color film, but only in rolls of 36 exp. for the price of 3 euros each. Now I feel rich and I guess everyone here do understand me.

I did search a lot of web sites on the hunt for cheap film, but never came across something near your price. Would you mind revealing your source?

btw in the Netherlands prices in stores for film have become very high....

 

[stillshunter]

Haven't had to resort to buying from the US yet - as I have a few contacts through eBay and the like, who I buy from directly. It work's out worth it as I usually buy bulk - a few 30ms at a time. But it's still relying on the internets. Buying local here in Canberra is not an option - Tri-X is $15 for 36 exp!. :bang:

 

[unixrevolution]

Here in Maryland, I can get basic color 35mm emulsions and Fuji Instax Mini film from retail stores.

Everything else I have to buy online. I have no good camera stores nearby...the one that was "Nearby" (actually Laurel, Maryland a good hour away) closed up when its chain went out of business. The local one in the mall a mile from me (that only carried 35mm anyway) died in 2011.

If not for online retail, I'd have to drive a long, long way to buy film. I'd probably rent a refrigerated cargo truck for the journey with as much as I'd want to buy!

 

[parasko]

Just purchased 50 rolls of Provia 100f (35mm) from B&H for my European trip. Total cost in Aussie dollars was $562 ($11.24 per roll).

In Sydney at $25.30 per roll, that would have cost me $1,265!!!!

That's a lot of money saved which can go towards those macarons in Paris! 🙂

 

[anerjee]

Recently bought 150 rolls of Arista Premium 400, so am set for the next year or so.

I buy my chemicals locally -- I'd like to support the one shop which carrier Ilford stuff in Singapore.

On line shopping has really caught on in Oz it seems and I'm sure many other countries are the same. Retailers here have been bleating about it for several years now and have been lobbying the government to do something about the situation by lowering the current tax free threshold of one thousand dollars down to a much lower figure. The government incidentally has expressed little interest in this idea.

If I couldn't buy my film on line from overseas suppliers I probably wouldn't be using it frankly because retail prices here are stupidly high so Freestyle and B&H etc get most of my business.

I suspect that without online purchasing film would be in a lot more trouble than it is currently! I guess many industries rely on online sales these days but film in particular would almost be gone without this option IMO.

 

[photomoof]

None online, when I want some film, I buy it at Adorama, which is on my way to the subway.

 

[Daniel Teoli Jr.]

I voted most of it, but it is ALL of it.

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

I used to live in NYC, so B&H was an easy walk from my apartment. Now, i'm in Los Angeles, and Freestyle is a five minute drive.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The local camera store where I live, Sunny Schick Camera Shop, still sells Kodak BW films in 35mm and 120, and they still sell Kodak chemicals. I mostly shoot Ilford film developed in PMK now, but I still buy some Tri-X and D-76 at the local store, and if the internet went away, I could happily shoot all Kodak again.

 

[Aristophanes]

There are no mini-labs in my locale now.
There is nowhere to purchase film.

 

[bence8810]

Local retail ( discount shop ) for film works for me.
_____________

Edit: From Yodobashi's web-site a few minutes ago...

コダック Kodak トライ-X400（TX） 135-100フィート ￥7,180 (718ポイント)

So the effective price is for TRI-X 400 35mm x 100 ft is Yen 6,462 or about USD 65.00
_____________

Casey

Just read this thread and the above message caught my eye, a post by Casey from 2013 August.
The above said film is currently at the very same store:

コダック Kodak
Kodak トライ-X400（TX） 135-100フィート ￥35,290 (3,529ポイント)

This means for the same 100ft TriX roll that we paid 6,462 yen for including the 10% discount we get by points, it'd cost today 31,761 Japanese yen. Nearly 500% increase. Mind blowing.

I started shooting film 18 months ago and I bought 100% of the film from the said store, Yodobashi.

I now buy none of my film in the store - it's just outrageous.
I recently bought 800ft of DoubleX from Kodak Japan at a fair price and will be shooting this for the next 2 years or so. Have about 500ft of TriX in the freezer too so I'll be ok for a while. In two years time I'll need to re-evaluate the options again.

Very sad for the incredible price increase, I never in any industry saw a 500% increase in just under 2 years....

Ben

 

[sem]

Hard to find a store to buy film, so all from the internet.
Sad but true, also in germany.
best

 

[CMur12]

I live in a small town in a rural Washington State (USA), so no film or supplies around here. About 200 miles away, in Seattle, there is a store with all of these things, so I often order film online from this store to reduce shipping time to a minimum. I also tend not to order film in the summer to avoid heating in transit. There are other online vendors, such as Freestyle, that I also sometimes use.

- Murray

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I live in a small market town / commuter town in East Anglia (UK) but work in London. I've got a mate who's a professional photographer and runs a small camera shop in a village nearby. I've also got a couple of contacts who can get me anything I need that's a bit niche. I seldom need to use the internet - but I might when the New Type 55 comes "on-line".

 

[sevo]

Hard to find a store to buy film, so all from the internet.
Sad but true, also in germany.

Only if you are so secluded that you are nowhere near a dm, Müller or Rossmann chain drugstore. FWIW, it is quite hard to be that far out in densely populated Germany, every small town seems to have at least one of them. My country house has no wired (and very limited wireless) internet, which may put it the 1% least developed places within Germany, but it still is only 12km to the next dm (with three sorts of CN film, plus APX100 and Agfa CT Precisa slide).

Things are harder for medium and large format - but even thirty years ago you could not get either outside professional shops in the major cities. And the once dominant pro shop chain in Germany used to require a established business (which in its turn you could only register if you were formally trained and graduated) before they'd even supply you, so the internet actually improved MF/LF accessibility for amateurs...