How much is too much ?

D

david rowland

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3:43 PM
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Jan 26, 2007
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Every time i look at film prices they seem to have gone up again. 50 sheets of 4x5 kodak B&W £105 Portra 800 120x5 rolls £60 !!! some seem to be stable but at what point would you say "i'm not willing to pay that" on 6x6 the portra is a £1 per frame.Is the yellow giant loosing the plot. Again. What is your to painful threshold ?
 
Film is getting priced for specialists, especially quality colour film.

Other than the private label B&W Eastern European film and maybe Kentmere film that is sold online from firms like Freestyle, there are very few bargains left for us film users and that is sad, but that is how the free market works.

BTW, your headline brought this song to my mind that I have not heard in years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSaTRwTWvnA
 
I look at it on the bright side: At $5 for a 36 exposures roll of Ilford HP-5, and around 100 rolls/year, I can make pictures for 15 years until the amount of money equals a Leica MM body.
 
I read a post the other day from another member who said that the same film he bought in Scotland that was made in England cost more than if he bought it in Italy. Go figure. Prices aren't painful here yet, but availability sure has gone in a bucket. Anything I can't get in the local developer lab I have to either drive 45 miles to get, or order it online.

PF
 
12 quid for a roll of Portra 800 in 120 sounds excessive. Not sure of Euro online sources, but Freestyle have a 5 pack for USD$56 (GBP36) plus postage; here in Oz it's AUD$17 (GBP7.88) a roll.
 
david rowland said:
Every time i look at film prices they seem to have gone up again. 50 sheets of 4x5 kodak B&W £105 Portra 800 120x5 rolls £60 !!! some seem to be stable but at what point would you say "i'm not willing to pay that" on 6x6 the portra is a £1 per frame.Is the yellow giant loosing the plot. Again. What is your to painful threshold ?
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Why do you ask? Film has become a niche product. It's priced accordingly. If you want to use film—use it. If you don't, then, respectfully—please get out of the way so that those of us who wish to can celebrate the medium without the negativity. Nobody is forcing you to shoot it.
Cheers
Brett
 
I don't understand the whining. I make less money than most RFF members, and I still shoot a couple hundred rolls of film a year and I don't give a damn what it costs. Why? Because I care about photography more than I care about owning expensive watches, $400 camera bags, and other baubles so many people here spend money on.

BW film is about $5 a roll. Big deal. I spent $12 to eat lunch today, and I do that every work day. So do a lot of you.
 
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Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I don't understand the whining. I make less money than most RFF members, and I still shoot a couple hundred rolls of film a year and I don't give a damn what it costs. Why? Because I care about photography more than I care about owning expensive watches, $400 camera bags, and other baubles so many people here spend money on.

BW film is about $5 a roll. Big deal. I spent $12 to eat lunch today, and I do that every work day. So do a lot of you.
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This guy has it figured out.
 
To answer your question, I don't know exactly what my "too painful" threshold is/will be. However, when I went recently to my local photo store to buy some film I was quite shocked at the price of Velvia, which used to be a favorite film of mine, especially for underwater images. I could not believe they were asking nearly $20 per roll for the film!
So, instead of buying the Velvia roll of 120 for my Mamiya 6, I ended up buying a roll of Portra which was a lot cheaper.
 
As long as they keep making the stuff I will buy it. I am sure there are other things I can give up to keep balance in the universe. Photography is important to me even more important than food.
 
I wasn't "whining" about the cost of film from a personal point of view. I've been a pro photographer for over 25 years and as such I offset the cost against tax anyway. I suppose the point I should have made is that if it gets too expensive then most people will stop buying it. That will mean nobody will make it and none of us no matter how passionate and committed we are will be able to use it! I'm more concerned that folk like Chris et al who love the medium and make sacrifices to use it won't be able to.
 
I was anticipating that a day will soon arrive that film is no longer made and black market speculators will want as much money for one roll of B&W film as what a Nikon F with 50mm lens costs today.

That is why I been looking at getting involved with wet-plate photography, I managed to source most of the chemicals that I would need from chemical local suppliers.
 
I don't know what sucks more, 5 per roll or 12 per lunch.

Today I paid 7 for one pint.

Cheers, Ko.
 
There are still plenty of deals to be had, but saying good-bye to the brick and mortar stores, unfortunately, is becoming necessary. Bulk loading can also keep the price down. I'm not sure where my cutoff point will be, but I just can't bring myself to start using a digital camera, so I can turn around and use VSCO or Silver Efex in an attempt to emulate what I can get right out of the box with film. Something about it feels off.

For most films, I'm still paying under $5 per roll, but I buy strictly online now.
 
xayraa33 said:
I was anticipating that a day will soon arrive that film is no longer made and black market speculators will want as much money for one roll of B&W film as what a Nikon F with 50mm lens costs today.
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I disagree here. Film will be around for many years to come. B&W film has been a niche product for decades (since the 1970s). There are several manufacturers (Foma, Adox, Harman) who are well adapted to what has historically always been a relatively small market and I am quite sure that they will be able to survive. Situation for color film is different. Demand has dropped to around 1% of what it used to be. Future will depend on whether demand will stabilize on a sustainable level or not.

Prices may go up but the current price level for most products is not excessive when put in a historic perspective. Our perception is skewed by the fact that the glut in the film market that followed the rush to digital had depressed prices for almost a decade and kept them on an artificially low level.

The days of ultra cheap high quality film are gone, that is true.
 
david rowland said:
Every time i look at film prices they seem to have gone up again. 50 sheets of 4x5 kodak B&W £105 Portra 800 120x5 rolls £60 !!! some seem to be stable but at what point would you say "i'm not willing to pay that" on 6x6 the portra is a £1 per frame.Is the yellow giant loosing the plot. Again. What is your to painful threshold ?
Click to expand...

Maybe you should stop buying film at Harrod's? :)
Seriously, prices for Portra 800 and some of the sheet film have gone up, true. But you should be able to get a much better price. You can order Portra 800 online from Macodirect for 45 EUR (5x120), which is around 35 GBP, if I am correct. Box of 4x5 Tmax 100 is 95 EUR.
 
It's all a matter of perspective. Adox Silvermax 135 costs less than £4 a roll in the UK, and I shoot less than a roll per week. I can easily afford to spend £4 a week (plus chemical costs) on photography - I spend about £4 a day on lunch from local caterers.

Considering the relatively very small and specialist market for film these days, I salute suppliers who are continuing to make excellent films available to us at what I see as very reasonable prices. And in my opinion, in Silvermax we might actually have the best B&W film ever made, ironically in these days when film is supposed to be dead.

If my finances should become tighter, I'll make my own lunch before I cut down on film.
 
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