Kodak Porta 160NC 135 almost too expensive...

johnny9fingers

johnny9fingers

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😱 I have been buying film at the local photo store but after today I may have to find a different source. Picked up a pro pack of Porta 160NC for $42.81 😱 Before taxes that works out to a little over $7.50 per roll. I keep buying locally to help show a demand for film but can't continue at these prices. Looks like its time to order in bulk from B&H, Freestyle, or another large online seller to try and keep costs down.....
John
 
Yeah, I recently paid £40 for ten rolls of Portra 400NC 135, working out at about $67. I'm so desperate to use this film I don't even care. Only damn problem is that they're back ordered on it so I'm on a waiting list!
 
Becoming said:
Yeah, I recently paid £40 for ten rolls of Portra 400NC 135, working out at about $67. I'm so desperate to use this film I don't even care. Only damn problem is that they're back ordered on it so I'm on a waiting list!
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I finally had enough of the hassle and expense! now all the colour goes on a SD card, and film ( black&white ) is a special treat!.
Dave.
 
I'd make the move to B&W, but I take lousy B&W pictures. I just can't see the image as black & white. I love color. I'm fascinated by how the colors of the sun's rays hitting objects can change as it rises or sets. How the light changes as the humidity in the air increases or decreases. I once shot 4 rolls of film on a single subject (a magnificent, gigantic aspen tree) on a hazy September afternoon. There was a great forest fire in Canada and the smokey haze had drifted over northern Wisconsin. And I sat there and snapped pictures from around 3 in the afternoon until 7 that eveining. Not everyone liked those pictures, but I thought they were glorious...
So, I'm stuck on color and may have to pay the price to continue my devoting to it.....
 
johnny9fingers said:
I'd make the move to B&W, but I take lousy B&W pictures. I just can't see the image as black & white. I love color. I'm fascinated by how the colors of the sun's rays hitting objects can change as it rises or sets. How the light changes as the humidity in the air increases or decreases. I once shot 4 rolls of film on a single subject (a magnificent, gigantic aspen tree) on a hazy September afternoon. There was a great forest fire in Canada and the smokey haze had drifted over northern Wisconsin. And I sat there and snapped pictures from around 3 in the afternoon until 7 that eveining. Not everyone liked those pictures, but I thought they were glorious...
So, I'm stuck on color and may have to pay the price to continue my devoting to it.....
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go on!....bite the bullet!....get a camera with a card!....you know it makes sense!😉
Dave.
 
The only film I buy anymore from my "local" (well 35 miles away is the closest) pro shop is from their expired bin. And they still sell it almost at Adorama's prices for fresh...
 
B&H has the pro-pack for $23.45 US. I patronized my local camera store even sometimes paying more than MSRP ("if I support them, they will stay.."), but then they closed up shop. So now it's B&H and Freestyle keeping things alive for me.
 
This is why I only shoot b&w film. I know my D700 gets technically better color files, but I love how color film looks--it has something a digital file doesn't. But I Just can't justify the expense. I just shoot film for my own pleasure, so unless I find cheap color film at a garage sale (just got three rolls of kodachrome for $1 a piece!!) it's all freestyle photo rebranded black and white films for me....

But that does bring me to a point, about the garage sales--check for estate sales that list photography gear, you might get lucky. I went to one a few weeks ago and they knew what the medium format film gear or new digi gear is worth (guy had an amazing bunch of mamiya equipment, as well as all top of the line nikon digital stuff at the last one I went to) but they just think film is film, it's all outdated and cheap/worthless. I got a few 120 rolls of kodak 160 for .50cents a piece at that same garage sale, and everything was non-expired and kept in a fridge/freezer until the day before the sale. Not a bad place to look for cheap film.
 
I don't really have a problem with the price of film. At 13p or thereabouts a frame it's hardly breaking the bank. I didn't spend all this money on cameras and lenses to worry about little details like that! 😉
 
Zonan said:
B&H has the pro-pack for $23.45 US. I patronized my local camera store even sometimes paying more than MSRP ("if I support them, they will stay.."), but then they closed up shop. So now it's B&H and Freestyle keeping things alive for me.
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Damn, I got so excited when I saw this. Added two to the shopping cart and quickly closed the window when I found out the price of shipping was $43!

Oh and Dave, I feel a lot more guilty about all the money I spend on coffee than film. Besides, 13pence is no price to pay for that life confirming sound of the shutter. 🙂
 
My local shop sells Ektar for just under $7. I can get it at BH for just under $5. My desire to support a local store has limits.

Switching to digital for color has strong appeal. I love color. The more color the better. Right now, my digital is a Ricoh GX200. I use it at low ISO in full auto and JPG mode. (Technology is supposed to make things easy, right?) The pictures I get from it are at least equal in their appeal to me to the color pix I take with my film cameras.

I just began noodling around with b&w several months ago. I am seriously infatuated. Something about b&w transforms scenes that would be mundane or problematic in color into something interesting.

That said, I hold to the notion that colorful things merit color photography.
 
Pro Pack at B+H is $23.45. You might want to talk to your local shop. They're not going to match B+H prices, but $42+ is out of the question. BTW, Ektar 100 is $4+.
 
I don't have a problem buying film online, just hoped it would stay reasonable locally. The price must have jumped in the past few days as the last pro pack was $31 + - ..... I guess we just have to hang in there until this digital fad goes away...... 😉
 
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