Source of cheap film in the UK anyone?

[chikne]

Hi,

the price of film has gone up recently in England, even 7dayshop has become pointless and it costs the same to buy locally 2.80 pounds per roll, over 4$/roll, and that's when buying a minimum of 10.

Anyone know a place in the UK where film can be had for cheap? Digital starts to look attractive suddenly....

 

[martin s]

Just order from Germany, you could buy 30.5m of Fomapan for 25 Euros, Rollei Retro 400S for about 30. Or just buy rolls, less than 2 Euros a roll for some films.

martin

 

[mcgrattan]

Where in Germany?

[Is there a particularly good on-line supplier?]

thanks

matt

 

[Ronald_H]

Just order from Germany, you could buy 30.5m of Fomapan for 25 Euros, Rollei Retro 400S for about 30. Or just buy rolls, less than 2 Euros a roll for some films.

martin

Errr, where? And what kind of film? I ordered a bunch of Fuji and Kodak and the prices were although not outrageous, certainly not at the 2 euro mark. What can I get for that? If it is FP4+, HP5+ and Tri-X, as well as Superia, I would be very interested.

 

[chikne]

Yes!

I'd also like to know =)

 

[martin s]

I generally buy film from either maco, fotoimpex or Riegler in Austria. Depending on what you guys want, you could get APX 100 (Rollei Retro 100) in bulk for about a Euro a roll (30,5m are 18 Euros) and APX 400 (Rollei Retro 400S) for 1.60 Euro a roll at maco. Fomapan is even less.

Riegler sometimes has Tri-X for about 3 Euros which they cut off of bulk rolls themselves I think, doesn't seem to be listed at the moment though. HP5 is about 60 Euros for 30,5m, a little more than 3 Euros a roll (3,30) so not really worth buying in bulk. FP+ is expensive, too, so is Tri-X.

I'd try to stick with APX/Rollei as long as it's available, it's a beautiful film in both 100 and 400. Way easier to deal with, comes out flat and stays that way, too. Also it doesn't require as much washing, at least that's how it is for me.

Regarding FP4+ and HP5+, I bought virtually the whole stock (4x 30,5m FP+, about the same with HP5 and some Delta) my local dealer had available for less than 2 Euros a roll, he didn't even know he still had all this film. Maybe give that a try.

martin

 

[Yammerman]

Have you tried Fomapan at retrophotographic.com £17.50 for ten ain't bad.

 

[martin s]

Ah and if relabeled HP5 is alright for you, you could get Adox CHM 400 which is supposed to be just that (haven't tried though, not sure). Buy a hundred and it's 2 Euros / Roll, not even bulk. You could check what the other Adox films are, maybe one them is FP4+.

martin

 

[wintoid]

I've been buying Neopan 400 rolls of 24 for £1.30 inc vat from www.choose-film.com

 

[chikne]

Thank you all, very very helpful!!

Anyone knows what panchromatic film means? Is it silver halide?

 

[mcgrattan]

In the UK I usually check retrophotographic, 7dayshop and Mather's of Lancashire.

Adox CHM400 is HP5, as far as I can tell, I've shot a few rolls.

The fuji shop linked via choose-film.com is sometimes very good for Neopan and for Fuji colour films, e.g. 2.24 for a normal roll of Neopan Acros, or 21.34 for a 10-pack. That beats 7dayshop's prices.

Mather's are also often as good as 7dayshop for prices, and a lot faster at delivering.

 

[dwaoka]

I bought some Ilford recently from speedgraphic:
(inc vat)

Ilford HP5+ 120 £2.18
Ilford HP5+ 135-36 £2.99

Peter.

 

[Michael Markey]

I find Mathers of Lancashire to be very reasonable .They are in Bolton and have a good web site.
Mike

 

[Mark Wood]

I'd recommend Mailshots:

http://www.mailshotsuk.co.uk/

Prices are OK and delivery is usually next day. I've found they're also very helpful on the phone, rather a contrast to walking into a certain UK high street photographic chain where they'll first of all look blankly when you mention Tri-X and then ask whether you want 100 or 400....

 

[Peter_Jones]

Anyone knows what panchromatic film means? Is it silver halide?

Panchromatic is what most modern B+W film is. (as opposed to Orthochromatic which has little red sensitivity and can be developed under a safelight, Panchromatic must be developed in darkness due to much higher sensitivity to red.)

Hope this makes sense 🙂

 

[Ronald_H]

Ah and if relabeled HP5 is alright for you, you could get Adox CHM 400 which is supposed to be just that (haven't tried though, not sure). Buy a hundred and it's 2 Euros / Roll, not even bulk. You could check what the other Adox films are, maybe one them is FP4+.

martin

Relabeled HP5+ would be great. I used it for years from the HEMA supermarket after all 😉 I'll check it out!

 

[Austerby]

Anyone know a place in the UK where film can be had for cheap? quote]

The very cheapest I've found was from a well-known high-street photographic chain - when I collected a colour print film recently I was given a free replacement film.

It was one of mass-market Kodak colour films rather than a fine B&W but it is certainly the cheapest film I've found so far. You may want to seek out these offers - the only overhead becomes the processing costs.