Where are you guys buying your film from these days?

I once checked prices between freestyle, BHPhoto, and Amazon and I think Amazon was the best price for me. I narrowed it down to Ektar for 120 until I experienced Fujifilm NPH 400 and searched it out on ebay and found a bunch in 220. Stocked up for years. Then luckily came across some Agfa Optima in 220 and again searched out more. Sadly, I haven't found more but 13 rolls of 220 should last me a long while. I also look for Portra VC and when the price is right I buy it. I don't care much for the modern Portra.

I'm back shooting Trix400 and will look for it at the best price possible. Even outdated stuff.
 
I would not say blatantly so, there is still a different rendering in color film compared to digital. However, I do have that debate myself. Color is $$$ and nowadays goes hybrid workflow, ADD as the audio guys would describe.

Yes, to me ADD is still quite different compared to DDD, so I will keep on shooting C-41 and E-6 (which is a true AA if projected). As to KoFe'e remark regarding colors - it is a matter of taste (same as digital post processing is a matter of taste). Personally, I like Fuji Superia. ECN2 is still very cheap (I bought some bulk recently that was priced at approx 1 EUR per roll of 36 - if converted to rolls) - yes, colors are different, but that's OK. If I want real life colors there is always digital.
 
When I find deals, I stock up. Then I coast on that stash for a few years.
Same here (BW film only). An interesting way to go because deals keep popping up from time to time, mostly from people getting discouraged with processing film at home and selling their own stocks away. Most of the time you end up with slightly expired film packs but with BW film and a fridge, you can sail up with no problem. I just came to the end of a very large stock of T-Max 100 135-36 bought in 2011 for instance.

Of course this is not what will help film production running. But, at least, this is easy virtue circular economy.
 
B&H has been and generally will continue to be my go-to place for film and chemicals etc. There is a store in Baltimore, Service Photo, that is generally very good, but many times they have a hard time competing with B&H's prices. Plus it's a 30 minute drive each way for me, and when B&H offers free shipping to your door, it's hard for me to justify the drive. Mind you, it is still nice to go into a brick and mortar store and physically see someone.
 
Same here (BW film only). An interesting way to go because deals keep popping up from time to time, mostly from people getting discouraged with processing film at home and selling their own stocks away. Most of the time you end up with slightly expired film packs but with BW film and a fridge, you can sail up with no problem. I just came to the end of a very large stock of T-Max 100 135-36 bought in 2011 for instance.

Of course this is not what will help film production running. But, at least, this is easy virtue circular economy.

Yep, exactly. Deals do pop up and are certainly worth keeping an eye out for. B&H, eBay from reputable sellers, and forums like RFF and Photrio. A few deals I've bought in recent years:

$25/ea short-dated 135 Provia and Velvia pro-packs from B&H. Bought 10 of each.

$25/ea extremely fresh 120 Velvia 100 pro-packs direct from Japan. Bought 10 packs.

$4/ea 135 Velvia 50 rolls expired but freezer stored from a reputable source. Bought 50 rolls.

$22/ea 135 Pro Image pro-packs from a B&H sale. Bought 10 packs.

$20/ea 135 100' rolls of Arista 100 from a friend who scored a big stash off his local Craiglist. Grabbed 3 rolls.

$50/ea 135 100' rolls of FP4 and Delta 100 from Photrio recently.
 
You occasionally get sales from camerafilmphoto in hong kong too

I'm not saying deals can't be found - but they definitely are rare - people on ebay think their expired stock of still available fi;m is worth way too much
 
Forgot to mention. I have Kodak 50D and FujiFilm 250D. Kodak 50D is expired something like 20 years ago from now and FF 250D more than ten years ago. Cinefilm colors are odd to say at least. I have them developed in C-41 and ECN2 kits. I like those cinefilms as BW.
It means they are processed in BW chemicals and printed under enlarger on regular BW darkroom paper.


I like these results and I have a ton of Vision3 200T that I usually shoot as color. How are you handling printing B&W paper through the orange mask? I have printed color film onto B&W paper in the past and the orange mask messed up the contrast. You clearly have solved that so I'd be interested to know what you are doing to get these nice results.
 
If you want to shoot color film, only need 35mm, and are willing to develop yourself and deal with the remjet (it's not hard), Kodak's cinema film stocks are a pretty good deal.



I got a leftover new 1000 ft of 200T from the filming of The Last Jedi over here a few years ago. But even if you buy new, the numbers still pencil out really well.



Here in Europe I can get 1000 feet of Vision3 film from frame24 for about $532 as fresh stock. Figure about 5 feet per roll and it's 200 rolls of film for that. I get about 34 frames on that length of film taking into account the lost last frame. That comes out to $2.66/roll. I buy used film cartridges from film labs on ebay. A couple of times recently, I got 100 for $12 shipped. In total, that comes out to $2.78 per roll of film, plus about 3 minutes of my time.


Don't want 1000 feet? Split the buy with some friends. Downspooling 1000 feet wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

If you want to shoot black and white, Foma films are the best deal around. Kodak and ORWO B&W cinema films are still a good deal as well if you are willing to get 400 ft spools.


Here's some Vision3 200T developed at home in C-41 (rather than ECN-2)

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50648180772_aa23b782ea_h.jpg
 
PreCOVID, I would visit my local camera stores and buy most of my film and chemistry. There are 3 camera stores in the Raleigh-Durham NC area and between them, I could get everything except for bulk 35mm Arista EDU films.


With COVID, I am hesitant about going out and buying most of my film from Freestyle.



Steve W
 
I like to shoot short - 12 exposure - rolls of 35mm film. I mostly bulk load from 100' rolls I buy from Freestyle or B&H. But sometimes I want to try a new emulsion and order a few 12-exposure rolls from Photo Warehouse.
 
I've always loved tri-x, loved me FOMA 400 too, never quite gave HP5+ much love. Then all the prices went up some time last year, and with a newborn and a new house, had me wanting to find the affordable B&W. I settled on HP5+ 50 pack from b&h which gives you about $5.40 a roll, not bad considering.

The bright side of it is that I was finally about to really turn my attention to just one film stock and give it my full attention to processing it.
 
I buy from B&H with order large enough for free shipping, or from our incredible local camera store CameraMall where film is more than B&H but not bad and handy to have them nearby.
 
I live in Washington (east of the mountains) and we have a good photography store in Seattle (Glazer's), so I usually order film from them so that it will travel the shortest distance.

Their prices seem to be about the same as other places.

- Murray
 
I live in Washington (east of the mountains) and we have a good photography store in Seattle (Glazer's), so I usually order film from them so that it will travel the shortest distance.

Their prices seem to be about the same as other places.

- Murray

I live in Oregon, somehow I always forget about Glazer's.
 
ebay, but fancy trying Japan camera hunter, a few year back Pound world was selling rolls of c41 film for a £1 a roll, I manged to buy 100 rolls a lot of which is still in the freezer:)
 
For those of us in Canada, at least, Downtown Camera in Toronto has what I think is a good deal on Tri-X. You need to become a "member", though and that gives you a substantial discount. I hope that this deal is still on.


Paul
 
I like these results and I have a ton of Vision3 200T that I usually shoot as color. How are you handling printing B&W paper through the orange mask? I have printed color film onto B&W paper in the past and the orange mask messed up the contrast. You clearly have solved that so I'd be interested to know what you are doing to get these nice results.
Thank you.

Orange mask just let less light on the paper. So, it is just longer exposures. And nothing else to get normal darkroom print. Contrast filters still works.
 
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