Costs ever rising...

freecom2

freecom2

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I know we have this kind of thread sporadically, and we realise that the cost of film is small given its a hobby and so on - but there has been a definite hike in prices over the last couple of months, noticeably.

My go-to B&W emulsion, T-Max 400, was about £3.49 a roll for 35mm and about £16-17 for a 120 pro pack. Now it's pushing £4+ and the best part of £19-20 respectively. And let's not even talk about slide film (the only slide I've shot has been expired rolls - the only accessible way).
 
I must admit 120 film has been about £20 for 5 for as long as I've been shooting it (not very long) but what I've noticed is that is the cheap end now not the average.
 
freecom2 said:
My go-to B&W emulsion, T-Max 400, was about £3.49 a roll for 35mm and about £16-17 for a 120 pro pack. N
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Calumet still sell 35mm T-Max 400 for £3.79 which is still not a bad price (only 30p extra). The costs are going up and even most professional negative films are now pushing £6.50 each when a few years ago they were about half that, its just sad to be honest that theres nothing we can do about it and in the end this will just put more people off from shooting film.
 
s162216 said:
Calumet still sell 35mm T-Max 400 for £3.79 which is still not a bad price (only 30p extra). The costs are going up and even most professional negative films are now pushing £6.50 each when a few years ago they were about half that, its just sad to be honest that theres nothing we can do about it and in the end this will just put more people off from shooting film.
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It's pretty much a case of, the price rises keep coming, just depends how long the retailer puts the rise off - some of them do it very quickly, some of them try and swallow the pay rise as long as possible.

I did ring Silverprint to ask if they were planning on increasing their prices in lieu of the Kodak price rise, they said no, and within a week they were all up!

Thanks for the heads-up.
 
If I could get circa 50 photographs (6x7) out of £20, I'd be very happy indeed! 5x4 B&W is about £1-2 per photograph + dev costs (minimal if home deving) and about £3 - £3.50 per frame of colour + £3 per frame for developing.

Quit ya' whining! :razz:;)
 
I haven't shot film in the UK for a while, but I still have my cameras and I've been thinking about it again, so this is interesting. Perhaps it's just part of a general trend, and lack of demand for an increasingly niche product, or do the manufacturers see this as an opportunity because film enthusiasts are a captive market and there isn't a great deal of competition? I don't know. What do others think?
 
Not that this is precisely what you were saying, but I believe the point is that film isn't going anywhere soon. Sure, some lines have been discontinued in a time where digital is so readily available, but there are still enough film photographers out there to keep the scene going. If anything, I believe film has seen a bit of a comeback recently, which is of course fantastic! From my perspective, I believe the number of film users are, on the whole, decreasing at a rate much much slower than then recent rate of discontinued film lines. Granted some discontinuations will put a small amount of film photographers off for good, perhaps on account of brand/product loyalty for one reason or another. As such though, there will come a time when the demand for film exceeds the production and the market will stabilise hopefully in a profitable enough way for the producers while still being affordable for the consumers.
 
Well it's guys like me who don't help the film industry as I pay anything from 10p to £1 for film...depending if it's a boot sale or sometimes Poundland....yeah Ok my shots show it :)
 
Each to their own... the point is though, you are spending money on film, and it probably wouldn't have been sold to the place you bought it from at a loss, so in either case, you're helping.... Just perhaps not as much as others. Indeed, I'm not personally sure how the margins compare in each case!
 
i just sent 45 5x4's off to Peak for processing, £118 with discount! Normally id do it myself but 45 would take me days and i need to buy more chems. So id rather just chuck them all at someone else to be hassled with.
 
I've got a load of stuff to send to Peak sometime - I think the day they close their doors to film developing will be the day my GF takes back her salad drawer in the fridge...

I've noticed prices going up, that won't stop me, what concerns me most is where I get the film followed by the choice available.
 
Fuji Pro 400 was about £6.50 a roll a few months ago, now most places are selling it nearer the £10 mark!

It's a film I really like, but I can't justify the cost over Portra which is still around the £6 mark.
 
I've just sent 13 rolls of 120 off to Peak and as they were mainly Ektar and Portra it averaged out at about £4 a roll plus the £56 processing it comes out at about £1 a shot through the GW690. Given that I would hope to get 2 good shots per roll (optimism eh!) that works out at £4 a (decent) shot. Bloody Hell, hope the wife doesn't read this....
 
I think it depends on what you compare it against, my digital a D7000 with 300mm lens cost about £1000 and I take pics of birds and squirrels. My Nikon FG and 50mm cost £70 and a decent film costs say £4 and developing another £5-£10 if I want prints. Thats barely 3 pints of decent cider or in old money two cheeky Belgium beers !

Also I bought a second hand film scanner so with my decent colour printer i can do a juicy A4 scan-to-print for about £1

The scanner and SCSI card all in was £80
 
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Mr Bump said:
I think it depends on what you compare it against, my digital a D7000 with 300mm lens cost about £1000 and I take pics of birds and squirrels. My Nikon FG and 50mm cost £70 and a decent film costs say £4 and developing another £5-£10 if I want prints. Thats barely 3 pints of decent cider or in old money two cheeky Belgium beers !

Also I bought a second hand film scanner so with my decent colour printer i can do a juicy A4 scan-to-print for about £1

The scanner and SCSI card all in was £80
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I like your point :) I was out this weekend and when beer is hitting £5 a pint spending £4 on film seems ok!
 
Back in the 70s and 80s we ran a bulk film group wherein 3 of us clubbed together and bought 35mm film in bulk 100' reels and used a bulk loader and reusable reels to cut the cost of film. We used B/W mainly and developed at the club darkroom. (getting reusable rolls back from Bots etc was a drama).

I see that Amazon have sellers listing Ilford B/W film in 100' bulk at around £60 .

Interested to find out if anyone is still doing this?

I am using film in my Pentax LX and MX bodies side by side with my EOS digital kit. Not used my Mamiya 645 kit for a while though.

The price of film camera ownership was hair raising in the old days but is eye watering now.

Steve

EDIT

Just seen that there is a Bulk Film thread on here!
 
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Hugh Jarse said:
Interested to find out if anyone is still doing this?
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I bought a loader and 100' of expired HP5+ a while ago and finally got around to loading it and making up a roll tonight. I'm not in a group deal with anyone but the loader came with the film and it was cheap enough that I was happy to give it a go.

I'll post up some results in due course :)
 
Strappy said:
I bought a loader and 100' of expired HP5+ a while ago and finally got around to loading it and making up a roll tonight. I'm not in a group deal with anyone but the loader came with the film and it was cheap enough that I was happy to give it a go.

I'll post up some results in due course :)
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Spot on

At this rate I may be tempted back to processing.....

S
 
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