Moving to England - need tips about film

LonerMatt

LonerMatt

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Hey guys,

In less than a month I move from sunny Australia to England - Cambridge, specifically.

I just have a few questions about buying and developing film in the UK:
1. Where are some of the better places to buy film (Portra 400, Ektar and HP5+ in 35mm are what I get)?
2. Where are the better labs to take/send film to? - I'm quite used to posting film in the mail to be developed and scanned, any services like this in the UK?
3. Any cool film related places to see: galleries, museums, etc?
4. Any tips about how to go from a place where the light is perfect 2/3 of the year to somewhere that I've only heard is 'gross, wet and cold'? ;)
5. Any cool places within an hour or two of Cambridge (by public transport) to photograph? Bonus points for hills, coast line, swamp, woodland, moors and other landscapes non-existent in Australia.

Thanks for the help!

Matt
 
G'day! (Get used to that. See also: throwing shrimps on the barbie)

1) T'internet - 7dayshop, AG Photographic, Firstcall, etc, etc. Lots of options for shopping around.
2) https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/film-developing-in-the-uk.99/ - Peak seam to be the standard recommendation here, but lots of places have their fans based on quality/price/speed
3) I'm sure there's plenty in Cambridge, but I don't know the city at all. The National Media Museum is in Bradford, and there's plenty in London, obviously.
4) Now's your chance to take the photos of gross, wet and cold scenes that you've been waiting your whole life for!
5) The UK is tiny. Most of it is within easy traveling of most of the rest of it. The downside is that public transport is shockingly expensive unless you book well in advance. The Fens are on your doorstep, the Norfolk Broads are an hour away, there's loads of coastline to choose from, but really, the country is your oyster.
 
1. macodirect.de - German web sales, minimum order quantity applies and the postage is quite heavy but if you're buying in bulk it's difficult to beat their prices. If you're stuck then larger branches of Boots (pharmacy chain store found in most towns) still stock some film including HP5+.
2. Peak, always Peak.
3. Yes, loads.
4. Shoot B&W.
5. You're never more than 70 miles from the coast in the UK :)
 
Macodirect can be a good place to get film by mail order; you need to order enough to meet their minimum order size, and to spread the rather high cost of their postage, but otherwise they're pretty good.

Don't forget the handy dev/scan cost estimator on the thread that Keith linked to. Decent scans are the expensive area, I think, so investing in your own scanner (if you don't have one already) is key.

I moved from Oz back to UK (though 20 years ago, and it was back... after 20 years!). Your sig doesn't say where you are in Australia (and the link in your sig didn't work for me!), but in many areas you can really have problems with the harshness of the light. Around Cambridge you may be amazed by the quality of the light, and the variability. And we have evenings (not the 15 minutes of dimness between full day and night)! It will be a fantastic adventure! And don't forget, while flat grey days do occur, perhaps the most common weather combination is "cloudy bright with occasional showers", ie a bit of everything (think Tassie), which can give amazing photo opportunities even if not reliable enough for a barbie. In Cambridge you have the whole coast of East Anglia from the Wash round to the Thames estuary within an hour or so's drive. The nothern coast round Wells-next-the-sea etc is lovely. Amazing walking everywhere (we have footpaths!). Hills, a bit further afield for high ones, but as you'll know flat doesn't mean flat, there're contours even in East Anglia. There's a particular quality to the landscape round there that's subtly unique in the UK, I reckon.

Public transport can be expensive; you can still, I think, get a young person's rail card, and if you'll be studying that probably makes it easier to get discounts. Don't forget buses and coaches.

You're going to have a ball. Oh, we also have central heating, so houses are usually warm in winter!

Come back and visit us here, and show us some pics, please. You'll have a different eye and it will be interesting. :) A Pentax man, I see; few of us about. Good luck again.
 
Wow thanks for the replies guys, a few responses:

1. I've looked into the rail card, but I'm in a bit of a bind - you need a mobile # and an address to get one - I'm 25 now but turn 26 in two weeks (before I head over), so I'm a bit stuffed unless I prevail upon the GF to buy one for me. Shame the PT is so expensive, but then everything in England seems expensive.
2. Interestingly enough I've become MUCH more interested in Black and White recently and I note, with pleasure, that the UK is cheaper to process and scan (in Australia BnW is about 2x the price of C41 to develop) - well at some of the places on the price list, at least.
3. I'll definitely head to the fens and some of the coast. I'd love to get to Wales - one of my favourite movies is shot around Cardiff (I believe), so that's a bit of a trip.
4. Interestingly, having never seen fog (it lasts maybe about 5 minutes here) I'm keen to immerse myself in it and have a ball taking out of focus shots.
5. I'm in Melbourne, but have lived all over Victoria - in the desert, on the coast, and in the city
6. This link should work - http://sunraysiaprestige.tumblr.com/ - I shoot an OM-1, though, not a Pentax (though if you want to lend me a 67 for a day I'll shout you dinner).
 
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Looks like they're offering a 10% discount for 16-25 railcards online. Definitely worth trying to get one; find a friend with a UK address and go from there. I didn't see anything about a UK mobile number, just a passport, photo, and debit/credit card. But I didn't try to go through the whole process. It's perfectly OK to get one just before your eligibility expires; my younger daughter has done it twice, first before she turned 26, and again just as she finished her post grad qualification.

Black and white is still expensive here, dearer than C41. Do your own, you'll save the money put out after a dozen films, particularly if you've got a scanner! I just started this year...
 
Don't forget the Britrail passes, only available to buy before you arrive. See https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/travel-and-transport/britrail-passes/. You get quite a discount there for being 25, and there's one that will let you pick, say, 8 non-consecutive days in 1 month.

And there's a National Express coach card, available for people 16-26, see http://www.nationalexpress.com/offers/coachcards/young-persons-coachcard.aspx. Not sure if you can buy a 3 year one at 26, might be worth trying. It's a lot slower than train (dotting in and out of city centres, on your actual roads), but can be a lot cheaper.
 
There's also Megabus, which can be dirt cheap, although slow. http://uk.megabus.com/ It appears that you'd have to get to somewhere other than Cambridge first, though, because they only seem to do a route to Oxford from there.
 
Plenty to start with in Cambridge. Here's my recent Cambridge Album. The Fitzwilliam Museum, and the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology are both very good. There is plenty of beautiful architecture in Cambridge, courtesy of the colleges, etc. I'm at the lower class opposite end of the County. It's not too far to London as well, with the Fens and Thetford Forest in range, as well as Norwich. The railway connects to both London, and the North pretty well.

There is a photography shop opposite the colleges in Cambridge called Campkins, that sells film including 120, and has a range of film cameras (out of my price range), but I mainly buy it much cheaper online in batches from AgPhotographic, FirstCall, Ebay, etc. Developing - I can't help you, I mainly develop and scan b/w film. Light - get use to faster film. In the summer, I can get away with ISO 100 even on the move in the street, but I do default to 400 otherwise. We do get some hot summers (every 100 years - joke), but we do get lots of cloudy and overcast days.

No hills for many miles, except some rolling low chalk hills nearby called the Gog Magog Downs to the south of Cambridge. However, this is Britain - Wales and Snowdonia are only several hours away. Swamps are easier. Well, they would be if they hadn't been drained into the Fens, which reaches out from the northern edge of Cambridge up to the Wash. Lots of flat lowland, rich with irrigation channels, gang-workers, vegetables, and shagnasty (Get orf moi land!) farmers. The Fen Rivers Way starts at Cambridge - a long distance walk through the Fens. Here is an old (sorry digital) Photo Album that I took of it several years ago. Forest - I've mentioned Thetford Forest, which is less than an hour away by train or by road - the largest lowland forest in the Country, with a great and very popular visitor centre at High Lodge near to Brandon. Further into Norfolk, you have the popular Norfolk Broads, sort of a decaying wetland.

As for the microcosm that we call Great Britain, so much to see, with localised culture, landscapes, and architecture everywhere. Must sees - London takes several days to complete. York and Lincoln, the West Country, the Lake District, the Pennines, Dartmoor, Snowdonia in Wales, and the Western Highlands of Scotland. Beautiful.


You will see thousands of cameras on the streets of Cambridge, I promise you. It is DSLR City, being very much on the main tourist routes.

Oh, look out for bicycles. They are everywhere.

 
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Real hills, head for Wales, the Peak District or for the very pinnacle of landscapes get to rural North West Scotland. All very cold and wet for a lot of the time mind.

The Norfolk Broads are equivalent to your swamps but very different and definitely no crocs or alligators.

Yep its cold and damp here, but that is the only way to get good mists, as for the gross bits yep they can be found too.

London has all the galleries you could ever hope for, as well as being lively and vibrant. Cambridge is more reserved...something that Brits are good at, being reserved. Cambridge is quite expensive on account of the University colleges, travel to nearby towns and it is less cosmopolitan and definitely a lot cheaper.

Surprised no one has mentioned WEX in Norwich (not far away) where all manner of photographic goods are available at some of the best prices in the UK. Although a lot of it will be digital, they stock a very wide range of everything photographic. For something out of the 1920s look up Process Supplies in London

http://www.processuk.net/storepage740591.aspx.

A film photographers paradise if you do your own processing..all manner of chemicals and goodies from a bygone age.
 
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Not seen Process Supplies before, ta very much.
 
Andysnap said:
Not seen Process Supplies before, ta very much.
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It's been mentioned a few times for film goodies, I always use them for neg sheets. They're not always the cheapest but because they're in that London it's convenient for me :D
 
You might be here in time for some great autumnal colours. Only today I've processed some lovely 5x4 slide for a customer. Get in the parks, the woods, nice and early though for mist. Have lunch and wait for the sun then look for some colour. Lastly. Enjoy your stay.
 
Hello Matt

If you intend travelling with one specific person then a "two together" railcard is a must at a cost of £30 a year, third off rail journeys only stipulation is after 9.30am.

You can get a bus from Cambridge to Peterborough, £6.40 for a day or £24.50 a week go anywhere ticket in Cambridgeshire on Stagecoach buses. From Peterborough you can access fast trains northwards which opens up places like the Yorkshire moors and dales, think Bronte and Wuthering Heights. I do these places in a day dirt cheap if you book in advance and some spectacular scenery, Peak District is also doable and at a push Northumberland which has a superb coastline


If you fancy a guide for a few days when you get here let me know, I retired early and have plenty of spare time plus I only live up the road from Cambridge. London is my speeciality having been born, worked and lived there for forty years, so many great photo opportunities not all mentioned in the guidebooks.

Cheers
Rich
 
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TT:

1. Yes, let's hang out and photograph

2. That was an insanely helpful post regarding transport

I have one question, work related. If I'm living in Central Cambridge, are there any areas of London that are easy to get to for work (I'm a teacher, so supply teaching). I've heard that some areas of London are only 30-40 minutes away on train, less than Kings Cross, is this true, or just a rumour?
 
Look forward to it Matt, we can sort something out once you get settled over here.

Some of the N and NE suburbs on the Cambridge to London Liverpool St line are a bit nearer (that line is slightly slower, but cheaper and no restriction on off peak travel in the pm rush hour unlike Kings Cross)

Any other questions just ask away and I will do my best to help out

Cheers
Rich
 
There are some of those in various cities; don't know about Cambridge, but certainly in London... and of course, you don't need the darkroom for developing, just a changing bag/tent and a tank. Most on here use a film-process-scan-edit-print workflow, although a few do proper darkroom printing as well.
 
@LonerMatt Since you're moving to England and we're happily giving you tips about film I think it's only fair that in exchange you give us some tips about rugby when you get here.
 
On the plus side you'll not be distracted while we are away.
 

I found a guy local to me on http://www.localdarkroom.com/index.php for darkroom tuition/help. He's in Sawbridgeworth, so not far from Cambridge, and I can recommend him. But sure there are more local to you!

The Camera shop http://www.campkinscameras.com may be of help. Not used them much myself but its more of a proper shop rather than a big chain store selling only digi.



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Welcome, assume you will be living in Central Cambridge?

Kings Cross (fast train) is 45 mins so very close, best going on cheaper deals at weekends - get a travel card for unlimited underground travel that day too. Train wise its not the best for much other than London! Ely is 15 mins away and nice town with cathedral. A car would help get you to many places - Southwold on the Suffolk coast, along with some of the most beautiful Suffolk villages like Long melford, Cavendish, Clare, Lavenham.

Cambridge is a lovely place, you have all the colleges obviously, the American Cemetery at Madingley (think the x3 bus?), people watching to all take pictures of. Sedgwick & Fitzwilliam museum are great and there are some very nice pubs too for a drink after (my choices are the Pint Shop, Cambridge Brewhouse, The Eagle).

You have Stansted airport 30 mins away by train, check out Skyscanner for great deals (normally Ryanair, budget airline) where you can get to many towns in Europe for £30 return (ir sometimes less, £20 for me to Cologne the other week) or so for a good day out.

I live just outside and been in and around Cambridge for 30 years or so, so feel free to PM me with any questions or help / advice.
 
100 ISO can be challenging, but we do have many bright days too, just need to be a bit more selective! I use AG Photographic for processing and been fine, also use Discount Films for film.
 
Have a couple of rolls of both with you at all times.

ISO 400 would probably be the standard, but if you are shooting night scenes as time exposures then go for the lower grain.

We also have S N O W, but never on Christmas Day (it would cost the bookies a fortune in payouts). Whole different scenario. You might want the slower film in that case, although the 400 would still be fine.
 
Plenty of winter days when 100 film shot at 80 works a treat... I normally default to 400 in those periods, though.
 
AAMOI Matt before you leave Australia...could you take a meter reading of blue sky or green shrubs\grass or something grey and with the meter set for 200 ISO and 1/250 sec..see what f stop you get. WHY? well it would be interesting to see how much brighter the light is and also to see if the "sunny 16" rule (for exposure without a meter) is the same as the UK.
 
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Moving in 4 days, one last question!

Anyone know where I can get the light seals on my OM-1 replaced with a week's turnaround?

Or anyone in the area know how to do and want to show me?
 
LonerMatt said:
Moving in 4 days, one last question!

Anyone know where I can get the light seals on my OM-1 replaced with a week's turnaround?

Or anyone in the area know how to do and want to show me?
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abdoujaparov said:
First port of call for seal kits is Jon Goodman jgood21967@aol.com . He's in the USA, but the prices are still good, and he's super helpful.
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Jon is the best source for diy kits but it will likely be safer to send them to your new address rather than your current one. Not sure where you could get it done in commercially in Cambridge though.
 
Most people on here use Jon Goodman, he does deliver quickly but he's based in the States so touch and go whether you'll get them in a week.
It's really a very simple job get yourself some Isopropyl Alcohol, something like this and some cotton buds and cocktail sticks for removing the old gunk
and then slip in the new ones, somebody on here might even have some you can cut your own from. Failing that the usual source of the well known auction site should be able to help you out something like this
 
Ahhh I don't think it matters any more because my OM-1 stopped working - the shutter is stuck and the winding mechanism too. So we'd be looking at about 60-70 pounds (minimum) to fix and the camera just isn't worth that much.

Source of 35mm cameras in the UK? Any good stores to check out in London or online?
 
Ffordes are a good source of secondhand kit, obviously more than you'd spend on the well known auction site but with the benefit of a guarantee. If you want to buy from an actual shop both Camera World and London Camera Exchange carry a large used stock. If if you want to push the boat out head down to Greys of Westminster for some top notch Nikon loveliness.
 
LonerMatt said:
Ahhh I don't think it matters any more because my OM-1 stopped working - the shutter is stuck and the winding mechanism too. So we'd be looking at about 60-70 pounds (minimum) to fix and the camera just isn't worth that much.

Source of 35mm cameras in the UK? Any good stores to check out in London or online?
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Is the lens okay? I might have a OM1 going spare, despite hardly using it I'm fighting the urge to collect them! I'll put a thread up in the classifieds if you're struggling to find something in budget.
 
The lens is fine - just the body and the shutter advance.

Contacted a place in London and they said it'd probably be (but maybe more or less) 80 pounds, and I imagine I can get a body for less than that!
 
Miles Whitehead would more than likely get it going for less but if the camera has no sentimental value you may as well get a proven copy and either keep your old one for spares or put it on the well known auction site as a non-runner, you may get a little bit back for it.
 
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