Prosophos Posted June 21, 2021 Share #1 Posted June 21, 2021 Advertisement (gone after registration) FYI to all film shooters: I was going to order some more Kodak Portra 400 over the weekend and waited until today. Well, that slight hesitation cost me a little: the price has increased $3 for the 5 pack. Overall that's about $10 more since last year. I still bought some. —Peter. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 Hi Prosophos, Take a look here Film (Portra) Increase... again.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
logan2z Posted June 22, 2021 Share #2 Posted June 22, 2021 I mostly shoot Tri-X and it's gone up quite a bit in recent months too. I typically buy online from BH Photo here in the US and it's up to $8 84 for a 36 exposure roll. It was around $6 not long ago. I grumble about it, but I continue to buy it too 🙂 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitroplait Posted June 22, 2021 Share #3 Posted June 22, 2021 I feel sorry for those dedicated to color and Kodak materials. The producers seems to be milking the market. 30.5m (100ft) stock from the european BW producers seems to have been reasonably stable for some years, but since I don't trust it will remain that way, I tend to stock up with 2-3 years of supplies to buffer price hikes. I know it is not everyones favourite, but Fujifilm C200 remains very reasonably priced, especially if you buy 10 rolls at a time. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosophos Posted June 22, 2021 Author Share #4 Posted June 22, 2021 1 hour ago, nitroplait said: I feel sorry for those dedicated to color and Kodak materials. The producers seems to be milking the market. 30.5m (100ft) stock from the european BW producers seems to have been reasonably stable for some years, but since I don't trust it will remain that way, I tend to stock up with 2-3 years of supplies to buffer price hikes. I know it is not everyones favourite, but Fujifilm C200 remains very reasonably priced, especially if you buy 10 rolls at a time. Regarding Kodak, I'm curious to see how far prices will rise before demand is curtailed. It really does seem like they are "milking the market" though if anyone knows better I'd be interested in learning about the actual underlying dynamics. Either way, stocking up ahead of time is a good strategy and I've started to do that during the past few months. Thanks for the recommendation for the Fujifilm C200. So far, I've stuck with Portra because I really like the look and I've had success self-developing it at home, so I "haven't fixed what is isn't broken", as the saying goes. —Peter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted June 22, 2021 Share #5 Posted June 22, 2021 As a manufacturer they know there is a point at which sales will begin to fall due to hefty price increases based purely on maximising profit, at least they should know! The increases may have more to do with the rising cost of raw materials needed to manufacture niche products for a niche market than Kodak taking the short-sighted option of simply 'milking it' which would ultimately fail, imo. Thing is, Portra 400 is so good I'll just suck it up and carry on using it. 6 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
logan2z Posted June 22, 2021 Share #6 Posted June 22, 2021 3 hours ago, nitroplait said: I feel sorry for those dedicated to color and Kodak materials. The producers seems to be milking the market. Unfortunately, Kodak doesn't seem to be the only one raising prices. Ilford HP5+ (arguably the strongest competitor to Tri-X) is also over $8 for a 36 exp. roll at BH. So, not far behind the Tri-X price. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helge Posted June 22, 2021 Share #7 Posted June 22, 2021 Advertisement (gone after registration) Seems like all film manufacturers suffer from increased prices for raw material. There are not so many of those and not so many for packaging either. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antonio Russell Posted June 23, 2021 Share #8 Posted June 23, 2021 Still well worth the price IMO. Fantastic films. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Morgan Posted June 23, 2021 Share #9 Posted June 23, 2021 With the demise of Pro400h it was only a matter of time. Compared to slide film it's still reasonable! Just not for me, I've gone completely digital for colour. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitroplait Posted June 24, 2021 Share #10 Posted June 24, 2021 On 6/22/2021 at 7:28 PM, logan2z said: Unfortunately, Kodak doesn't seem to be the only one raising prices. Ilford HP5+ (arguably the strongest competitor to Tri-X) is also over $8 for a 36 exp. roll at BH. So, not far behind the Tri-X price. Fair enough. I am looking at this from an EU perspective and HP5+ prices trails behind Tri-X by about 25%. Bulk rolls is another matter, here 30m/100ft Tri-X is twice(!) the price of HP+. Color film is a different matter though, it is not comparable to the same extend - and not available in bulk rolls unfortunately. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danner Posted June 24, 2021 Share #11 Posted June 24, 2021 Reminds me, I should stock up on a few 100-foot rolls of my favorite B&W films. Having recently shot some 15-20 year old stock with good success, it makes sense to do so now. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Albertson Posted June 24, 2021 Share #12 Posted June 24, 2021 On 6/22/2021 at 11:07 AM, Helge said: Seems like all film manufacturers suffer from increased prices for raw material. There are not so many of those and not so many for packaging either. Silver was $5/oz in 2000, now it's around $25/oz. Back in the day, photography accounted for 90 percent of silver consumption. But now it is popular among speculators as a hedging device, which causes much more price volatility. That, and the increased demand for film. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wattsy Posted June 24, 2021 Share #13 Posted June 24, 2021 It has little to do with milking the market. We live in a world where most currencies are now routinely debased by QE and other money printing schemes. Prices of manufactured goods have been heading up for some time and won't be coming down any time soon. I'd prefer it if Portra was still at 2015 prices but £60 for a 5 pack doesn't strike me as poor value. As I only really use Portra 400 nowadays, it's got quite a long way to go before I'd stop buying it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
logan2z Posted June 24, 2021 Share #14 Posted June 24, 2021 To be honest, it's not the cost of film that's becoming an issue, it's the cost of processing and shipping my film back and forth to a lab. I really need to stop procrastinating and start processing my film at home. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danner Posted June 25, 2021 Share #15 Posted June 25, 2021 Agree on self-processing. I enjoy doing that immensely. Very satisfying and the output is totally under your control. Easy for B&W, no personal experience with color, however. BTW, today I ordered 100 feet of FP4 and HP5, that'll make 37 rolls at 36-exposure. Total cost to my door is US $187, or $5.05/roll. Kentmere or Arista EDU would be less, and much less, respectively. I usually load rolls at about 15 frames, so it shoots more like medium format. One roll for each project, and I like that. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matlock Posted June 27, 2021 Share #16 Posted June 27, 2021 On 6/24/2021 at 8:54 PM, wattsy said: It has little to do with milking the market. We live in a world where most currencies are now routinely debased by QE and other money printing schemes. Prices of manufactured goods have been heading up for some time and won't be coming down any time soon. I'd prefer it if Portra was still at 2015 prices but £60 for a 5 pack doesn't strike me as poor value. As I only really use Portra 400 nowadays, it's got quite a long way to go before I'd stop buying it. I have just done a comparison with 1971 prices (Wallace Heaton Blue Book). Kodacolor X 135-36 was 89p. That equates to £11.20 today taking into account inflation. Kodak Gold, which probably fits into the same market as Kodacolor X, is available at £6.95. Nice to see that Kodak prices are in fact lower than 50 years ago. Obviously Portra are more expensive (£11.70 for 160 and £13.55 for 400) but still not excessive I think. 3 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosophos Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share #17 Posted June 27, 2021 3 hours ago, Matlock said: I have just done a comparison with 1971 prices (Wallace Heaton Blue Book). Kodacolor X 135-36 was 89p. That equates to £11.20 today taking into account inflation. Kodak Gold, which probably fits into the same market as Kodacolor X, is available at £6.95. Nice to see that Kodak prices are in fact lower than 50 years ago. Obviously Portra are more expensive (£11.70 for 160 and £13.55 for 400) but still not excessive I think. Interesting. Thank you for the historical perspective. —Peter. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peggers Posted June 27, 2021 Share #18 Posted June 27, 2021 (edited) I know that I’m about to be an ‘armchair CEO’, and that there probably many good reasons why not (r&d cost, real world margin, not their area of speciality) but I wish Ilford would release a colour film to provide some competition to Portra400. At least to help keep prices from rising too much, and for some more choice. (I know Ilford did have a colour option back in the day - but it didn’t do so well.) On the home development front the trouble I’ve found for colour is that my volume of film - one or two a month - doesn’t make it economic for the c41 quart kits, that will expire after 4 months or so after being made up, in contrast to b&w where the one-shot options work well for my modest output. So I’m back to lab processing for c41 - and trying not to look too hard at 2nd hand digital Ms! Edited June 27, 2021 by peggers Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Barnack Posted June 27, 2021 Share #19 Posted June 27, 2021 (edited) On 6/21/2021 at 8:19 PM, logan2z said: I mostly shoot Tri-X and it's gone up quite a bit in recent months too. I typically buy online from BH Photo here in the US and it's up to $8 84 for a 36 exposure roll. It was around $6 not long ago. I grumble about it, but I continue to buy it too 🙂 We are now paying for Tri-X what we used to pay for Fuji Velvia. Be of good cheer, brethren - it's only money! 😄 Edited June 27, 2021 by Herr Barnack 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakontil Posted June 28, 2021 Share #20 Posted June 28, 2021 (edited) So far I’m sticking with bulk rolls of kentmere 400 as well as Hp5+, for color im happy with either kodak pro image 100 and colorplus200 as well as ultramax 400 and occasionally shoot portra 400 the fujicolor somehow is more expensive here, got a couple of c200 while discounted Edited June 28, 2021 by jakontil Add more info Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.