Film availability when travelling

[williamj]

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Has anyone been traveling and found film hard to obtain? Of course, locals will know where to get film, but as a tourist/traveler you might find it near impossible. I read in a Leica blog of people who had traveled to Cuba expecting to find film and none was to be had.

In Australia, the situation for a traveler would be poor but not impossible and better than 5 years ago. Don't expect film at newsagents or supermarkets or post offices or corner shops or pharmacies or small shops or that kind. Five years ago if you went to a camera store as likely as not they would shake their heads and say digital only. Now you can get some of the popular 35mm film at high prices at these outlets. Most specialist places that have film have small, medium and large format but due to the general film shortage often they will be out of stock or have limits on what you can buy.

It would be really good to know what other people's experiences are, so that if you're traveling whether you could buy film at your destination or whether you have to either carry your film or buy film on line and have it delivered to you at your destination.

[jaapv]

Why not order it online in the country you are travelling to beforehand and have it delivered to your  hotel like you say, as a rule? Even if it is possible to buy film in a shop somewhere you are dependent on the supply situation and you are wasting time. BTW in our country Fujifilm is available through a large retail chain (HEMA), as are developing services.

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[frame-it]

Just now, jaapv said:

Why not order it online in the country you are travelling to beforehand and have it delivered to your  hotel like you say, as a rule? Even if it is possible to buy film in a shop somewhere you are dependent on the supply situation and you are wasting time.

Also depends on whether the OP is asking a generic question or does he want to simply compile a list of cities/countries where film is available easily or not.

[williamj]

3 hours ago, frame-it said:

Also depends on whether the OP is asking a generic question or does he want to simply compile a list of cities/countries where film is available easily or not.

Either works but if individuals give a brief description of their own country or of their experiences while travelling that might be of general use. 

[jaapv]

That sounds like Sisyphus' Boulder: 196 Countries and a fluid supply situation... Not even thinking about cities,

[williamj]

Based on your earlier reply @jaapv if travelling to the Netherlands I would just go to your supermarket and pick up film. I already know from comments in other threads that film will be hard for a traveller to get in the UK. Some countries I would trust the post or couriers and other countries I would have to carry film. Some places see the black listed airports I might think very carefully and go digital only. We have blacklisted and whitelisted airports and people add to it as they see fit. 

[wattsy]

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24 minutes ago, williamj said:

I already know from comments in other threads that film will be hard for a traveller to get in the UK.

I think that depends upon where you are in the UK and the kind of film you are hoping to buy. You usually won't have any problems in London. Especially if you are buying B&W. Colour is more tricky nowadays but the situation must have improved recently – I've just randomly looked at availability for Portra 400 at Wex Photo (the former Calumet pro chain) and the availability looks pretty good around the country.

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[wattsy]

There's always Amazon too. I've bought Portra from Amazon quite frequently and, if you are travelling, you can always have it delivered to one of the many thousands of lockers.

[Anbaric]

42 minutes ago, williamj said:

I already know from comments in other threads that film will be hard for a traveller to get in the UK.

It's hard enough in London, let alone further afield. In the past you could be sure of having a range of films to choose from at any branch of Boots, our major national pharmacy chain, with Superia or C200 or Colorplus at under £10. That's still the nominal price range, but you'll be lucky to find a single colour print film actually in stock, though Ilford B&W is more readily available. Go to a specialist camera shop and you'll probably see a reasonable selection of B&W and a limited range of colour films - Portra and maybe Ektar at eye watering prices, and perhaps a few consumer films or novelty emulsions priced nearly as high. Online stores occasionally have something more reasonably priced in stock, but it sells out quickly. So be prepared to pay Portra prices or shoot B&W, and expect to use a web shop with fast delivery outside the big cities, unless you can find some HP5 at Boots or are lucky enough to end up in a town that has one of our few remaining provincial camera shops. Oddly, some films are easier to find in 120 than 35mm. Amazon seem to be particularly expensive these days - the specialist online retailers are often better.

Edited April 17 by Anbaric

[williamj]

5 minutes ago, Anbaric said:

It's hard enough in London, let alone further afield. In the past you could be sure of having a range of films to choose from at any branch of Boots, our major national pharmacy chain, with Superia or C200 or Colorplus at under £10. That's still the nominal price range, but you'll be lucky to find a single colour print film actually in stock, though Ilford B&W is more readily available. Go to a specialist camera shop and you'll probably see a reasonable selection of B&W and a limited range of colour films - Portra and maybe Ektar at eye watering prices, and perhaps a few consumer films or novelty emulsions priced nearly as high. Online stores occasionally have something more reasonably priced in stock, but it sells out quickly. So be prepared to pay Portra prices or shoot B&W, and expect to use a specialist web shop with fast delivery outside the big cities, unless you can find some HP5 at Boots or are lucky enough to end up in a town that has one of our few remaining provincial camera shops. Oddly, some films are easier to find in 120 than 35mm. Amazon seem to be particularly expensive these days - the specialist retailers are often better.

That’s a very useful breakdown of the likely scenario facing a traveler. Thanks. 

[williamj]

13 minutes ago, wattsy said:

I think that depends upon where you are in the UK and the kind of film you are hoping to buy. You usually won't have any problems in London. Especially if you are buying B&W. Colour is more tricky nowadays but the situation must have improved recently – I've just randomly looked at availability for Portra 400 at Wex Photo (the former Calumet pro chain) and the availability looks pretty good around the country.

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That’s what I keep hoping, that availability will continue to get better, especially once we get through the current bottleneck of shortages caused by increased demand. 

[wattsy]

I haven't been in a Jessops since about 2005 (and I know it isn't the same company) but they appear to have Portra in stock in many flavours and can deliver to their stores in the UK (not just London). £85 for a 5-pack is now very much the going rate for Portra 400. It doesn't put me off.

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[Peter_S]

Not travelling much outside Scandinavia these days, but I was pleased that I found two well-stocked photo shops in Tromsø in the far north of Norway. Smaller town do not stock film anymore.
 

[Anbaric]

On 4/17/2023 at 2:05 PM, Anbaric said:

In the past you could be sure of having a range of films to choose from at any branch of Boots, our major national pharmacy chain, with Superia or C200 or Colorplus at under £10. That's still the nominal price range, but you'll be lucky to find a single colour print film actually in stock

Since I wrote that, they've hiked the advertised price of C200 to £11.99 and Superia 400 to £15.99. Neither is actually available, but if they ever re-stock that is what we'll pay. Wish I'd bought more Superia when it was very briefly available from Boots at the old price, £9.99, a few weeks ago (or frozen some back in 2019, when I was paying £4.14 from a mail order supplier). I suspect this pretty much signals the end of reasonably priced consumer 400 ISO colour in the UK, the sort of film I've shot more than any other. Might as well get used to paying £17-19 for a roll of Portra, which you can at least get hold of.

[Huss]

Film availability is so variable.  A shop may have it one day, sold out the next.  So of course I recommend to travel with film, as long as you are not passing through those CRT scanners.

Both my local shops currently have a good stock of colour and B&W films.  But who knows a week from now?

If anyone is traveling to the Los Angeles area, these are the places to call/check to see if they have film:

Silvios Camera Torrance (just south of LA)

Pauls Photo Torrance

FreestylePhoto Hollywood

Samys Camera Los Angeles

CVS drug stores often have Fuji 200 and 400.

[bags27]

I've recently been traveling to our son in California, so having B&H send to him and have him mail back exposed film was really easy.

I'm currently on a Florida trip, in which I pre-determined availability of 120 Fuji Chrome and HP5+ at a local store. How to get it home? I'm debating between asking our hosts to mail it back to me or my taking it through security (I brought an x-ray film bag). I haven't done that in a while, and the film is not so important if it doesn't work out.

[Huss]

12 hours ago, bags27 said:

I've recently been traveling to our son in California, so having B&H send to him and have him mail back exposed film was really easy.

I'm currently on a Florida trip, in which I pre-determined availability of 120 Fuji Chrome and HP5+ at a local store. How to get it home? I'm debating between asking our hosts to mail it back to me or my taking it through security (I brought an x-ray film bag). I haven't done that in a while, and the film is not so important if it doesn't work out.

If you are flying out of US airports - which it sound like you are - security is very willing to hand check your film.  I've never had a problem in the USA.  It is traveling abroad where I have had my hand check requests refused.

[skahde]

Am 17.4.2023 um 07:23 schrieb williamj:

It would be really good to know what other people's experiences are, so that if you're traveling whether you could buy film at your destination or whether you have to either carry your film or buy film on line and have it delivered to you at your destination.

I have tried both, buying at home and taking it with me as well as truying to buy locally and I would never again start a vacation without having enough film with me. Never had any problems taking film with me. OTOH getting film while on vacation never went exactly as planned: Too expensive, wrong kind of film, lots of time wasted, not delivered in time aso.

Edited May 8 by skahde