Ilford film price increase

[runswithsizzers]

Film Photography Project in New Jersey, USA has Ilford HP5+ for $8.99 / $8.49 USD (35mm / 120). They also have Kentmere PAN for $6.99 / $6.49, USD. FPP does charge a reasonable amount for shipping, which I do not usually have to pay when ordering from B&H.

 

[loccdor]

Economics is interesting, for example, one thing I learned yesterday: it's cheaper to buy 6 ounce instant boxed mac & cheese for only the cheese packet, and discard the pasta, than it is to order the cheese powder by itself, even in 5-10 pound quantities!

 

[runswithsizzers]

Economics is interesting, for example, one thing I learned yesterday: it's cheaper to buy 6 ounce instant boxed mac & cheese for only the cheese packet, and discard the pasta, than it is to order the cheese powder by itself, even in 5-10 pound quantities!

In my humble opinion, you would be far better off to keep the pasta and discard the cheese powder. ;-)

 

[mshchem]

Economics is interesting, for example, one thing I learned yesterday: it's cheaper to buy 6 ounce instant boxed mac & cheese for only the cheese packet, and discard the pasta, than it is to order the cheese powder by itself, even in 5-10 pound quantities!

Yep,,I discovered this several decades ago. Makes great cheese flavored popcorn My wife won't let me bring the stuff in the house now! Nothing like spray dried pasteurized process cheese food!

 

[Craig]

As much of the cost inherent in film relates to distribution and marketing, things like higher minimum orders and other distribution expense steps make sense for a film designed to be sold at lower prices.

I think a lot of the cost is the confectioning/packaging. At my local camera store the difference in price between a 24 exp and 36 exp roll of HP5 was 17 cents.

 

[mshchem]

Harman is hitting as many price points as possible.

I tend to buy Kodak film. Mostly TMY-2. lately I have been shooting more of Harman's Kentmere offerings, mostly just to do something different. I tend to shoot 120, and don't make huge enlargements. I have found the Kentmere 200 to work great, I can see fine grain, very fine grain, developed in XTOL for 8 minutes 68°F.

This film reminds me of shooting 1970s Plus-X, (I have absolutely no idea if it's similar, it's just a feeling?).

I think it's important to show that with a humble, high quality, traditional film, developed in ordinary developer, printed on say Kentmere RC paper you can get terrific results.

Like driving a humble 4 cylinder car can be enjoyable and reliable. Heck even sporty.

 

[pentaxuser]

Actually that announcement from Riv was from April of last year.

Thanks I missed that and assumed that the Riv announcement was pertinent to what seems or maybe not seems to be a rise in price in the last few day but if it was last April has no relevance at all

So I am confused : Has anything specific happened to result in an increase as of right now and if so are we any clearer as to the agent causing the increase i.e. is it Harman U.K, announcing a price increase or Ilford in the guise of a distributor whom people refer to as "Ilford" ?

Or is this whole thread nothing to do with any specific increase by any party whatsoever?

pentaxuser

 

[warden]

Harman is hitting as many price points as possible.

I tend to buy Kodak film. Mostly TMY-2. lately I have been shooting more of Harman's Kentmere offerings, mostly just to do something different. I tend to shoot 120, and don't make huge enlargements. I have found the Kentmere 200 to work great, I can see fine grain, very fine grain, developed in XTOL for 8 minutes 68°F.

This film reminds me of shooting 1970s Plus-X, (I have absolutely no idea if it's similar, it's just a feeling?).

I think it's important to show that with a humble, high quality, traditional film, developed in ordinary developer, printed on say Kentmere RC paper you can get terrific results.

Like driving a humble 4 cylinder car can be enjoyable and reliable. Heck even sporty.

I just received some Kentmere film in 35 and 120 to play with so I look forward to that!

 

[snusmumriken]

It looks to me as though Ilford prices in N America are roughly 10% higher than in the UK. For instance, 36 exp HP5+ currently costs £7.62 direct from Ilford, which converts to $10.41. But according to post#39, you are having to pay $11.49 at B+H.

 

[runswithsizzers]

It looks to me as though Ilford prices in N America are roughly 10% higher than in the UK. For instance, 36 exp HP5+ currently costs £7.62 direct from Ilford, which converts to $10.41. But according to post#39, you are having to pay $11.49 at B+H.

Yes, but only $9 at Film Photography Project (as of 2-2-26)

 

[mshchem]

It looks to me as though Ilford prices in N America are roughly 10% higher than in the UK. For instance, 36 exp HP5+ currently costs £7.62 direct from Ilford, which converts to $10.41. But according to post#39, you are having to pay $11.49 at B+H.

Yes, it's $11.49, I use the B&H credit card so they refund 6% which equals the Iowa state sales tax (6%). FedEx 2 day free shipping with $49 purchase. I bet B&H pays less per unit than anyone else in the world .

Probably getting rebates directly from Harman. Volume is everything in manufacturing. Thus Harman is hitting every customer they can. I love Ilford (Harman) products, I want everyone to go and buy a package of paper, every month. That's what I worry about. Prices on paper and sheet film will continue to grow.

Silver dropped again today.

 

[MattKing]

Probably getting rebates directly from Harman.

As they aren't buying from Harman, I doubt it .
They can only be buying from the US exclusive distributor, the distribution division of Roberts Cameras.

 

[mshchem]

As they aren't buying from Harman, I doubt it .
They can only be buying from the US exclusive distributor, the distribution division of Roberts Cameras.

We would get million dollar rebates directly from BASF for plastic our independent injection molding houses bought, used in parts where we specified BASF high impact polystyrene. The molders didn't know. The molder would pay $2.00/lb for plastic we could buy for 79 cents. The difference between buying 150 million pounds a year and 5 million.
We had one contract where we got paid 5 cents for every pound of a certain chemical competitors of ours .purchased from a large unnamed chemical company as a bonus for being the first company to agree to a new chemical.

I do remember one call with Eastman Chemical, we had been buying polyester resin (Tritan??) for years and years. Eastman Chemical was calling to tell purchasing that the price was basically going to triple. This was when everyone was freaking out about polycarbonate in baby bottles, water bottles etc. Eastman needed the polyester for other accounts.
Purchasing was so used to getting their way, they didn't that day.

 

[MattKing]

We would get million dollar rebates directly from BASF

A very different situation.
Harman's very existence depends on Roberts Cameras.
While B&H is a big retailer, Harman is not going to risk their entire US market for them.
That is not to say that there isn't volume discount agreements between B&H and Roberts, nor is it to say that Harman would not support such agreements with things like volume discount and targeted production schedule agreements with Roberts.
There might even be entire shipments coming from Harman that consist entirely of product ordered by B&H, or Freestyle, or other particular retailers.

 

[mshchem]

A very different situation.
Harman's very existence depends on Roberts Cameras.
While B&H is a big retailer, Harman is not going to risk their entire US market for them.
That is not to say that there isn't volume discount agreements between B&H and Roberts, nor is it to say that Harman would not support such agreements with things like volume discount and targeted production schedule agreements with Roberts.
There might even be entire shipments coming from Harman that consist entirely of product ordered by B&H, or Freestyle, or other particular retailers.

Sure, trust me it's rarely that simple.I don't know, no one here knows what kind of arrangement is in play.

I still want everyone to go buy some Ilford paper and sheet film!

 

[mshchem]

Reviewing and comparing, literature is dated but still accurate

 

[cmacd123]

today great canadian film warehouse want 12.65 (CDN) for 36 Exp HP5, and 10.31 for kent 400.

120 it is 12.65 and 9.38

they want 10.99 (120)and 9.49 36 exp for ultrapan extreme 400 which is a brand that previously was rare on the Canadian Market.

(we are not supposed to speculate, but I am wondering if the Ultrafine folks Had some of they order shipped to Canada, {Filc film is apparently distributing it here in Canada})

it is assumed that the extreme is private label Kentmere. so that is what was on my order.

 

[cmacd123]

Oh remember the good old days when there was 3 different versions of the same film Kodak USA, Kodak USA made for export, Kodak made in EU, or UK. Gray market stuff All different prices

Kodak used to make film in the USA, and some in Canada, also Kodak Limited Made film in the UK, and Kodak Pathe made film in france. the tri-x they sold in Canada, was liklly Made in Rochester and the rolls Finished in Canada. British an French TRi X were made in the respective countries. I forget who, but one of the Magnim photographers once said they preferred the french Tri-x to the US one.

Kodak Canada likely could coat almost any Kodak film, but also probably stuck to the volume line (kodacolour)

one year soon after the free trade agreement Kodak Canada was assigned to make ECN for all of North America.

 

[Eric Klingberg]

It looks to me as though Ilford prices in N America are roughly 10% higher than in the UK. For instance, 36 exp HP5+ currently costs £7.62 direct from Ilford, which converts to $10.41. But according to post#39, you are having to pay $11.49 at B+H.

As a person that bulk loads, I can't justify that much for HP5+. Bulk loading should be the default with these prices.

 

[mshchem]

one year soon after the free trade agreement Kodak Canada was assigned to make ECN for all of North America.

What kind of lunatic allows free trade amongst peace loving neighbors

 

[snusmumriken]

As a person that bulk loads, I can't justify that much for HP5+. Bulk loading should be the default with these prices.

It’s funny, I always thought the money we justify spending on a camera was by far the most expensive part of photography. I have taken just short of 300 rolls of b/w film in my life, mostly with a Leica M6. If I had paid the current Ilford price for them (I didn’t, I roll my own like you), that film would have cost about £2,200. My M6 + lens cost me £1,200 in 2002, and they would probably fetch £3,000 together if I sold them now. So in fact consumables (I haven’t reckoned in paper and chemicals yet) far outweigh the camera investment. Unless you have GAS, of course .

 

[BMbikerider]

The price of virtually everything has gone up but so have the incomes. Let us face it, Photography with film can appear to be expensive but compare that with the prices way back in 1962 when I started . I was taking home only £5 a week not enough to pay tax on.. The nearest equivalent job nowadays allowing for promotion over the years I would be on roughly £100K+ a year. So what appears to be a draconian increase, is in perspective just the world where everything increases in price. Compare that to another product fuel for my car. I wasn't old enough to drive in 1962, but fuel was the equivalent of about 25 pence a gallon (US gallons are smaller than UK ones) Now priced per litre it is around £1.30 a litre and there are 4.546 litres to a UK gallon. We really should look at it in perspective.

 

[mshchem]

The price of virtually everything has gone up but so have the incomes. Let us face it, Photography with film can appear to be expensive but compare that with the prices way back in 1962 when I started . I was taking home only £5 a week not enough to pay tax on.. The nearest equivalent job nowadays allowing for promotion over the years I would be on roughly £100K+ a year. So what appears to be a draconian increase, is in perspective just the world where everything increases in price. Compare that to another product fuel for my car. I wasn't old enough to drive in 1962, but fuel was the equivalent of about 25 pence a gallon (US gallons are smaller than UK ones) Now priced per litre it is around £1.30 a litre and there are 4.546 litres to a UK gallon. We really should look at it in perspective.

I bought gasoline (10% ethanol) today for $2.40/US gallon. Adjusting for inflation that's darn near free.

Pray nothing happens to Harman, Kodak etc coating and confection lines, costs to duplicate would be enormous.

 

[chuckroast]

The price of virtually everything has gone up but so have the incomes. Let us face it, Photography with film can appear to be expensive but compare that with the prices way back in 1962 when I started . I was taking home only £5 a week not enough to pay tax on.. The nearest equivalent job nowadays allowing for promotion over the years I would be on roughly £100K+ a year. So what appears to be a draconian increase, is in perspective just the world where everything increases in price. Compare that to another product fuel for my car. I wasn't old enough to drive in 1962, but fuel was the equivalent of about 25 pence a gallon (US gallons are smaller than UK ones) Now priced per litre it is around £1.30 a litre and there are 4.546 litres to a UK gallon. We really should look at it in perspective.

That's true for many things. When currency inflation is considered and real wage growth is taken into account, prices for many things are not remarkably higher. For example, an average car in 1960 was in $2600 range which would be around $50,000 today. If anything, the real price of cars has gone down (not to mention the multitude of features new cars have that a 1960s vehicle did not).

However, what this doesn't take into account that in nations like the US where there is an income tax, the inflation-driven increases in income have not had full corresponding tax bracket indexing. This represents a growth in cost due to higher incremental income taxation over time. Similarly, the current tariff posture of the US is effectively a form of taxation on the consumer here.

I am taking no particular policy position here, only noting that the math is the math. The current incremental cost of Ilford product in the US maps almost perfectly to the tariff rates on UK goods as I understand it.

So while goods may be about the same or even less expensive today, a full accounting would require taking into effect all tax, tariff, VAT, and so on implications as well.

You can really see this with the cost of film. I started shooting Tri-X 120 around 1970. It was something like $2.50 per roll. Adjusted for currency inflation, that would be about $21 today. So, in real terms, even assuming some error in my estimates, Tri-X 120 has gone down in price quite a bit.

 

[pbromaghin]

Silver prices started rising in the latter half of 2025 and then skyrocketed in January to $100/oz. Prices have eased a bit this past week, but still up about 4x over the 2020-2024 average and double Q4/25. I think things are going to be ugly for a while, similar to what we experienced in 1980 on "Silver Thursday", when the Hunt Brothers cornered the silver market. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday)

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Classic speculator runup. Wont last for long. Nobody gets hurt on a rollercoaster unless they jump off in the middle of the run.