My experience with a 12x20 order from Kodak was illuminating. First, I couldn't believe they would not be interested in doing the Tmax 400. It actually looked like it was going to happen for a while, but then some VP decided it would be too much hassle to create a new catalog number for this product. Sheesh, how much trouble could that really be? We got the order of 44 boxes, and what immediately struck me was that they no longer bother putting the film in dedicated 12x20 inch boxes. They slapped a label on a 16x20 print box, and called it good. It is not really any big deal, but it IS indicative, I think, of the general attitude within Kodak toward these special orders.
Before everyone gets all smug and thinks that they will always have the photowarehouse fp-4 clone as a fall-back, I want to rain on that particular parade.
My understanding from talking to a few people who know is that photowarehouse is currently working off of the LAST master roll of ilford fp-4 that they will be getting. Apparently as part of the product line rationalization that ilford went through during the last few months, they decided that selling master rolls to companies who compete directly with them in the US market was not particularly astute from a marketing point of view. The word is that Ilford will still sell the ULF sizes in HP-5 and FP-4 to customers, though, and their minimum order size (5 boxes I believe) is much less daunting than the Kodak 44 box minimum for 12x20.
So if you like FP-4 for cheap, and have an unusually sized camera, I would recommend buying it now. It's going to get a lot harder and certainly more expensive in a few months.
Robert Hall said:
Understood, but not the point. I buy all my film from them too. As I said, this is really expensive film, but it's Tri-x if anyone wants what Tri-x gives them.
It does have it's own look.
Just want to know if anyone is interested in taking part of a special order.
Best to all,
