5x7" Portra 160NC film is available!

B&H recently increased their minimum purchases for 50 sheet boxes of Portra 160NC, the only color negative film available in the 5x7" format to 30 boxes, effectively putting it out of the reach of any ordinary buyer.
However, Badger Graphic Sales is willing to help any users of this film to combine small orders to create a group order from Kodak. The procedure is very simple. One need only call Jeff at the store (800) 558-5350 and let him know how many boxes you would like to purchase. When he has accumulated sufficient orders to make 30 boxes, he will order directly from Kodak. He anticipates that his price per box will be the same (or very similar) to what B&H has been charging previously (of note, I spoke with their representative, and they were not willing to help out in this fashion to assist individual purchasers).
This is very good news, I encourage all 5x7 Portra users to take advantage while we can.
Larry Segil

Hell. I had no idea about the B&H minimum order. Pretty lousy!

Jeff at Badger Graphic is beginning to accumulate some significant numbers of orders for the 5x7 Portra 160NC 50 sheet boxes (price ~$200 each), but we still need more buyers to reach Kodak's minimum order size. I stronly encourage any 5x7 format photographers who have ever contemplated shooting color to take advantage of this opportunity to purchase film. The film, bulk ordered, will be custom cut by Kodak from fresh emulsion, not old stock from the warehouse. The only other color option is Provia 100F transparency, also only available in this country from Badger, and to my eye a lesser film, particularly for scanning, than the Kodak product. Given Kodak's behavior with Portra, they are clearly uninterested in maintaining it as a viable product for photography consumers (or probably anyone, as who else is using 5x7 film these days?). It seems unlikely to me that we will ever be able to get any of this film in 5x7 again except now, by way of this current offer of a bundled purchase through Badger. There is no other 5x7 color negative film available from any manufacturer or any dealer anywhere, worldwide, at any price (other than $6000 for thirty boxes from B&H).
So, please give your possible future film usage some thought. Might you ever want to shoot color negative film? If we can't make this bundled order work now, the 5x7 community will (most likely) forever lose the chance to buy and use color negative film in precut sheets. Portra is a beautiful film, and I for one dread the thought that I may have shot my last sheets of it.
Still hopeful and counting on the strength of the community acting in common purpose,
Larry Segil

Larry, you're posting in other forums too, right? Especially LFPI?

Yes, it is posted in LFPI, feel free to spread the word anyplace you think might be worthwhile. Jeff has now added the ability to pre-order the film directly on the Badger Graphic web site.
Larry