Buying black and white film in India.

[Marco Buonocore]

Hello,

I plan on travelling to the south of India in January 2014. I will be bringing lots of film with me, but it's always nice to know more could be bought if needed.

Does anyone know where one could buy film in Chennai, or anywhere in Tamil Nadu or Kerala for that matter? I primarily shoot 120.

Also, does anyone know of any community darkrooms? Does that even exist in India, I wonder?

Thanks!

 

[Marco Buonocore]

I've found some photography forums in India - they're quite active. One has a sticky on the topic of film supplies in India:

http://www.jjmehta.com/forum/index.php/topic,24686.0.html

Once I've finished my trip, I'll post up anything I find for anyone who is interested.

 

[analoguey]

Hello Marco, I doubt that you get 120 film anywhere in India. Most often, 35mm bw is a struggle and available in few stores only. (see my thread in bw development).
I would recommend that you bring over some and have them security scanned manually at the airport (incidentally, most airports have this).
There are printers and developers but not enough merchants selling film.

- via tapatalk.

 

[abhoan]

Hey!

Ok Film wise, there are only two places to get films in India : Madanjee / Delhi and Nikhil Enterprise / Mumbai. You will get 120 and 35 both here. All pro grade films stored in fridges. But I'd recommend anyone coming to india to come always with their own film as you might not find the brand you like. For example getting Tmax here is a pain. You can get Neopan easily and the same goes for basic 35mm films. No Ilford again.

Secondly, there are great labs again in New Delhi / Bombay but none down south. You will find darkrooms in Bangalore but I can't comment on the quality of their chemicals.

Akshay B
New Delhi

 

[Marco Buonocore]

Thank you, Akshay B, I appreciate the reply!

If I run out of film, I suppose a long train ride to Mumbai will be the best solution.

 

[analoguey]

Just updating this thread, and adding to my post above, I am seeing more availability of film than I had before. On a recent visit to Mysore, I saw rolls of Fuji c200 available in almost all the photo shops I visited (I actually went around checking what films/processing was available a whole day).
And it is the later Fuji C200 (expiry 2015 or later) - so colour negative films are available. Slide or BW - you dont have that many options available everywhere - at the moment, might change later.

 

[parambyte]

I know this is an old thread, but I have some awesome 35 format B/W motion picture negative (Kodak 5222) in reusable cartridges. Let me know if you want them.