Buying film from overseas...

[Molli]

I read all sorts of refernces to rebranding around photo.net as well - unfortunately, I wasn't paying enough attention at the time to make note of which was what. One thing I do recall is that, if product descriptions are given, you can usually puzzle it out. For example:

Made by one of the premier film manufacturers in the world, LegacyPro® comes in 100 and 400 ISO, ensuring that you’ll have a film for any photo situation. LegacyPro® 100 features unparalleled tight grain and tonality, making it ideal for portrait and fine-art work, while LegacyPro® 400 offers wide flexibility and versatility, putting it squarely at the top of the low-light and action categories.

Manufactured in Japan.

Sound like any company you know? That's the write up for Legacy Pro 400, the rebranded Neopan

So, Made In Japan = Fuji

For years, the Arista name has stood for high-quality products with superior value, and that has never been more true than today.

Introducing Arista Premium, the new line of black and white films that takes that quality to an all-new level. Thanks to a new partnership with a major film manufacturer, Freestyle now offers two new films that are sure to find a place in every photo education program.

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

The above is the write up for Arista Premium

America = Kodak Tri-X ? (Please someone kick my head in if I'm way off base here!)

Arista EDU is made in the Czech Republic but I don't know what the corresponding film for that might be.

I'm sure I read somewhere of a rebranded Ilford film, but my one brain cell has run into a brick wall.

All of these films give their recommended dev times on Freestyle, by the way.

 

[MattKing]

Guys (or it may be guys and gals, I don't know).

You do realize, don't you, that this discussion is in an open thread, and that it is visible to everyone unless they have explicitly decided to exclude posts from the Australia forum from their searches.

Many of us on APUG rely on the new posts function, so this thread has showed up regularly for me. I haven't blocked it, because I do buy things from outside of Canada,

I find it quite entertaining, and will be happy if you continue, but I expect that entertaining the likes of me wasn't your main intention.

You may find the PM function works better for these sorts of discussions.

Oh and Molli, welcome to APUG.

Matt

 

[gamincurieux]

We've nothing to hide from the world Matt, in fact we welcome its input!!

 

[wotalegend]

Arista EDU made in the Czech Republic would probably be from Foma.

cheap_shots_au has a re-labelled film he calls "cleanskin" also from the Czech Republic which I am almost certain is Foma.

 

[Michael W]

Film intermission......

Goldie, is there anywhere that I can read some kind of comparison info on Arista, you know, what is rebranded what?? Would be good to know what is what, otherwise Molli will soon tire of my ever-changing order! When I look I only find stuff like this:

http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/00IDfq

I think here on APUG there's been a lot of discussion about it, pretty sure that's where I got my info from.

 

[wotalegend]

OK, at the moment I am thinking:

Legacy Pro 400 x 100 ft roll = $27.99
Neopan 1600 x 10 (only comes in 135-36) = $49.90
Neopan 400 120 size x 10 = $30.90
Arista 35mm Metal Reloadable Cartridge - 25 pack $15.75 Freestyle #183125

Total US$108.79 + shipping

 

[wotalegend]

Oops, I hit post too soon.

That total should be $124.54 + shipping

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Guys (or it may be guys and gals, I don't know).

You do realize, don't you, that this discussion is in an open thread, and that it is visible to everyone unless they have explicitly decided to exclude posts from the Australia forum from their searches.

Many of us on APUG rely on the new posts function, so this thread has showed up regularly for me. I haven't blocked it, because I do buy things from outside of Canada,

I find it quite entertaining, and will be happy if you continue, but I expect that entertaining the likes of me wasn't your main intention.

You may find the PM function works better for these sorts of discussions.

Oh and Molli, welcome to APUG.

Matt

Welcome to the Australia forum, Matt. If you don't like it, then leave it alone.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Or we Australians could just PM each other all the time?

 

[gamincurieux]

euhhhhhhhhhh......... bed............

 

[Michael W]

You might also want to consider adding some good neg sleeves to your order if you're buying that much film. They'll be about 1/3 the local cost. Printfile, Vue-all.

 

[gamincurieux]

They're the plastic transparent ones that you can make contact sheets through, no? Not sure about them, have had film stick to the insides in the past. Besides that, making a contact by leaving them in the file means I have to use somewhat big paper to get em all in. I think I prefer the paper files...

 

[nsouto]

cheap_shots_AU I have bookmarked for future refernce on eBay

His name is Steven Mentieth and I've been getting film from him for years now. Always top quality and excellent, fast contact and delivery. And the post prices are a fraction of the US ones, besides he also bulk posts, saving even more.

There is also pbarcelon, from Melbourne. I don't know his name, but quality and prices are also excellent.

Between those two and the occasional 30' bulk I get from Foto Reisel in Sydney, I find no need whatsoever to go for US sources, which are invariably a total rip-off in P&P costs!

Ah yes: no afilliation or self-interest, I'm not connected in any way to any of those suppliers.


There is also one source from Canada - Henry's? - which is much easier on the pocket for postage. They are also on ebay.

 

[Molli]

You might also want to consider adding some good neg sleeves to your order if you're buying that much film. They'll be about 1/3 the local cost. Printfile, Vue-all.

Hi Goldie, would you recommend one over the other? I've added negative sleeves to my part of the order, the Vue-all ones, are these okay? I'm an absolute novice so any advice is very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Molli

 

[Molli]

OK, at the moment I am thinking:

Legacy Pro 400 x 100 ft roll = $27.99
Neopan 1600 x 10 (only comes in 135-36) = $49.90
Neopan 400 120 size x 10 = $30.90
Arista 35mm Metal Reloadable Cartridge - 25 pack $15.75 Freestyle #183125

Total US$108.79 + shipping

I've added these items to the current order going at Freestyle. Again, this is not set in stone, merely a way of keeping track of where we're at until everyone's got themselves organised

Broken down to the three orders we have thus far:

Paul

Ilford Multigrade MGIV RC Deluxe D44M 8x10/100 sheets Pearl (Packaged by Freestyle) - Model# 9355872
58.99

Fuji Neopan 1600 iso 35mm x 36 exp. - Model# 302605
4.99
15
$74.85

Fuji Neopan 400 iso 35mm x 36 exp. - Model# 302405
4.49
15
$67.35

SUB-TOTAL
$201.19
*

Molli

Vue All Archival Negative Preservers 35mm 7 strips of 5 negatives - 25 pack - Model# 08000
4.99
2
$9.98

Fuji Neopan 1600 iso 35mm x 36 exp. - Model# 302605
4.99
2
$9.98

Ilford HP5+ 400 iso 35mm x 24 exp. - Model# 700646
3.79
5
$18.95

Legacy Pro B&W 400 ISO
35mm x 36 exposures - Model# 194364
2.09
3
$6.27

Legacy Pro B&W 400 ISO
35mm x 24 exposures - Model# 194244
1.99

SUB-TOTAL
$47.17


Wotalegend


Legacy Pro B&W 400 ISO
35mm x 100 ft. - Model# 194410
27.99

Arista 35mm Metal Reloadable Cartridge - 25 pack - Model# 183125
15.75

Fuji Neopan 1600 iso 35mm x 36 exp. - Model# 302605
4.99
10
$49.90

Fuji Neopan 400 iso 120 size - Model# 302407 Currently Out of Stock - Due in Jan 08, 2010
3.09
10
$30.90

SUB-TOTAL
$124.54
*

Postage and handling comes to $95.81 = $31.94 each

 

[Michael W]

Hi Goldie, would you recommend one over the other? I've added negative sleeves to my part of the order, the Vue-all ones, are these okay? I'm an absolute novice so any advice is very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Molli

I think they are both good archival quality. I generally buy the sleeves that are 6 rows of 6 frames or 7 rows of 6 frames. I see you've chosen 7 rows of 5 frames, which will leave you short if you're shooting 36 frame rolls, esp as some modern cameras get 37 or 38 frames from a roll.

 

[Molli]

The reason for the 7x5 frames is because of my negative scanner (just a hybrid: Canon 4200f) - it takes a maximum strip of 5 frames, unfortunately.

 

[Wyno]

So far, I've bought film from B&H, Badger Graphics and Freestyle, and never had a problem and the film is delivered in a couple of days, not weeks.
Mike

 

[OldBikerPete]

The reason for the 7x5 frames is because of my negative scanner (just a hybrid: Canon 4200f) - it takes a maximum strip of 5 frames, unfortunately.

Molli. Private Message sent. Driving down to Rye on the Peninsula tomorrow. If you want me to bring the gear, call me.

 

[gamincurieux]

I haven't forgotten about this...

 

[OldBikerPete]

Umm. Is this film buy thing restricted to that 'orrible grey stuff in dinkie sizes or are real film buyers allowed in. Like 5x4 color neg.

 

[Wyno]

Pete,
Shane and I joined up with Gary and ordered film and paper from Freestyle. Gary ordered 35mm film and Shane ordered 4x5 film, and I ordered 8x10 film. You can get whatever you want and it only takes a couple of days to get here. If you join up with a couple of others, it helps with the cost of postage.
Mike

 

[Molli]

Just a heads up on this bulk order if Paul and Pete and Peter are all still in (?) Freestyle's prices have come down a tad since we started with this idea. For example, Fuji Neopan 400 x36exp had dropped 50c a roll to $4.49. Also, reading through their order policy, I thought I'd best post this excerpt:

"
International Payments

As part of our credit card security efforts, Freestyle verifies complete credit card information for all international orders before shipping items out of the United States. This is to help protect both Freestyle and its customers from the dangers of international credit fraud, which can be difficult to trace and correct. Since international banks issue credit cards in countries outside the United States, this process can take anywhere from one to seven business days, depending on how quickly the bank in question responds to our inquiries. Unfortunately, in some rare cases, the bank may not provide this information. If this is the case, Freestyle will contact you with assistance on other methods of payment. Please note that all first time international orders over $250 will require a wire transfer as payment."

We need to sort out how we're getting the money together for this because it will all be shipped to the name on the wired transfer so we need a collection point/person and ditto applies if it miraculously does fall under the $250 mark and a credit card is used.

Mention has been made of a Melbourne meet up some time in February. Would this be a good time to consolidate out order and money perhaps? Or would you all prefer to put in an order as soon as possible in the hopes of having the items arrive before then so they can be distributed at the meet?

On a slight tangent, the lovely Pete has bequeathed me an enlarger This means a) I need to get myself educated in a hurry and b) I'm now needing to add paper to this order. With that in mind, may I ask for everyone's advice? As best I can tell, the enlarger doesn't have a contrast filter drawer. Forgive my ignorance, but does this mean I should be ordering graded paper rather than multigrade?

 

[OldBikerPete]

Molli, I'd suggest that you buy a small quantity of graded paper in a relatively small size - no bigger than 5" x 7". Say a minimum quantity each of grades 2, 3 & 4 (Those numbers date from when I was last printing B&W = about when the sabre-tooth tiger disappeared and were the middle-of-the-range plus a grade either side).
You CAN use multigrade with that enlarger BTW - just hold the filter square under the lens. The first color enlarging I did was with a wheel having the three primary colors under the lens. You did a timed exposure with each of the colors in turn =- it made burning & dodging really interesting.

 

[Molli]

Thank you, Pete. I saw filter squares being sold at Freestyle quite cheaply and had a thought that this might be a worthwhile investment. I really can't afford to be buying all different grades of paper so I think I might give your 'hold the filter under the lens' thing a try if you think it's workable.
Thanks again for your help.... and, of course, for this wonderful enlarger!