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Film prices

Sirius Glass said:
Well that shows that Leicas are trash and you should only use Nikons. No one needs more than 36 exposures on a roll of film!
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As I said before... I need 35.
 

I have opposite experience. I remember TMAX 100 and 400 bulks to be reasonably priced then I started using bulks around 2013. But shortly after it, even before Kodak was alarised, bulks went nuts. I switched to Ilford and Kentmere after it.
 
But you still get a 100 feet canister of HP5 for 70 bucks
...for the same money I only get ten sheets of Portra 400 in 4"×5"...I'm getting desperate.
 
Film photography is much cheaper today than it once was. I seriously don't understand people who whine! Obviously you either don't have money for this hobby, or you earn not enough, or you spend too much on other things and thus film photography is not the most important part or hobby for you.
 

Yes, you are correct. How come there is no out cry for the high cost of Canon and Nikon DSLRs and Canon Canon, Nikon, Hasselblad and Leica mirrorless cameras?
 
I have posted the same thoughts in may threads. In fact just the other day I was researching Diane Arbus and was reading about her struggle to get good 120 B&W film in the late 1960s. I can say in the early 1970s it was also nearly as difficult. Nothing like today.
 
I'm on both sides of this. A lot of stocks are affordable, but some really are just out there. I would like to try Ektachrome, and can afford to, but I am not interested enough to pay $15 for a single roll. Velvia is even worse.

Neither is twice as good as Ektar, but they are nearly twice the price. It must be a slide film thing.
 
This reminds me a comment I saw on a bread baking forum I frequent. A commenter was concerned about the price of parchment paper and was looking for an alternative. And it’s not they they were baking commercially.

Every hobby has a cost of entry and continued costs after that. You either pony up or find a different hobby.
 
VinceInMT said:
Every hobby has a cost of entry and continued costs after that. You either pony up or find a different hobby.
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True but the danger for the film industry is that as prices rise beyond what each level of hobbyist considers worthwhile or affordable then demand falls and eventually the cost of making film puts its out of range for enough that the film making factory(ies) close

It may be that there is an equilibrium level where the remaining hobbyists can and will pay the price that sustains the industry but if the demand for film has fallen by that stage then it would seem that there are adverse consequences such as less research and resources to consider future and better changes etc

If enough people decide not to pony up but instead find a different hobby then that is bad and possibly fatal news for the analogue photography hobby as a whole

pentaxuser
 
pentaxuser, I don’t disagree with a thing you say. We have seen the same thing in the magnetic recording hobby. I play with wire, 8-tracks, and reels. Wire is gone as are 8-tracks. Reel tape is still available but pricey. And, of course, that machines that are left are being parted out to keep other machines running. I’m also into vintage foreign cars and, due to my own financial position, certainly priced out of the Lambos, Ferraris, and other makes which is why I have to settle for Volvos and Triumphs. Parts can be rare in that world.

I suppose, at some point, film and its chemistry could go away due to lack of demand. Heck, some already have. I loved Agfa Brovira grade 6 and have nothing to replace it.
 
Yes I feel that the best we can expect is that due to a combination of circumstances film and possibly chemicals, paper etc will be seen to jump in price to catch up with changing circumstances that film companies cannot control or only marginally control. Once that rise or series of rises have taken place and film, paper etc have then taken a bigger share of our disposable income, it then remains for an appreciable period more or less in line with inflation

That I feel is what most of us can live with and any reduction in our film buying due to the shock of a price increase or increases in excess of our disposable income slowly abates and the demand for film continues.

pentaxuser
 
I've been at this for almost 50 years. Prices have always gone up. I've tried to make sure, as prices rose, that my skills, and success rate, rose at the same rate, or better.
 
Still is still very affordable and gives me great pleasure. 120 HP5 only costs .75 Canadian cents per shot. 4x5 is about $2.90 per shot. 8x10 HP5 is almost $10 loonies per shot. Good thing I've got a stock in the freezer. When that's gone, my largest format will be 4x5, or 8x10 X-ray. My step-dad said to me once, you think photography is an expensive hobby? Try boating!
 

Some people have a problem with the costs of some films. OK, but those people need to stop acting as though the film companies' executives sit around all day plotting how to drive Karen or Tim or Throckmorton crazy by jacking up the prices. The companies need to be able to make enough profit to stay in business. Film today still cost less percentage wise then it did when I was a teenager.
 
Reminds me of the old men bitching about the price of a candy bar when I was a kid and a Hershey bar was going for $0.25.....

“I remember when a Hershey bar cost a nickel....”
 
Andrew O'Neill said:
... gives me great pleasure.
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That's the right answer and attitude. Everyone has to determine for themselves what this pursuit is worth. When you figure in the time you're out wandering for images, the time in the darkroom, and the pleasure a nicely framed print brings, it's actually one of the more affordable hobbies.
 

My point and the sky is the limit for top of the line digital equipment and software. Heck one does not own software any longer, now one can only rent it. I will stick to real darkroom work.
 
Sirius Glass said:
My point and the sky is the limit for top of the line digital equipment and software. Heck one does not own software any longer, now one can only rent it. I will stick to real darkroom work.
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You can own Darktable.


"A camera is a light-proof box with a hole in it...into which you pour money."
 

Bull. I could buy color 4x5 film in the 80s for a buck a sheet. Its going to be 5 bucks a sheet when kodak jacks it up and my pay has not quintupled since the 80s. Nobody's has, except for the corporations. You just happened to work for one of them so you are sitting pretty. What was their name again...Kodak, wasn't it?
 
As a latecomer to film in the sense of more than a few holiday snaps once a year, my experience was that from 2003 when I really started thus hobby seriously, both film and paper dropped in price for a few years and then rose again in price post the 2008 financial crisis but frankly in relation to wages we entered a period where the disposable income of most of us fell. However after the price ratchet, it again seemed to plateau for a number of years but once again in the last 2-3 years at least in my experience, film prices have risen way out of proportion to general prices and wages

What is undoubtedly true is that if you turn the clock back far enough to say the 60s then photography was more expensive at that time but then again so were things in general and our disposal income vis a vis the price of most goods was lower as was our whole standard of living

However when the "more expensive in former times argument " becomes just a truism it ceases to have much in the way of specific relevance to anything, doesn't it?

pentaxuser
 
Actually, the median household income in 1980 was $16,400. In 2020, it's $68,400, so it's quadrupled. In that regard film has done pretty well, considering the drop in demand.
 
eddie said:
Actually, the median household income in 1980 was $16,400. In 2020, it's $68,400, so it's quadrupled. In that regard film has done pretty well, considering the drop in demand.
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Is that both figures in present day values such that the real income of the median household has increased in real terms by just over 400%

That seems amazing. My real income has gone up in that timescale even if like everyone else I tend to be aware of sudden spurts where prices seem to rise but not my income to match. However I cannot say that I feel anything like 400% better off now that in 1980

pentaxuser
 
You can expect inflation as a matter of course at some point when so much currency (in part as a reaction to the pandemic) is created in so short a time. Save the political commentary please. The wisdom or lack thereof is a different discussion and belongs in the soap box. The result of the factual exercise though is economics 101. More money supply relative to a static or declining supply of a commodity has generally predicable characteristics.
 
I don't feel 400% better either... Another way to look at it is, $1.00 in 1980 is the equivalent of $3.35 now. I think the cost of a sheet of film, today, is right in line with those numbers, especially considering the huge falloff in demand.
 
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