Has China finished making / exporting Black and white film?

[Anon Ymous]

yup, the price of 400TX etc is beyond ridiculous compared to Ilford and I have no idea why that's the case. Manufacturing costs or greed ? dunno. and not being able to buy Acros 8x10 in North America is another baffling decision. Even at the price point it sits at, it would sell pretty well. sigh...

And at the same time, in another part of the world (Europe), Kodak films are the more reasonably priced ones, compared to Ilford. That is if you want 36exp rolls. If you fancy rolling your own, then anything with a Kodak tag on it is absurdly expensive. 400TX specifically seems to come with a larger markup, perhaps because of its fame.

Strangely enough, even in the UK, Ilford Delta films are more expensive compared to their TMax equivalents. :confused:

 

[Xmas]

Ciba left the photochemical industry decades ago.

Sorry this thread
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Xmas]

Strangely enough, even in the UK, Ilford Delta films are more expensive compared to their TMax equivalents. :confused:

Not in 30.5m, the differential is so large I won't buy Kodak bulk, even if Kodak were better.
The U.K. Retail market is strange.

 

[Mark Crabtree]

Since this has drifted from the original topic I'll mention that Kentmere 100 if a very fine, slightly old fashioned, film at a very reasonable price in the US. At least it is in 100 foot rolls, which is all I buy. And it has Ilford's high quality control standard.

 

[Xmas]

Since this has drifted from the original topic I'll mention that Kentmere 100 if a very fine, slightly old fashioned, film at a very reasonable price in the US. At least it is in 100 foot rolls, which is all I buy. And it has Ilford's high quality control standard.

Try Kentmere 400...

 

[Mark Crabtree]

Try Kentmere 400...

I've been planning to. I tried it when it was introduced and found it noticeably grainier than any of the competition, so didn't bother with more. My grain allergy has eased up so I plan to try it again. I actually didn't bother with the 100 until Freestyle's rebranded Fuji and Kodak were gone, and TMX got expensive. I'm glad I did give it another try because for my use, I actually prefer it to the Acros. The Kentmere 100 is my day to day general use film.

 

[JPR]

Because Acros is an awesome film? Ain't gonna cut my nose off in spite of my face...

If you stay leery enough on Kodak, it will go away too! Talk about basic cutting ones nose off to spite the face.

Kodak and Fuji make colour film and also my fav b/w films so I'm not going to drop them any time soon. The hate for Kodak is strong in some

My first post was a little hastily written and led to some strange interpretations.

This has nothing to do with "hate" or "cutting my nose off." It is all about supporting the players that are committed to film (becuase I buy film.)

For years, Kodak was mostly using the film business to support the other businesses. The plan was to transition. Ilford's business plan looks more to me like the "we are here to stay business plan." This of course all might change now that Kodak went bankrupt. We will see.

The point of my statement was, we should support the people who plan on staying in the business. I'll bet Acros will go out of production before Pan F Plus. Film is just not a core business for Fuji anymore. Better to transition now and have as many people supporting serious players.

I would like to try some Foma film too. On the other hand, the story of Efke was quite sad and apparently shows the dedication it will take to stay in this business. Didn't a part on the machinery break that pushed them out of business? We will need a strong player to stand up for film in the future. Actually, it looks like Ilford might be the only one, because as correctly pointed out above the companies I mentioned are not manufacturers.

 

[canuhead]

imo, if photographers jump ship simply to support other film manufacturers, then that can only hasten the exit of the spurned manufacturer from film production. Kodak and Fuji will always be my go to films and if they go tits up then I'll reconsider but until such an event happens,if ever...

 

[MartinP]

Just to confirm, Fotoimpex (owners and users of the Adox brand) are the new owners of the medium Ciba coating machine in Switzerland. It will continue to be used at the Swiss location as the machine is not a movable device (it is large and fills a multi-storey building). Foma seemed to be on a gradual decline some years ago (a decade or so? I wasn't paying attention) then there was some investment made, quality certificates earned and they are taking a longer view of the market. One might almost say the size of the market adjusted to fit the company for Foma, and the other way round for Harman.

 

[Xmas]

Just to confirm, Fotoimpex (owners and users of the Adox brand) are the new owners of the medium Ciba coating machine in Switzerland. It will continue to be used at the Swiss location as the machine is not a movable device (it is large and fills a multi-storey building). Foma seemed to be on a gradual decline some years ago (a decade or so? I wasn't paying attention) then there was some investment made, quality certificates earned and they are taking a longer view of the market. One might almost say the size of the market adjusted to fit the company for Foma, and the other way round for Harman.

Super any news on a first coating yet?

 

[MartinP]

There is another thread somewhere here, and a link at Fotoimpex/Adox, concerning the first run of the machine. They successfully test-coated a gelatine layer a few months ago. IIRC the coater is about 50cm wide, so they can also do paper as well as film (with the attendant cleaning problems I suppose). The news part of the Adox site will have updates whenever anything exciting happens I expect. Note that the "Ilford" they are referring to is the old company (even longer ago, part of CIBA-GEIGY), before its bankruptcy and the split between Harman (UK) and new Ilford (Switzerland).

 

[pentaxuser]

Are we any closer to a definitive statement on Lucky 35mm film from an unimpeachable source yet? The Chinese recently seemed to have finished making all sorts of things such as Holga cameras for reasons that I cannot figure out

How are they doing on rice?

pentaxuser

 

[Xmas]

Are we any closer to a definitive statement on Lucky 35mm film from an unimpeachable source yet? The Chinese recently seemed to have finished making all sorts of things such as Holga cameras for reasons that I cannot figure out

How are they doing on rice?

pentaxuser

I don't think your local take away is going to cancel rice on menu any time soon.
But it does look like film holgas will be like Ming vases soon, unless you are very Lucky.
I can recall the panic buying with sugar and loo rolls.

 

[munz6869]

Has anyone mentioned New55's 'Atomic-X' 100 ISO b&w film that they're releasing in small batches on their web shop? This appears to be coated in a Chinese factory that does a range of x-ray and other industrial films to order...?

Marc!

 

[blockend]

I used to buy a block of Lucky film fairly regularly, but the two batches I purchased last year had flaws and I gave up on them. Users were familiar with the thin, curly film base and lack of anti-halation layer, but recent packs had random scratches on the film and distorted light traps that meant the first six frames were unusable and fogging was evident further into the film.

Foma 100 is a much nicer film and costs about the same as Lucky bulk loaded in the UK. When I last looked there was only one direct seller of Lucky film on eBay, plus a few "Lomography" resellers at silly mark ups. My guess is quality control took a dive because I never had problems previously, and it began to be sold as practice film and similar euphemisms. If this was a precursor to production winding down in China I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[wblynch]

China has learned to make rice from plastic. I understand it causes indigestion.