Kodak MAX 800 gone from B&H

B&Wpositive · Oct 23, 2008

Whoops...should have posted in product availability.

I noticed that MAX 800 is missing from the B&H website.

I emailed them, and they replied that Portra 800 is the only Kodak ISO 800 film currently stocked.

This is strange! Now, I don't generally use MAX 800, but I'm still curious what the deal is. MAX 800 is very popular -- it is the only color film used in single-use Kodak Cameras. Odd that B&H would stop carrying it.

bob100684 · Oct 24, 2008

B&Wpositive said:
Whoops...should have posted in product availability.

I noticed that MAX 800 is missing from the B&H website.

I emailed them, and they replied that Portra 800 is the only Kodak ISO 800 film currently stocked.

This is strange! Now, I don't generally use MAX 800, but I'm still curious what the deal is. MAX 800 is very popular -- it is the only color film used in single-use Kodak Cameras. Odd that B&H would stop carrying it.

gone from adorama too.....still on kodak's webpage though.

chrism · Oct 24, 2008

I gotta say...Kodak Max is about the crappiest film I have ever used. So, good riddance.

highpeak · Oct 24, 2008

B&H has less and less film in stock right now and their sales person looks like they just got back from running a marathon. Also, there is no display of the film once you enter the store, you have to go around the film counter to find some films on display.

spark · Oct 24, 2008

If you want some Max 800, try Walgreens

nyoung · Oct 24, 2008

Gotta agree with Chrism. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Just shot some high school volleyball action using a roll of Max 800 and a roll of Portra 400VC exposed -2. Had both rolls developed, printed and scanned to a CD at the same lab. The Portra underexposed two stops is vastly superior to the Max 800 at box speed. Just ordered some Portra 800 from Freestyle in hopes of great improvement.

bob100684 · Oct 24, 2008

I would be surprised if Kodak has indeed discontinued their 800 speed film, simply because it's what their OTUCs use, and when I was cutting my teeth in the lab world, it was THE most abundant film type we took in for the 1hr service.

henryp · Oct 24, 2008

We will carry every Kodak film we can get our hands on. We'd take a film off our site if future availability was unpredictable and the film was out of stock. If the film was out of stock but we had reasonable expectations of getting more, we'd leave the film listed but not the stock status.

highpeak said:
Also, there is no display of the film once you enter the store, you have to go around the film counter to find some films on display.

There's no display of the film once you enter the store, BECAUSE you have to go around the film counter to find some films on display. We display film at the film counter, just as we display digital cameras at the digital camera counters.

nickandre · Oct 26, 2008

I only use 800 speed films for pushing 2 stops to 3200 when I get really bored in the color darkroom. I don't care at all. That film has to have just about zero professional use.

bob100684 · Oct 26, 2008

.....for what it is, kodak 800 is a decent film. The average consumer with their point and shit whatever won't notice the difference in a 4x6 print.............Most consumers who drop film at a lab aren't enlarging anyway. At multiple lab's I've worked at, the film pattern is many rolls, a couple 5x7's, where as the digital pattern is few 4x6's but proportionally many more enlargements.

B&Wpositive · Jul 24, 2009

Still no Max 800

Still no Max 800 availability, other than in single use cameras. I wasn't planning to use Max 800, but there aren't that many 800 speed films left. Anyone know the real story about Max 800? It's been a year or two.

DanielStone · Jul 24, 2009

tiberiustibz said:
I only use 800 speed films for pushing 2 stops to 3200 when I get really bored in the color darkroom. I don't care at all. That film has to have just about zero professional use.

i work for a bunch of pro's here in L.A. who use portra 800 in 120 religiously... they like it because of its availability in 120, and of its neutral color palette.

and the grain is very fine too, especially compared to MAX 800. i prefer to take a 400 and push +1, but in a pinch, the portra 800 is a VERY nice film.

Ektagraphic · Jul 24, 2009

Tough to see another option off the charts.

dynachrome · Jul 24, 2009

Portra 800 and the Fuji 800 films are so much better, the only reason I can think of for using MAX 800 is when you want extra grain.

B&Wpositive · Jul 24, 2009

dynachrome said:
Portra 800 and the Fuji 800 films are so much better, the only reason I can think of for using MAX 800 is when you want extra grain.

Right; I haven't used it since 2004 except for two rolls of GT-2 last year that I got off of ebay that were part of a larger bag of film. Rated at 320, they worked well. Grainy as heck, but the effect was cool.

B&Wpositive · Oct 26, 2009

In CVS today, I looked at what film they had.

CVS 200 and 400 speed (that's Fuji).
Tri-X and BWCN 400 (almost $6 per roll)
Gold 200 and Max 400 and 800.

I wasn't expecting to see Max 800. I looked at the dates. The Max 800 was dated 01/2010. That's short-dated. Other Gold films had later dates, ranging from late 2010 to early 2012.

Ektagraphic · Oct 26, 2009

Actually, I find it nearly impossible for it to go so soon. It is what powers all of the Kodak disposable cameras. I am however, not suprised at B&H. They haven't had Elite Chrome 200 for months and Freestyle has gone out of stock a few times and had it back in stock within a couple of days.....B&Wpositive- I know the price is rather high but I have lucked out a couple of times in a hurry buying Tri-X at CVS. What was really really great was when they sold Elite Chrome! It was expensive at $9.99 but when I wanted it in a hurry it worked.

Jeff Kubach · Oct 26, 2009

I have used Max 800 some time ago, I was quite disappointed in it. In this case, I'm glad they dropped it.

Jeff

Alexander Ghaffari · Oct 29, 2009

That is the worst object of any kind that I have used to capture light. I've hand-coated cyanotypes shot in-camera that were immeasurably better than that film. There is no point in printing expiration dates on the box because that film kept so poorly that it was "expired" before it arrived in stores.

2F/2F · Oct 29, 2009

Good riddance. Try Fuji Superia Press 800; one of the most amazing films on the market. It is my most-used color film by far. I get it in press packages, so the emulsions are matching and I get 36 shots per roll. Ends up being a little over three bucks a roll.

Kodak MAX 800 gone from B&H

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