Portra 400 120 shortage

shutterlight · Feb 9, 2016

It seems that Portra 400 is backordered at B&H, and likewise at Amazon (through Amazon itself, not its third party sellers). Last week, it ranged from being backordered, to being in stock for shipping only, and now it's backordered again. In the three years I've been looking and buying it, I've never seen that happen. Just as importantly, the price at B&H for 5 packs (which is what I always buy) is listed as being $39.95, which is a $10 jump from what it's been at for a couple years now. Individual rolls are now listed as being $7.99.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Roger Cole · Feb 9, 2016

Dunno, but Freestyle has it. They are usually more expensive on film than B&H but they have it, after "instant rebate" (WTH is the difference between an "instant rebate" and a simple price cut sale anyway?) for $6.74/roll unboxed and $31.94/5 roll Pro Pack.

I need to get some anyway, should order some.

120 Portra 400 at Freestyle - link broke when I just pasted the link.

shutterlight · Feb 9, 2016

Freestyle still has it, but with their shipping costs, it works out to be around the same as getting 400H 5 packs. If I lived near Freestyle's physical location, it would be an easy choice. Alas, it is not.

I'm just more than a bit alarmed, because this hasn't happened for as long as I've been following it. If the price increase is just due to supply issues, I can see it coming back down (I've seen it go up a bit before and then return to $29.95). This is a really big jump for me, and I'm hoping it's not a permanent one.

Supplies of 35mm Portra 400 and Portra 160 in 120 seem normal.

Roger Cole · Feb 9, 2016

I get it. I often get film and paper from B&H, chems from Freestyle (partly because B&H won't ship so much stuff but also to support Freestyle.) But if I'm ordering from Freestyle anyway I'll often throw in some film.

dabsond · Feb 10, 2016

Dead Link Removed

You can try these guys, they ship film out media mail and have great shipping times.

JW Henderson · Feb 16, 2016

I'm not certain, but I think what we're seeing is an echo of what recently happened with Fuji 400H being backordered and high priced just a few months ago. There is a film revival happening now. More people are picking up medium format film cameras and transitioning or incorporating some film into their work. This is a great thing for film as a whole IMO, but it comes at the cost of higher demand on the film companies who are slow to ramp up production to meet demand. Fuji was hit with increasing demand for 400H and got behind on production... the prices went up and film was backordered everywhere. For now you can get Fuji at pretty much all the suppliers and at a more reasonable price than it was 2 months ago. I think people then turned to Kodak Portra 400 as the alternative which was plentiful and reasonably priced. I think it was a mad rush on Portra and now it has put Kodak in the same situation. I think production will catch up and prices will come down again.

Let's just hope they can get ahead of it and this back and forth cycle doesn't keep happening.

Sirius Glass · Feb 16, 2016

Welcome to APUG JWH

shutterlight · Feb 16, 2016

JW Henderson said:
I'm not certain, but I think what we're seeing is an echo of what recently happened with Fuji 400H being backordered and high priced just a few months ago. There is a film revival happening now. More people are picking up medium format film cameras and transitioning or incorporating some film into their work. This is a great thing for film as a whole IMO, but it comes at the cost of higher demand on the film companies who are slow to ramp up production to meet demand. Fuji was hit with increasing demand for 400H and got behind on production... the prices went up and film was backordered everywhere. For now you can get Fuji at pretty much all the suppliers and at a more reasonable price than it was 2 months ago. I think people then turned to Kodak Portra 400 as the alternative which was plentiful and reasonably priced. I think it was a mad rush on Portra and now it has put Kodak in the same situation. I think production will catch up and prices will come down again.

Let's just hope they can get ahead of it and this back and forth cycle doesn't keep happening.

Thanks very much for that post. That helps me make sense of things, at least potentially. I'm of the opinion that Portra 400 is a substantially better film, but obviously that's subjective. I can just say that I prefer using it over 400H. Having said that, I bought two five packs of 400H yesterday from B&H. I put them in my cart late in morning and by the time I went to buy them a couple hours later, the price had risen about $3 for each 5 pack.

Is there a new emulsion of 400H, circa 2013 or so, or is it the same one as it has been for many years? There's two separate listings for 400H, with the same price, so it's a bit confusing.

JW Henderson · Feb 17, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
Welcome to APUG JWH

Thank you for the welcome Sirius )

shutterlight said:
Thanks very much for that post. That helps me make sense of things, at least potentially. I'm of the opinion that Portra 400 is a substantially better film, but obviously that's subjective. I can just say that I prefer using it over 400H. Having said that, I bought two five packs of 400H yesterday from B&H. I put them in my cart late in morning and by the time I went to buy them a couple hours later, the price had risen about $3 for each 5 pack.

Is there a new emulsion of 400H, circa 2013 or so, or is it the same one as it has been for many years? There's two separate listings for 400H, with the same price, so it's a bit confusing.

Yes... I noticed the price jump over the weekend also. I was able to get a couple packs delivered Friday at the lower price before it jumped. Adorama has it right now for $34.45 (in case you're still looking) so I just got a couple more while the price is decent. I don't know if there has been a formula change in the emulsion since they discontinued NPH400, I think we're just seeing some different packaging design. I also love Portra 400 film, it's warmer than Fuji, skin tones look great etc. For me it just depends on the situation. Fuji tends to really become pastel when overexposed. Greens go a little more blue (that extra cyan layer in the film) and tends to be a popular soft look for wedding photography.

Both films are great, so I tend to grab whichever one has the best price at the time.

Here's one on Portra 400 from a first test roll through a Mamiya 645 I picked up.

Molly_0012 by Jason Henderson, on Flickr

Roger Cole · Feb 17, 2016

Mmm. I haven't tried 400H. But most color neg film doesn't do much of anything with overexposure except require longer printing times and less grain. Machine prints show lighter, but if you print your own or have them printed they can be made to match.

But one thing I think we've been missing since the demise of Agfa and Portrait 160 is the choice of a soft, pastel look. Might be worth trying out.

(While I'm missing Agfa there is no modern substitute for Ultra 50 either. Ektar is very saturated but Ultra 50 was like a C41 version of Velvia, only maybe more so. Sigh.)

RattyMouse · Feb 17, 2016

shutterlight said:
It seems that Portra 400 is backordered at B&H, and likewise at Amazon (through Amazon itself, not its third party sellers). Last week, it ranged from being backordered, to being in stock for shipping only, and now it's backordered again. In the three years I've been looking and buying it, I've never seen that happen. Just as importantly, the price at B&H for 5 packs (which is what I always buy) is listed as being $39.95, which is a $10 jump from what it's been at for a couple years now. Individual rolls are now listed as being $7.99.

Does anyone know what's going on?

I've experienced many shortages of Kodak Portra films over the past few years. Their production schedule is clearly out of sync slightly with demand with the result that from time to time the film becomes unavailable.

amellice · Feb 17, 2016

it seems that it's back again for shipping only in B&H for $34.95

shutterlight · Feb 24, 2016

It's backordered again. Didn't take long, unfortunately.

David T T · Apr 3, 2016

It's back.

Portra 400 120 shortage

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