Shanghai GP3 120 film It's back?

John Wiegerink · May 4, 2018

mshchem said:
It's still there, 10 rolls 120 9.99 USD free shipping. I wouldn't use it if it was free. Kodak, Ilford, Foma, and until recently Fujifilm. This is who to support . China dumping film below cost of production, then exploiting postal treaties to use our countries mail services to deliver at a loss. Anyone who bemoans the loss of Plus-X or Acros shouldn't complain if they are buying this stuff.
My Grumpy humble opinion, for what it's worth.
Mama don't take my FP4 away .

I agree with you, but don't blame the average consumer for the problem. Blame belongs on our governments shoulders and not the people who are just shopping for a cheaper film. I feel the same way about all the U.S. companies that setup factories overseas and produce products with American trademark names. They should not be allowed to use an American trademark name if at least 51% of the product isn't made in the good old USA. Don't even get me going on all the good paying manufacturing jobs that our patriotic corporations shipped overseas. So, until the problem is taken care of by our higher officials I will continue to buy cheap film from whomever sells it. JohnW

fjpod · May 4, 2018

Blame Nixon. He opened trade with China.

John Wiegerink · May 4, 2018

fjpod said:
Blame Nixon. He opened trade with China.

There is much more blame to go around, including corporate America, but the real blame should be placed on greed for the almighty dollar/yen/Euro or whatever.

Cholentpot · May 4, 2018

mshchem said:
It's still there, 10 rolls 120 9.99 USD free shipping. I wouldn't use it if it was free. Kodak, Ilford, Foma, and until recently Fujifilm. This is who to support . China dumping film below cost of production, then exploiting postal treaties to use our countries mail services to deliver at a loss. Anyone who bemoans the loss of Plus-X or Acros shouldn't complain if they are buying this stuff.
My Grumpy humble opinion, for what it's worth.
Mama don't take my FP4 away .

And even supporting Fuji they still manage to pull the rug because that's the way business goes. The big guys get nothing from us, the guys who buy 30 rolls a year. They get all the support from Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and the big market. They buy XXX,XXX amount a month. If Walmart announced tomorrow that they were dumping film for good Fuji would immediately cease all film production as it would be a giant loss to produce any film at that point.

Agulliver · May 4, 2018

Why am I buying?

First off, I have a brick of Rollei Retro 400S, half a brick of Fomapan 100 and another half brick of Ilford 120 films. I have 100 feet of Ilford HP5 in 35mm ready to go and 100 feet of Fomapan 100 in 35mm....as well as a brick of Kodak Ultramax 400 and 4 Colorplus 200 films. And a brick of Fuji Superia 800. I'm not the world's biggest buyer of film but I think I adequately support the big names. My chemicals come from Ilford, Kodak and Adox (Fotoimpex).

So I missed out on GP3 last time it was available and fancy trying something new to me and something cheap for my box cameras and vintage cameras. I really don't want to put £8 worth of FP4+ or even £4.50 of Fomapan through a box or toy camera when I can get 99c of GP3. Some of these cameras are over 80-100 years old and in most cases don't have complicated multi element lenses and certainly not coated lenses. Why on earth would I put Ektar or Tri-X through them? One day it's going to be fun to test drive my original Sinomax (Diana clone from the original "back in the day") but I really wouldn't put top quality film in it.

In short, in my case buying some cheap GP3 won't take away from my spending on the bigger name film...but it will allow me to use some cameras that would likely otherwise have lain unused. I am on a budget and I cannot justify full price film in an Agfa Syncrho Box or Kodak Pocket No 2. All I need now is a cheap 127 film for my Ferrania Tanit and I'm good to go!

sepiareverb · May 4, 2018

Ran my films this morning, and they are just now proofed. Films looked good tho a tad underexposed. I ran in Rodinal 1:25 for 11 minutes, might down grade my ISO to 50 for the next round, maybe 64.

Film was not at all curly either right off the spool nor after drying. Hard to handle when loading my reel as it didn't want to stay rolled up in my hand.

mshchem · May 4, 2018

John Wiegerink said:
I agree with you, but don't blame the average consumer for the problem. Blame belongs on our governments shoulders and not the people who are just shopping for a cheaper film. I feel the same way about all the U.S. companies that setup factories overseas and produce products with American trademark names. They should not be allowed to use an American trademark name if at least 51% of the product isn't made in the good old USA. Don't even get me going on all the good paying manufacturing jobs that our patriotic corporations shipped overseas. So, until the problem is taken care of by our higher officials I will continue to buy cheap film from whomever sells it. JohnW

I certainly can't dispute what you say. I had to train people that took my job . Famous H1B visas or 6 month Visas. If Americans lacked the skills, how come I had to train the people from abroad ? Fortunately I have been squirreling away money so now I just sit back and shake my fist at the TV. Best Regards

mshchem · May 4, 2018

Agulliver said:
£8 worth of FP4+

I need to start smuggling film back to the UK, at current exchange rate, £3.76 free delivery from B&H Photo $5.09 US, for 120 FP4 plus, free delivery for orders $49 or higher. Of course the US just prints more money when we run out. Nuts!

abruzzi · May 4, 2018

Cholentpot said:
If Walmart announced tomorrow that they were dumping film for good Fuji would immediately cease all film production as it would be a giant loss to produce any film at that point.

Your Walmart sells 35mm film? The one near me does not, unless you want to buy a disposable camera to get it.

Cholentpot · May 5, 2018

abruzzi said:
Your Walmart sells 35mm film? The one near me does not, unless you want to buy a disposable camera to get it.

Fuji 400 something or another in 5 packs 24 and 36 exposures. Also Fuji 200 in packs. Walgreens also carries Fuji, CVS carries Kodak Gold. If I want B&W or Ektar or Portra I need to visit a photog shop.

pdeeh · May 6, 2018

I used to use lots of this when it was £1.80 a roll delivered if you bought a 10 brick, and I was a sad boy when it disappeared. At that price, I could live with having a dodgy roll (or even two) two in each brick, although a lot of the time there were no problems. I really liked the way it looked.

From this thread, it seems that the consensus is that the quality control is about on a par as before, but at ~£3.60/roll (10 brick) on UK eBay it's not the bargain it was. FP4 or Foma 100 is about £4.20, so the price differential is massively eroded.

alanrockwood said:
It seems to me that unless it gets below roughly $4 per roll you're better off buying Arista Edu Ultra or Kentmere film rather than Shanghai film.

ah, but Kentmere is not available in 120

Cholentpot · May 6, 2018

pdeeh said:
I used to use lots of this when it was £1.80 a roll delivered if you bought a 10 brick, and I was a sad boy when it disappeared. At that price, I could live with having a dodgy roll (or even two) two in each brick, although a lot of the time there were no problems. I really liked the way it looked.

From this thread, it seems that the consensus is that the quality control is about on a par as before, but at ~£3.60/roll (10 brick) on UK eBay it's not the bargain it was. FP4 or Foma 100 is about £4.20, so the price differential is massively eroded.

ah, but Kentmere is not available in 120

I used to cut it down to older deader formats like 127. I went through a brick getting it right.

Shoom · May 8, 2018

So has anyone who ordered the cheap bricks gotten theirs yet? Mine says it's out for delivery, but in the wrong town.

The same thing happened to a friend who ordered some as well, yesterday, so I'm beginning to suspect that the person who suggested these ads were feelers might be on to something...
We'll see if anything shows up.

Agulliver · May 8, 2018

eBay simply shows mine has been dispatched. I'm giving it at least a month before I file a claim. Stuff from China usually takes 2-3 weeks to arrive here in the UK but I did once buy a tea infuser which took more like 6 weeks.

Agulliver · May 8, 2018

mshchem said:
I need to start smuggling film back to the UK, at current exchange rate, £3.76 free delivery from B&H Photo $5.09 US, for 120 FP4 plus, free delivery for orders $49 or higher. Of course the US just prints more money when we run out. Nuts!

This is exactly why I often buy a couple of 100' bulk rolls and some colour print film when I'm visiting the states or when friends are. £100 worth of material from B&H can be half the price in the UK.....I understand Kodak film being cheaper but I could drive to Mobberly in under four hours....

Gabo Barreto · May 9, 2018

I ordered 10 rolls for £8.99 and now the item has been removed from ebay. I'm not surprised at all as I was expecting it to happen. I will claim my money back but just in case will wait till the end on month before doing it. Not holding my breath though.

John Wiegerink · May 9, 2018

Your first clue that these are bogus is the fact that these sellers have either zero (0) feedback or single digit feedback. I bet eBay wouldn't have this problem if they didn't have "free listing" days every now and then. This has got to be a real pain in the rear for eBay. They might have to start a rebate program for new sellers just to eliminate this problem. A new seller has to sell 50 items and when that 50 is reached eBay will reimburse that seller all their original listing fees. JohnW

Agulliver · May 9, 2018

The seller I bought from has sold 60, and has none left. They do have some single digit positive feedback but for non-film items.

What doesn't compute is the small numbers. 60x$10 is only $600....hardly worth setting up a scam. While I am entirely open to the possibility that it may be a scam, I'm still wondering if these sales at various price points are setting feelers for the best selling price. It's curious as this seller has been a member since 2003. Would you set up an account in 2003 to sit idle and scam 15 years later? Maybe.

In the end I can afford to lose $9.99 though I shall be claiming if nothing appears.

Kino · May 9, 2018

$600 might not be a lot to you, but it could be a year's wages or more to someone else in the World. Besides, who's to say this isn't the only scam this person or entity is running on any number of sites?

Anyway, your observation that personally it is a small amount to chance for some film to shoot, is well understood and I agree.

michr · May 9, 2018

I bought ten rolls the other day. The price is just too good to not take a chance on it. It will be nice to have some cheap film to run through some cheap cameras. I had enough money to buy 40 rolls, but I didn't feel safe taking a chance on that many. Now it looks like all the cheap stuff is gone. I do wonder why the prices are all over the place, more so than the usual crop of eBay items.

pdeeh · May 9, 2018

Agulliver said:
Would you set up an account in 2003 to sit idle and scam 15 years later? Maybe.

no but you might easily hijack an account that had been sitting idle for 15 years. It's not uncommon on eBay even for live accounts to be hijacked.

wblynch · May 9, 2018

Well you can't give positive feedback to a user they've removed. Once the film arrives I now have no way to reward the seller with feedback.

grooves1200 · May 9, 2018

Gabo Barreto said:
I ordered 10 rolls for £8.99 and now the item has been removed from ebay. I'm not surprised at all as I was expecting it to happen. I will claim my money back but just in case will wait till the end on month before doing it. Not holding my breath though.

I did same thing -- removed immediately and tracking number eventually showed delivered to a totally different state than my address. I did the "did not receive" option on ebay site and received refund in a matter of minutes. will be curious to see if anyone actually receives the film, who the seller is, and if they remain on ebay.

John Wiegerink · May 9, 2018

Holy smokes! Maybe the line that my father used to say to me, in a rather raised tone, is true? "If it sounds to good to be true you better damn well believe it is to good to be true"! My old man was a lot smarter than I gave him credit for back then. JohnW

Patrick Robert James · May 10, 2018

Looks like the guy I bought mine from has had his account cancelled. I put in a "did not recieve" and got a refund. Oh well...

I'd still be interested in the film, but it would have to be cheaper than it is now. It would be fine for Holga stuff for example. I might actually use my Holga if I had a cheap film for it.

Shanghai GP3 120 film It's back?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency