I never do. But someone posted the new prices online, and I checked them on Target's site. Depressing.
I typically buy from Freestyle, B&H, Adorama or Unique. I would support my local camera store, but it's 60+ miles away, and thus, not local.
Don’t buy from gougers.
It is understandable that TriX is so popular, especially with young shooters.
After all, Trix is for kids..
It is understandable that TriX is so popular, especially with young shooters.
After all, Trix is for kids..
It is understandable that TriX is so popular, especially with young shooters.
After all, Trix is for kids..
It is understandable that TriX is so popular, especially with young shooters.
After all, Trix is for kids..
Tri-X is, of course, a legendary film. I like it a lot. But the Foma 100/400 films are wonderful too, if not as flexible in their EI. I really like them in the right developers. That would be my suggestion. At some point, as in right now, 10 rolls of those films will not be such a huge investment. You won't worry about the expense, it frees you to shoot more, and you get to be a better photographer.
Even if I was independently wealthy, I wouldn't pay the prices I'm seeing for a lot of films today. They're not worth it, not when there are other films that can look just as good at a fraction of the price. In fact, the Foma 100 in Rodinal looks more like the Tr-X of old than the current Kodak Tri-X does. So celebrate the price hikes, try something different, these crazy prices are only going to go up, that's a safe bet.
I've recently learned a bit more about Kodak's bulk film conundrum.
The entire Eastman Kodak bulk roll infrastructure was set up many decades ago for things like school and high volume portrait photo market cameras and other institutional users. Customers who would buy thousands of feet at a time. Bulk roll production for users like us was an afterthought and could only be done cheaply when the school photo and similar customers had the infrastructure running at high capacity anyways. The machines and people that do this now at Eastman Kodak are, relatively speaking, very manual, slow and expensive - very expensive when compared to the highly mechanized production of single rolls.
In contrast, Ilford/Harman and others only ever had in place small scale production equipment - the type that produces the bulk films that photographers like us use today. The costs for that are closer to the costs for producing single rolls.
So back in the day, struggled to compete in the school photography market, but were competitive in the hobbyist bulk film market. Now it is the case that the hobbyist market is the only one left.
Helps to explain why the cost of a bulk roll of Tri-X has doubled in the last few years. Average now is $150 usd for a hundred foot roll.
Perhaps for many years, Kodak was geared toward the production of movie stock and kept making consumer films at a reduced rate while Ilford continued to treat consumers as the primary market?
Tri-X just hit $13 a roll.
That's pretty brutal if you re shooting on a daily basis. I used to average 1-3 rolls a day, which at that price is not doable. Maybe 10-15 rolls at an event. Just 10 years ago $25-30 bought you a 'brick' of 10 rolls.
Bulk loading helps cut the cost, but still it's pretty darn expensive if you are trying to shoot a project of reasonable size.
I just hope Kodak doesn't price themselves out of the market. Tri-X is supposedly Kodak's best selling film, but I also believe it is the most expensive film they sell, which doesn't make a lot of sense given the economies of scale.
It may be time to switch to HP4+, especially if you bulk load.
Harry, 'just 10 years ago $25-30' bought a lot of things.... like gas @ $1.93/gal ....for example. $13 is the cost of doing business. There are still (as always) less expensive alternatives.... but if Tri-X is your thing (i like it), i use it for paid work, overseas travel photos....images of value to me. If you think $13 is expensive have. a look at 20"x24" paper, or large format sheet film.
However it does pay to shop around, tri-x price varies from about £10 best to £12 for a 36exp roll in uk, i see b&h charges about £9 in the us. Hp5 can be had for £6.5 here but plenty of places charge £7 - £8 or more.
The differential is more stark in 120, tri-x is £55-60 5 pk so whilst ilfords prices have gone up, hp5 is now half the cost. £27.50 by comparison.
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