Best place for B&W film

[alansoon]

Where do you guys buy your B&W film? I think Ruby is still the best place for Tri-X, at about $4.55 a pop. Is there a better place out there?

I checked out Neopan 400 at Kotana (sp?) at Peninsula -- $6.90! Wow.

This film thing is getting expensive!

[alucard]

try and get as much film from outside SG. Or get together with friends and share a bulk roll.

[tan131]

count me in if there are plans to share an order or bulk roll

[JayTee705]

Originally Posted by alansoon Where do you guys buy your B&W film? I think Ruby is still the best place for Tri-X, at about $4.55 a pop. Is there a better place out there? I checked out Neopan 400 at Kotana (sp?) at Peninsula -- $6.90! Wow. This film thing is getting expensive!

I'm all ears for any suggestions on where the best priced film stuff is...

My problem (?) is I don't shoot enough film to make bulk purchasing a good tactic and my wife objects to having it in the freezer anyway.

Yet, after my last holiday, I had two slide film rolls developed, mounted and scanned. Cost a good portion of a $50 note at Ruby! What to do?

I'm leaning towards shooting only B/W film that I can develop myself; and doing all color digitally.

JT

P.S. Alan, you could really cut your film costs by selling me your film cameras really cheaply--especially that New F1 we spoke about. No film cam=no film costs. Good idea, no?

[alansoon]

JT -- the best way is really home development and scanning. Far cheaper than taking it down to the stores. But film prices are definitely on the way up. So bulk up.

I may have to go back to rolling my own film.

[tan131]

can i share the bulk roll if anyone decides to do so?

[hacknet]

tri x price has gone up, the last time i got a roll, it costed $4.70.. i also picked up the cheaper ilford pan 400. shot it at ei 250 and developed 15% below rated, it had pretty nice tonal range, maybe a little less lattitude. and pan400 is cheaper, its only $4 a roll.

[JediForce4ever]

Got the Tri-x from Ruby today @ $4.70

[dlens]

Anyone know where to get Kodak BW400CN (the C41 stuff) and at what price? MS Color at AMK doesnt sell it any more.

[Shiro MS08th]

I think CP has the Kodak BW400CN film, well my memory may be wrong though.
But definitely have TMax, bought 2 TMax100 a month ago at CP.

[clubgrit]

Pan 400 not bad, IMHO, just found it thinner ...

Actually I can live with all other B&W films if my favorites are not available, just a matter of using the right developer, IMHO. I find it harder to be without my favorite developers.

Originally Posted by hacknet tri x price has gone up, the last time i got a roll, it costed $4.70.. i also picked up the cheaper ilford pan 400. shot it at ei 250 and developed 15% below rated, it had pretty nice tonal range, maybe a little less lattitude. and pan400 is cheaper, its only $4 a roll.

[hacknet]

what do you like to use, im on tmax now and im thinking of moving to the cheaper d 76 when im done..

[centurion_sg]

For now I'm on TMax Dev as I only develop very occasionally so convenience is more important. TMax is versatile enough for me as I've tried it for pushing HP5+, TMax, and Tri-X films.

Originally Posted by hacknet what do you like to use, im on tmax now and im thinking of moving to the cheaper d 76 when im done..

[clubgrit]

I like the Ilford developers, even on Tmax or Tri-X film ... It took some time and experimentation to find out the timings I preferred though, after I decided to just stick with the brand's offerings. They cost more, however. I also have Rodinal, Tmax, D76 ... as backup or special usage.

D76 is cheap, alright, one can have so much solution from 1 packet, I am sure mine will be probably be spoiled before I even use a bit .

I read somewhere that Tmax uses up fixers faster. All I know is that it discolors my fixer faster, so I am more generous in less reuse of fixer when developing Tmax.

Originally Posted by hacknet what do you like to use, im on tmax now and im thinking of moving to the cheaper d 76 when im done..

[SilentWave]

Originally Posted by alucard try and get as much film from outside SG. Or get together with friends and share a bulk roll.

I'd definitely avoid to do this unless the film is very rare in Singapore or local prices are outrageously high. Even if you probably could buy films cheaper in other countries, the difference probably isn't that much anyway after you factor in the shipping costs, etc. Besides, I think film prices at Ruby aren't that bad. I personally like the convenience of not having to stock up on too many films, so I try to support local stores by buying films from them.

When I lived in another country, I used to buy films in a rather large quantity (30-40+ rolls at a time) because the local camera stores often didn't have the films I used in stock. It kind of sucked because that was a couple hundred dollars tied up in film for at least a few months. It also took a considerable space in my freezer. Sometimes my housemates complained about it.

[clubgrit]

Yes, shipping costs are a significant factor, and Ruby's prices eventually become slightly better.

I really like the Neopan Acros 120 and Super Presto 1600 35mm, both unavailable here unfortunately. I just ordered more from Japan, 50 and 20 rolls, respectively, last night ... ends up to be about $8 per roll.

Ruby also rans out of my other favorites Ilford Delta 100 and 400 (120) all the time, their overseas customers I think keep buying these in bulk too, leaving nothing for Singapore! So I usually order several rolls from eBay, I just bite the bullet regarding shipping costs.

Just my luck that my preferred films are not easily available here (or are too popular in the case of the Delta 100/400 120), and 120 film doesn't last long with me, 20 rolls is my average in one weekend.

Much as I would like to support them, they don't have what I want or don't bring in enough. I think the Singapore support is too weak, though. The 35mm don't seem to move as well as the 120, I don't see the stocks moving quickly. So for 35mm, I have all that I need here, except for the Neopan Super Presto.

Now, it's the Provia 400x 120 that is starting to be "scarce" as well, as they don't bring in enough. On one weekend I could only get 20 from Ruby and 8 from Colourlab. Next weekend, Colourlab was able to get me 20 more. For 35mm, not a problem though, probably because they don't sell as fast.



.

[theworld6]

if youre in Manila, check out a few one hour dev shops in makati, some of them sell Fuji Acros BW film 100 speed, at like 3 usd per roll, its good stuff; cant seem to find Acros here in SG..

[hacknet]

would it make any sense if we could start matching people up so we can split chemicals.

i was just thinking about it and this is how i propose we start. i'm just throwing ideas in the air, see how it is recieved.

say we start a thread.
now when i buy a packet of D76. it makes 3.8 liters, much too much to use in 3 to 6 months expecially if i dilute it 1:1.
at the moment i have no choice but to just let it rot.

what if we could break the stuff up. so if i decide i only want to keep 1 liter of it, i can sell off the left over 2.8 liters of it. or break it into 4 parts. this thread might just save us amature developers some good money...

what do you guys think?