C41 film pricing

Ben johns

Ben johns

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Has c41 had a price jump recently? I haven’t bought any in a while and it seems to have nearly double, on eBay anyway. I only really use the cheap Colour plus 200 but I looked today and it’s 10 rolls for £40. It was closer to £25 for 10 a few months ago, that’s a 50% increase!
 
I think there must be a supply problem with ColorPlus. For example 7dayshop are out of stock and several eBay sellers have ridiculous prices such as £67 for three rolls. (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kodak-Colorplus-200-35mm-Film-36-Exposures-Set-of-3-Rolls-Cheap-Colour-Film/153010994558). I understand that some ebay sellers put these sky high prices on when they have no or little stock, rather than remove their listings - perhaps because it's quicker to change the price on the listing than to delete it and recreate it later.

I might be tempted to put the three expired rolls in the freezer up on eBay !
 
oh...looks like ebay is off for film for me now. Cheers for the links
 
Film prices seem to have shot up recently, even in as little as the past 5 weeks. I was looking at a 5 pack of Portra 400 on amazon and it was about £42, the same is £50 now in just that short space of time.

I’ve also been shooting a bit of Superia 400 which was £6 per 36 roll, Amazon don’t have it in stock now as single rolls so you need to buy in bulk to get anything like that price again and that was less than 2 weeks ago I bought the Superia :mad: I might stock up now before the price goes up again :LOL:
 
That 10 pack of Colorplus 200 for 26 quid that arrived last week from 7dayshop must have been some of their last stock, sorry!
 
andy1868 said:
Film prices seem to have shot up recently, even in as little as the past 5 weeks. I was looking at a 5 pack of Portra 400 on amazon and it was about £42, the same is £50 now in just that short space of time.

I’ve also been shooting a bit of Superia 400 which was £6 per 36 roll, Amazon don’t have it in stock now as single rolls so you need to buy in bulk to get anything like that price again and that was less than 2 weeks ago I bought the Superia :mad: I might stock up now before the price goes up again :LOL:
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Is it because Fuji have stopped doing film? I don’t know that that’s the case but I’ve read somewhere that their winding down, might not be true. But if it is then Kodak will be the main colour film manufacturer, can charge what they like within reason.
It’s annoying as I had 8 rolls of c200 that I sold when I wasn’t using any film.
 
Ben johns said:
Is it because Fuji have stopped doing film? I don’t know that that’s the case but I’ve read somewhere that their winding down, might not be true. But if it is then Kodak will be the main colour film manufacturer, can charge what they like within reason.
It’s annoying as I had 8 rolls of c200 that I sold when I wasn’t using any film.
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Fuji still have C200, Superia 400 and Pro400 listed on their website so hopefully it means they’ll carry on making those. It’ll be annoying if they do stop though!

Kodak Ultra Max 400 seems to be available for a similar price so maybe I’ll give that a try, I tend to get on better with 400 speed films over the 200 of Colorplus and C200 :)
 
Ben johns said:
It’s annoying as I had 8 rolls of c200 that I sold when I wasn’t using any film.
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Ah recent memories when Vista (c200) was £1 for 36 exp at Poundland, and I remember Kodak Ultra 400 iso 36 exp going for a £1 as well....and this was not in the old days but within about 6 years.
Best buy about 8 years ago was 100 rolls of 36 exp Superia 200 (in date) for £35.
 
My best buy was 20 rolls of expired (2007) Reala 100 for £27! I definitely should have bought more... but the OH won't give me freezer space anyway, so probably better not!

PS We should probably remind ourselves that all colour film is made abroad, and for some strange, unaccountable reason the pound has plunged and plunged again in the past years and weeks! In the last 5 years, the high against the US$ was $1.64 and the low (last week) $1.19...
 
andy1868 said:
Fuji still have C200, Superia 400 and Pro400 listed on their website so hopefully it means they’ll carry on making those. It’ll be annoying if they do stop though!
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Fuji are also bringing back Acros this autumn due to demand (initially in Japan, and then everywhere), so hopefully that's a good sign for their continued film production.
 
My best buy was 20 rolls of expired (2007) Reala 100 for £27! I definitely should have bought more...

You got robbed Chris as my post apr 19th 2014:-
"I'd wished I'd got more Reala when it was 20 rolls for £15 with free post ...anyway I did get 40." o_O:cool:
 
FishyFish said:
Fuji are also bringing back Acros this autumn due to demand (initially in Japan, and then everywhere), so hopefully that's a good sign for their continued film production.
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Sounds promising, hopefully they carry on for some years yet then! With the price of cameras going up hopefully it indicates a resurgence in film use. I’m really enjoying it at the moment, but it’s the price of it that’s slowing me down :LOL:
 
andy1868 said:
Film prices seem to have shot up recently, even in as little as the past 5 weeks. I was looking at a 5 pack of Portra 400 on amazon and it was about £42, the same is £50 now in just that short space of time.

I’ve also been shooting a bit of Superia 400 which was £6 per 36 roll, Amazon don’t have it in stock now as single rolls so you need to buy in bulk to get anything like that price again and that was less than 2 weeks ago I bought the Superia :mad: I might stock up now before the price goes up again :LOL:
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Amazon pricing isn't consistent as you're buying from a number of vendors as well as Amazon themselves. I suspect some vendors are also profiteering from shortages, which seem to happen quite a lot with Portra especially lately.

The pricing for Superia 400 is too much now after that 30% hike, AG have it listed for £7.39 a roll. Which is far too much for an average at best consumer film.
 
Ste_S said:
Amazon pricing isn't consistent as you're buying from a number of vendors as well as Amazon themselves. I suspect some vendors are also profiteering from shortages, which seem to happen quite a lot with Portra especially lately.

The pricing for Superia 400 is too much now after that 30% hike, AG have it listed for £7.39 a roll. Which is far too much for an average at best consumer film.
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Agreed but I’m not sure what the solution would be, other than to buy in bulk like I have today, 10 rolls for £65 with prime delivery. Portra 400 is £10 a roll even in bulk, and I tend to stock ISO400 film as I find more often than not that that extra stop makes all the difference over the cheaper C200 or ColorPlus 200 (which is okay but not my favourite by a long stretch) The camera I have is a fixed lens which is widest at 2.8 so haven’t got the choice of swapping for something wider :)

The other film I was looking at was UltraMax 400 which seems to be on the same level as Superia yet still available for around £6-7 a roll singularly!
 
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andy1868 said:
Agreed but I’m not sure what the solution would be, other than to buy in bulk like I have today, 10 rolls for £65 with prime delivery. Portra 400 is £10 a roll even in bulk, and I tend to stock ISO400 film as I find more often than not that that extra stop makes all the difference over the cheaper C200 or ColorPlus 200 (which is okay but not my favourite by a long stretch) The camera I have is a fixed lens which is widest at 2.8 so haven’t got the choice of swapping for something wider :)

The other film I was looking at was UltraMax 400 which seems to be on the same level as Superia yet still available for around £6-7 a roll singularly!
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Yup, I would shoot Ultramax over Superia regardless of pricing. For the cost conscious 35mm C41 shooter I'd pick :-

100ISO - Kodak Proimage (5 for £25)
200ISO - Fuji C200 (don't pay more than £3 a roll)
400ISO - Kodak Ultramax (£6 a roll)
800ISO - Lomography CN800 (£6.30 a roll)

For a bit of luxury ;)
Kodak Ektar at about £8 a roll or Portra 400 at £9 a roll (don't pay more than £45 for a box of 5). The premium over the consumer C41 is worth it for the shots that matter
 
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h'mm film prices? We know countries like S Africa and Arabia limit the supply of diamonds and oil etc to keep prices high :eek: I wonder if Fuji and Kodak are doing the same by limiting supply...I'm just a suspicious person ;)
 
Ste_S said:
Yup, I would shoot Ultramax over Superia regardless of pricing. For the cost conscious 35mm C41 shooter I'd pick :-

100ISO - Kodak Proimage (5 for £25)
200ISO - Fuji C200 (don't pay more than £3 a roll)
400ISO - Kodak Ultramax (£6 a roll)
800ISO - Lomography CN800 (£6.30 a roll)

For a bit of luxury ;)
Kodak Ektar at about £8 a roll or Portra 400 at £9 a roll (don't pay more than £45 for a box of 5). The premium over the consumer C41 is worth it for the shots that matter
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I’ll definitely pick some Ultra Max too then, I appreciate Superia may be an acquired taste but it’s one I like! I’ve got 10 rolls arriving today that should see me on for a while, but variety is the spice of life! The lomography 800 looks interesting too, perhaps some research into that may be a good idea :D
 
Ste_S said:
Yup, I would shoot Ultramax over Superia regardless of pricing. For the cost conscious 35mm C41 shooter I'd pick :-

100ISO - Kodak Proimage (5 for £25)
200ISO - Fuji C200 (don't pay more than £3 a roll)
400ISO - Kodak Ultramax (£6 a roll)
800ISO - Lomography CN800 (£6.30 a roll)
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Interesting take! Superia 400 has been my goto day to day film for a while (previously in its Vista 400 guise). Maybe I'll give Ultramax a whirl, see if I like it. And I haven't even really heard of ProImage, sounds worth a look. I've got a bundle of Vista 200 (ie Fuji C200), don't know why but I don't like it much, but it works a treat well over-exposed for ICM experiments!

I'll be taking Portra 400 and Ektar 100 on a visit to Slovenia, though!
 
From what I've read, and I'm used to being corrected, Pro-image is basically Ektar. Jan has used it quite a bit recently and it's a very nice film.
 
ChrisR said:
Interesting take! Superia 400 has been my goto day to day film for a while (previously in its Vista 400 guise). Maybe I'll give Ultramax a whirl, see if I like it. And I haven't even really heard of ProImage, sounds worth a look. I've got a bundle of Vista 200 (ie Fuji C200), don't know why but I don't like it much, but it works a treat well over-exposed for ICM experiments!

I'll be taking Portra 400 and Ektar 100 on a visit to Slovenia, though!
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I've found the latitude on Superia for under exposure to be quite bad, with shadows getting muddy very quickly. You're either meeting for the shadows or rating it at ISO200 for auto exposure cameras - at which point you're betting of shooting C200.
Ultramax seems to be much better at handling under exposure than Superia.

Andysnap said:
From what I've read, and I'm used to being corrected, Pro-image is basically Ektar. Jan has used it quite a bit recently and it's a very nice film.
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If I had to take a guess, it's a re-badge of an older emulsion rather than a brand new one. Obvious candidate would be Kodacolor VR-G 100 (Gold is VR-G 200 and Ultramax is VR-G 400). Kodak themselves say the printing characteristics of ProImage are similar to those of Kodak Gold.
 
Pro-Image is definitely not Ektar. It needs to be exposed correctly, there’s not much latitude. As @Ste_S says it doesn't handle under exposing well at all. I’ve used it a little and it can be quiet pleasing when exposed in good lighting conditions and it perhaps produces its best results when overexposed by a stop.
 
FishyFish said:
I read that Pro Image was developed specifically for the asian market. It apparently has a higher resistance to warm storage, and is also formulated to work well on darker skin tones.
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Interesting, I did not know that.
 
FishyFish said:
I read that Pro Image was developed specifically for the asian market. It apparently has a higher resistance to warm storage, and is also formulated to work well on darker skin tones.
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That's what I had read and it also stated that it was to be a version of Ektar for warmer climates.....?
 
Bearing in mind grain, colour rendition, ease of scanning and price, I still think Kodak Gold 200 takes some beating. It's become my 'everyday' film for summer and the brighter months either side of it; I find it's a good compromise between price and quality, especially if bought in a bulk multi-pack deal such as this: https://www.7dayshop.com/products/k...-film-135-36-exposure-value-6-pack-1880806-x2

I'd rather pay the extra for this than use Colorplus 200, etc.
 
Mr Badger said:
Bearing in mind grain, colour rendition, ease of scanning and price, I still think Kodak Gold 200 takes some beating. It's become my 'everyday' film for summer and the brighter months either side of it; I find it's a good compromise between price and quality, especially if bought in a bulk multi-pack deal such as this: https://www.7dayshop.com/products/k...-film-135-36-exposure-value-6-pack-1880806-x2

I'd rather pay the extra for this than use Colorplus 200, etc.
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I ran a roll of Colorplus through my £5 Chinon last week, and rated it at iso 100 as I know it likes plenty of light. Here are some photos as scanned by Filmdev, with only slight straightening applied.

#1 Stonehaven art deco open air (heated!) swimming pool, now closed for the season. (50mm lens)
000094500037-tp.jpg

#2 As above, viewed through the side gate. (Tamron 24mm)
000094500025-tp.jpg

#3 Washed-up jellyfish (50mm lens)
000094500008-tp.jpg
 
Peter B said:
I ran a roll of Colorplus through my £5 Chinon last week, and rated it at iso 100 as I know it likes plenty of light. Here are some photos as scanned by Filmdev, with only slight straightening applied.

#1 Stonehaven art deco open air (heated!) swimming pool, now closed for the season. (50mm lens)
View attachment 255716

#2 As above, viewed through the side gate. (Tamron 24mm)
View attachment 255717

#3 Washed-up jellyfish (50mm lens)
View attachment 255718
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I like the photos and the colour rendition of the film, Peter, it's just the amount of grain I'm not keen on. I find it's a bit like looking at proof photos; when I find a photo I like I want to click on it to view it at full resolution... only to be reminded that that's as good as it gets with ColorPlus 200. That's why I'd rather pay the extra for Gold 200 for my 'everyday' colour print film; but it probably comes down to factors such as individual preference, the look people want to achieve, and budget, as to which film people prefer.

Here are some examples from Gold 200, the first two are home scanned on an Epson V600 with nothing much done to them other than resizing for uploading, the last one is a lab scan from AG Photolab with similar.


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[URL='https://flic.kr/p/PCfd3W'][URL='https://flic.kr/p/PCfd3W'][URL='https://flic.kr/p/PCfd3W'][URL='https://flic.kr/p/PCfd3W'][URL='https://flic.kr/p/294qQ4L'][URL='https://flic.kr/p/2dDFBKQ'][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
 
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I've got a couple of rolls of Gold to try, and have ordered some Ultramax to compare with my usual Superia Xtra 400. I've also experimented with Ektar, but I'm not entirely convinced by its rendition of some colours. As you say, it's a question of finding something that suits personal taste. (y)
 
Mr Badger said:
like the photos and the colour rendition of the film, Peter, it's just the amount of grain I'm not keen on. I find it's a bit like looking at proof photos; when I find a photo I like I want to click on it to view it at full resolution... only to be reminded that that's as good as it gets with ColorPlus 200. That's why I'd rather pay the extra for Gold 200 for my 'everyday' colour print film; but it probably comes down to factors such as individual preference, the look people want to achieve, and budget, as to which film people prefer.
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It generally depends on what you want to achieve with the final image. If the photo is just going to live on your monitor, you want to look at it 1:1, and don't like grain, then yeah Colorplus probably isn't for you. Colorplus is perfectly fine printed at A4, and I suspect at A3 also.
 
A quick update on Ultramax is that my order just arrived from Bristol Cameras, the first time I have bought from them. The price was £14 for a pack of 3, so £28 for 6 films (which keeps it below the £30 for cheap postage at £2.50), and a total £30.50 for 6 rolls of 36 exposure with an expiry date of 5/2020.
 
Mr Badger said:
Very little in it but slightly cheaper per roll here; you only get 5 rolls though.
https://www.7dayshop.com/products/k...5-36-exposure-extra-value-5-pack-wh2-go436-x5

Let me know what you think when you've shot a roll as I'm looking for a winter film. (y)
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I've only shot 1 roll, so another 5 to go. These from the 1st roll https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/show-us-yer-film-shots-then.53681/post-8543135

I finished the roll on a different subject and changed to a roll of Gold later while shooting that subject. I was quite a bit happier with the Gold compared to the Ultramax, and worth the 1 stop difference for static subjects I thought. Moving subjects not so much.
 
Thaks for that Peter, the Ultramax looks grainier than I'd expect, perhaps have a look on Flickr and see if it looks about average compared with the results of others? I do like Gold 200 though, I think it's a great all-rounder for general shooting in the lighter months.
 
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