Lack of Portra 400 in 120

  • Thread starter Deleted member 21335
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 21335

Guest
Well, it seems there is none available. I ordered from Calumet back in mid January and there is still no sign of it. There was some on eBay until recently but that seems to have all gone now. What am I going to do? I prefer it over the Pro 400H offering. I could shoot Portra 800 but it is Double the price! :(
 
Is it because you've used it all?
 
I'd just buy them online. By the time you ring tomorrow they'll be gone if they're the only place with stock! If they haven't got any then they'll let you know.
 
Amazon are still showing some for sale through third party.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
Well, it seems there is none available. I ordered from Calumet back in mid January and there is still no sign of it. There was some on eBay until recently but that seems to have all gone now. What am I going to do? I prefer it over the Pro 400H offering. I could shoot Portra 800 but it is Double the price! :(
Click to expand...

There's pretty little between Portra and 400H. If anything, 400H is more similar to Portra 400 than Portra 800. Cost notwithstanding, Portra 800 is the best of the bunch though.

Anyway, there are a few places that are showing stock—or not saying that they're out of stock anyway—of Portra 400, such as:
 
skysh4rk said:
There's pretty little between Portra and 400H. If anything, 400H is more similar to Portra 400 than Portra 800. Cost notwithstanding, Portra 800 is the best of the bunch though.

Anyway, there are a few places that are showing stock—or not saying that they're out of stock anyway—of Portra 400, such as:
Click to expand...


Thank you for those. Some more to add to my list that I had never heard of! Teamwork have it for the usual price of £22 too so will order from them. Although Calumet were showing stock when I originally ordered then I got the email saying it was on back order. :(

I would love to shoot more 800 but it is expensive. :(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
gazmorton2000 said:
Thank you for those. Some more to add to my list that I had never heard of! Teamwork have it for the usual price of £22 too so will order from them.

I would love to shoot more 800 but it is expensive. :(
Click to expand...

Careful, Teamwork's prices don't include VAT.
 
Maco direct have some but you'll need to factor in the delivery costs. Best if you could do a group buy with somebody local.

Ignore that, it looks like there's a 10 day lead time on the 400.
 
Last edited:
hum......Portra 400 is around, not seen it for £22 a box mind, but its not film I buy so I dunno..

interestingly, Process Supplies have some 220....

£82 a box....o_O

looks like they'll be keeping that for a while when 120 is £27..........doh
 
joxby said:
hum......Portra 400 is around, not seen it for £22 a box mind, but its not film I buy so I dunno..

interestingly, Process Supplies have some 220....

£82 a box....o_O

looks like they'll be keeping that for a while when 120 is £27..........doh
Click to expand...

Over the past few years, I've usually purchased Kodak Portra 400 for about £20 per box from a few different sources. The most I think I've ever paid is £22 when I've purchased from Calumet.

For 220 format, I typically paid around £55 per box, but the prices for that went skyward once they discontinued it a few months back. I've since sold all of my 220 backs and film.
 
Just tried Mathers and they don't have any, despite the website saying stock. [emoji21]
 
I ordered some from Calumet last week knowing it was on back order, but I was thinking it would be one or two weeks not months!

Did a quick google and found a bit from apug where people on the other side of the pond are having problems getting hold of any too. One person seems to think that it's because film is becoming more popular and Kodak haven't anticipated the increase in demand. That seems somewhat unlikely, but not impossible.

Hopefully it's just a small production problem at Kodak that they're fixing quickly, and nothing more sinister. Portra does appear to be one of the most popular films around so I can't imagine it going any time soon, especially as it would leave quite a gap in Kodak's range.
 
It's time to go for Fuji Pro 400H, I'd say, given the availability issues. It's readily available for £22 at Calumet; I bought a box in person in the Glasgow store last week, in fact.

It's hard to see a difference between Portra and 400H unless shot side by side and the Fujifilm has the advantage of being slightly easier to load and seal.
 
Last edited:
skysh4rk said:
It's time to go for Fuji Pro 400H, I'd say, given the availability issues. It's readily available for £22 at Calumet; I bought a box in person in the Glasgow store last week, in fact.

It's hard to see a difference between Portra and 400H unless shot side by side and the Fujifilm has the advantage of being slightly easier to load and seal.
Click to expand...

I've only used 400H a couple of times but I can't tell the difference (plus my scanning/editing process would have more effect on the end image anyway). Is it Fuji films that have the little self sticking tabs to seal the film with after you've finished it?
 
Good grief. I may have to have a go with Fuji then OR, alternatively, I may just step up and order a couple boxes of Portra 800. The colours and contrast are beautiful.
 
I emailed Calumet asking when they were getting some Portra to fulfill my back order, and got the following reply

"Good afternoon Carl,
I have inquired into this for you and we are anticipating delivery from Kodak very soon, we have not been given a date of delivery as of yet but we are hoping to have them in as soon as possible.
I apologise for the wait so far, we will get your order out for you as soon as the stock comes in. "

However, I'm not sure if they were talking about Portra, or my Ektar which is also on back order (but is in stock elsewhere). The seemingly deliberate ambiguity makes me feel that it won't be any time soon though.
 
Carl Hall said:
I emailed Calumet asking when they were getting some Portra to fulfill my back order, and got the following reply

"Good afternoon Carl,
I have inquired into this for you and we are anticipating delivery from Kodak very soon, we have not been given a date of delivery as of yet but we are hoping to have them in as soon as possible.
I apologise for the wait so far, we will get your order out for you as soon as the stock comes in. "

However, I'm not sure if they were talking about Portra, or my Ektar which is also on back order (but is in stock elsewhere). The seemingly deliberate ambiguity makes me feel that it won't be any time soon though.
Click to expand...

I spoke to Mathers this morning. They said there is no chance of any within the next week or more. :(
 
skysh4rk said:
Over the past few years, I've usually purchased Kodak Portra 400 for about £20 per box from a few different sources. The most I think I've ever paid is £22 when I've purchased from Calumet.

For 220 format, I typically paid around £55 per box, but the prices for that went skyward once they discontinued it a few months back. I've since sold all of my 220 backs and film.
Click to expand...



nope......joxers reasoning chip, cannot compute.

can't even reason out £55 a box, despite halfing production cost, a reduction in materials costs and buying in bulk.....sort of, 220 is still more expensive than 2 rolls of 120.
I suppose its all down to demand, a self fulfilling circle of BS.
 
Carl Hall said:
I've only used 400H a couple of times but I can't tell the difference (plus my scanning/editing process would have more effect on the end image anyway). Is it Fuji films that have the little self sticking tabs to seal the film with after you've finished it?
Click to expand...

Fuji has the adhesive sealing strip, which is nice. The niftier thing though, I think, is the little tab in the take-up spool that matches the hole at the start of the film paper which makes for easier loading.

joxby said:
can't even reason out £55 a box, despite halfing production cost, a reduction in materials costs and buying in bulk
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, production costs aren't halved for 220. In fact, 220 requires special—and expensive—machinery that's used only for that one specific format. Apparently it's quite tricky to manufacture.

For non-professional photographers, 120 will do the trick most times, but cutting down the times you reload by half can be quite valuable to those working professionally. 220 came in handy for me a few times, such as in really cold weather where it was difficult to reload or at the Commonwealth Games where I needed to fire off a bunch of shots quite quickly.
 
skysh4rk said:
Unfortunately, production costs aren't halved for 220. In fact, 220 requires special—and expensive—machinery that's used only for that one specific format. Apparently it's quite tricky to manufacture.

.
Click to expand...
lol...is that a quote from the Fuji/Kodak BS bible
 
skysh4rk said:
Unfortunately, production costs aren't halved for 220. In fact, 220 requires special—and expensive—machinery that's used only for that one specific format. Apparently it's quite tricky to manufacture..
Click to expand...

When Ilford used to offer it, it was spooled largely by hand - a tedious and laborious process.

I had a meeting at Ilford / Harman last week with the MD and the newly appointed Sales Director - 220 did come up in the meeting, but it's fair to say it's highly unlikely it will return.


On the Portra 400 120 front, I think we may see some end of next week. We try to keep our ear to the ground in this industry.

There is plenty of 400H around, but Fujifilm have also just had a crazy few weeks after switching over their entire stock and order system to standardise it with their European systems. This has involved changing every product code and an order "blackout" period that ended 2nd March - but since then there seems to have been chaos in the delivery of orders - we are still waiting for orders placed 2 weeks ago.
 
Nowt wrong with the fuji 400H in my experience. Up until a few weeks ago, I'd never even used any of the portra emulsions. I bought a box of 160 but I'm yet to have the roll i shot processed. Presumably no one bothered to mention using 160 as you all think it's too slow?
 
I have a carrier bag full of Porta 400/160/160NC and Pro400H in the freezer if anyone is desperate.. it's been there since they removed the small packet VAT exemption on 7DS.
 
Kei said:
Nowt wrong with the fuji 400H in my experience. Up until a few weeks ago, I'd never even used any of the portra emulsions. I bought a box of 160 but I'm yet to have the roll i shot processed. Presumably no one bothered to mention using 160 as you all think it's too slow?
Click to expand...
I think no one mentioned the 160 because that's not what the OP was looking for. Portra 160 is a wonderful film, I actually prefer it to the 400 but then I rarely use colour negative film at all but when I do it's Portra apart from Agfa Vista which gets used to test cameras.
 
I finally managed to find somewhere that had 5 boxes left so bought 2 each for me and my friend, Ian.

I have no doubt Portra 160 is very good indeed, but I would need a lot more light that I would for 400. I like the versatility of 400 but have had to push that to 1600 in my previous shoot.

Still waiting on my back order from Calumet though. :(
 
If it's easily available for sensible money, why not give the fuji 400H a go? Both the 400H and NPS160 were good enough for me that I never even bothered to try portra up to now. Ukfilm lab posted a nice write up on the various pro colour neg films that illustrates the subtle differences between them.
 
Kei said:
If it's easily available for sensible money, why not give the fuji 400H a go? Both the 400H and NPS160 were good enough for me that I never even bothered to try Portra up to now. Ukfilm lab posted a nice write up on the various pro colour neg films that illustrates the subtle differences between them.
Click to expand...

Yeah I use UKFL for all my processing. I have tried a couple rolls of Pro400H before and I like it and, as RJ says above, there's not a lot of difference really but I am happy sticking with Portra now I have some for the time being. :)
 
I would have been tempted to buy it all since it's your film of choice and hard to come by.
 
I spoke with a shop in London, West End Cameras, and they were not able to get an answer from their Supplier as to the lack of Porta 400. I may try to pop in and ask them if they have any more news
 
Hopefully they'll sort the issue before mid May when I'm on holiday. If not I might have to make the change to 400H as I was planning to take 10-15 rolls of Portra with me.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
I finally managed to find somewhere that had 5 boxes left so bought 2 each for me and my friend, Ian.

I have no doubt Portra 160 is very good indeed, but I would need a lot more light that I would for 400. I like the versatility of 400 but have had to push that to 1600 in my previous shoot.

Still waiting on my back order from Calumet though. :(
Click to expand...

How did the Portra 400 turn out when pushed to 1600? Assuming more contrast and grain? Was the colour balance affected?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top