Poundland brings back film - BUT (Dateline December 2018)

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Seen FB report on return of film to Poundland BUT (yes a big but)

  • 1st BUT - Sold on PowerGeek brand so no idea what it is other than C41 200 ISO
  • 2nd BUT - is £2 a roll
  • 3rd and biggest BUT - is 10 exposures
When you can get 36 exp Kodak Colorplus at £3-94 including delivery (or £3-64 each for 5+) this does not stack up. Even at £1 a roll most processors 1st price band is 24 exposures, never mind postage !
 
Well spotted and thanks for sharing. Might be OK to test a newly purchased/found camera with as a 'one off' but I won't be paying 20p a shot for that when I can buy 5 rolls of Kodak Gold 200 for £21 when 7 Day Shop have it in stock, which works out at less than 12p a shot!

As for value for money, I think Kodak Gold 200 hits a sweet spot if bought when on offer (£4.20 per 36 exp roll). Yes it's dearer than Kodacolor 200 but the grain is noticeably finer and I like the colour saturation, so to me it's worth the extra 60p a roll for the difference.
 
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10 exposures? I've also noticed that Poundland seems to have procured a supply of extra-small coke bottles they now sell in place of the regular bottles in their 2 for a pound section...
 
10 exposures? I've also noticed that Poundland seems to have procured a supply of extra-small coke bottles they now sell in place of the regular bottles in their 2 for a pound section...
I think these coke bottles are the new size introduced at the same time as the sugar tax. They don't care if you drink sugar free drinks the size seems to be standard now. I know 500ml bottles are still in the shops, maybe they're all end of line.

On the subject of the film, maybe you can talk your developer into processing two films for the price of one [emoji16]
 
It's one of the tricksy ways £land works, items that look the same size but are smaller, sometimes costing more per ml, gm or whatever than in more "expensive" shops. They do sometimes have real bargains though, particularly LED light bulbs (when they have BC connections in stock!)
 
I've had lots of bargains from there, the coke thing is just like I said. Instead of changing their recipe, they upped the price and introduced the 375ml bottle in the old 500ml price bracket. They also upped the prices on the Coke Zero which is supposed to be sugar tax exempt.
 
I don't think the 500ml bottles are being phased out. They are still much commoner where I shop, and the sandwich places that offer 'meal deals' (Boots, Tesco, Greggs etc.) haven't hiked their prices (yet?). Where prices have gone up, it's of course very cheeky to include the sugar-free varieties!
 
I've looked on Power Geek's site and haven't found this film, but there are plenty of others including Ektar, Fuji, T-Max, Smena, and Arista EDU. Some in single rolls, some as multiple roll packs and some bulk film rolls. All conveniently priced in Phillipine peso.
 
Well for us in the know what a rip off it's like £4 for 20 shots unless it's something like Fuji Superia 200 ...but it will probably sell to joe public filmies who don't know about prices and just want a cheap film.
 
I mentioned on Poundland's FB that it wasn't cost effective and that if it doesn't sell, not to put it down to people not buying film any more, it's just not worth buying a 10 exposure roll.

Saying that, I bought a roll to see if I could find out some more about it. There is a 6 digit code near the bar code 333098, unfortunately Dexter's pcode database seems to be down and I can't find it on the big film database http://industrieplus.net/dxdatabase/index.php

The cannister looks like a disposable camera one and would probably be easy to reuse.IMG_20181224_182052.jpegIMG_20181224_182207.jpegIMG_20181224_183132.jpeg
 
Searched the internet but can't find any film with barcode 333098 :(
 
I wonder what the story behind this is. Was the supplier just trying to maximise profits by eking out a limited quantity of film without understanding how it is actually used? (has a 35mm roll this short ever been sold before?). Or was there a stock of offcuts somebody was trying to get rid of? Either way, I suspect they won't sell many, except to curious people like Steve who has taken a hit for the team!

Come to think of it, as well as the coke bottle thing, I bought a suspiciously short tape measure from Poundland a few weeks ago...
 
..and I doubt you would get a discount from places like filmdev for 10 shots..so £2 for the film plus sending off could cost £2.90 plus £4 dev and scan = total cost of £8.90, so each shot would cost 89p :eek: Prices to kill off 35mm film use :(
 
I wonder what the story behind this is. Was the supplier just trying to maximise profits by eking out a limited quantity of film without understanding how it is actually used? (has a 35mm roll this short ever been sold before?). Or was there a stock of offcuts somebody was trying to get rid of?
..


Simple answer; Yes.

Back in the day our company used to be supplied with rolls of 10 or 12 frames, so that each project could be shot and processed very quickly in accordance with time demands from clients. Using standard 24/36 frame spools just wasted film. This continued even into the 1990s!

There also used to be the 'joke' about Joe Soap who used his camera so infrequently that each end of the film had Christmas snaps on and a beach holiday in the middle.
 
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I do remember 12 shot rolls, but I don't think I ever saw a 10 shot on sale - perhaps shorter rolls were available to special order?
 
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I have a hunch that medium format would actually work out cheaper in terms of value per cm^2, 645 might even be better per frame as well:

Poundland's mystery film = £2 for 10 EXP, add in £5 for dev only (dropping off at my local lab) = 70p per exposure

Portra 160 5x pack, 24.99, so one roll is 4.99.

So you're looking at £10 for a roll of film + dev only, and here's how the various formats work out:

6x7 (10 frames) = £1 a frame. Bear in mind each frame is about 4.5x the size of 35mm, plus you’re shooting some of the best film out there.

6x6 (12 frames) = 83p per frame. You get more shots and you're still waaay bigger than 35mm

645 (16 frames) = 62p per frame. You're actually getting more value for money overall now, plus it’s still a good step up from 35mm.
 
I do remember 12 shot rolls, but I don't think I ever saw a 10 shot on sale - perhaps shorter rolls were available to special order?

Back in the day, Kodak made a number of films in 12 exposure rolls, most notably Kodacolor 100. Between 1977 and 1980 I worked in a large city centre 'old school' camera shop on Saturdays and in my school holidays, the film stock that we sold most of was 12 and 24 exposures film of Kodak 100.

I was a real fan of Agfa Vista and still have a few rolls, this Poundland film looks a real oddment though and might well be a reboxing of a disposable camera cassette.

That said, I'll probably buy a roll just to try!
 
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I do remember 12 shot rolls, but I don't think I ever saw a 10 shot on sale - perhaps shorter rolls were available to special order?
I remember 12 shot Kodak print film (Kodacolor II) as a youngster, as it was sometimes all I could afford, and as film developing was usually accompanied by a set of enprints a 12 shot roll was cheaper to have developed and printed too. I seem to recall that some black and white film (Ilford?) came in 20 shot rolls though; does anyone else remember this or did I imagine it?

If money was no object then I'd usually buy 24 exp colour print film though, as 36 exposures took too long to finish! How times change!
 
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I remember 12 shot Kodak print film (Kodacolor II) as a youngster, as it was sometimes all I could afford, and as film developing was usually accompanied by a set of enprints a 12 shot roll was cheaper to have developed and printed too. I seem to recall that some black and white film (Ilford?) came in 20 shot rolls though; does anyone else remember this or did I imagine it?

If money was no object then I'd usually buy 24 exp colour print film though, as 36 exposures took too long to finish! How times change!

You are quite right, Ilford 35mm films came as 20 or 36 exposure back in the day!
 
You are quite right, Ilford 35mm films came as 20 or 36 exposure back in the day!
Glad I didn't imagine it! I used to home load Barfen E6 bulk slide film back in the day too, so that could come in rolls of whatever I wanted up to abut 40! Happy days! :D
 
I was a real fan of Agfa Vista and still have a few rolls

Well not so long ago found a Poundland with about 45 rolls of Vista (in date) and bought the lot, well I already had about 30 rolls in the freezer so offered here 7 rolls plus postage for £10.....and amazingly only one person took up the offer (was it you). So have no sympathy with guys complaining now that cheap good film (see the Vista thread it can produce VG results on the right subjects)....... has gone.
 
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In a Facebook post on this subject someone who has processed some says it's Fuji C200.
 
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Well not so long ago found a Poundland with about 45 rolls of Vista (in date) and bought the lot, well I already had about 30 rolls in the freezer so offered here 7 rolls plus postage for £10.....and amazingly only one person took up the offer (was it you). So have no sympathy with guys complaining now that cheap good film (see the Vista thread it can produce VG results on the right subjects)....... has gone.

Brian, no not me, I bought a good supply, although I am down to about my last 200 rolls in the freezer!! I think many simply didn't like this film which is fair enough. I always shoot it a 80 or100 ASA, which produces a thick and saturated neg, that is easily tweak able in LR. Not everyones cup of tea though, or scone :)

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Well not so long ago found a Poundland with about 45 rolls of Vista (in date) and bought the lot, well I already had about 30 rolls in the freezer so offered here 7 rolls plus postage for £10.....and amazingly only one person took up the offer (was it you). So have no sympathy with guys complaining now that cheap good film (see the Vista thread it can produce VG results on the right subjects)....... has gone.

Maybe it was not that the guys did not like Vista, Just the fact that you wanted a quick profit out of them.:)
 
You just have to use Vista where the grain doesn't show compared to more expensive films i.e. if you don't like grain e.g.

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I don't remember seeing your offer at the time or I would've taken you up on it.
 
I don't remember seeing your offer at the time or I would've taken you up on it.

H'mm it was only Nov 22 2017 https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...ilable-35mm-film-and-why.667844/#post-8010704 I offered to badger.brad in this post but don't think he was interested? But must have offered it generally somewhere else (can't be bothered to keep searching) as some one bought 7 rolls.
My surprise was that no one thought of the future i.e. no more cheap film.... as someone could have said e.g. I'll have 20 rolls plus £2.90 postage for £23.
 
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Now Brian, I know you are one of the senior members of this forum but I'm not sure that it was as far back as 1917 when you were selling your Vista...:D
 
H'mm it was only Nov 22 1917 https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...ilable-35mm-film-and-why.667844/#post-8010704 I offered to badger.brad in this post but don't think he was interested? But must have offered it generally somewhere else (can't be bothered to keep searching) as some one bought 7 rolls.
My surprise was that no one thought of the future i.e. no more cheap film.... as someone could have said e.g. I'll have 20 rolls plus £2.90 postage for £23.
Quick Brian, get that date changed now! I'm one of those who was trying out the film at the time, but you're right when you say it likes good light and I guess I was looking for something a bit more flexible.
 
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