Canadians, where do you buy your 8x10 film?

[chi cheung]

I just bought a pack of 8x10 Elfke from J&C last week. Fed-ex delivered to my doorstep in less then a week. But send me a bill for $43.43. It is cheaper to buy from Beau Photo. They also give a discount if you buy 2 or 3 packs at a time. Only problem is that they don't stock 8x10 and they only order from J&C once every 3 month or so. If you missed the boat you will have to wait couple months. Another way you can do it is have your package send to Point Robert's depot and drove over to pick it up yourself. You still have to pay PST and GST but no brokage fee.

[Andrew O'Neill]

He gave you a check as in he checked you over...or gave you a cheque as in he gave you money...??

[Nick_3536]

I just checked and J&C still offers USPS airmail parcel. It's $5 more then FedEx but you'll save that in fees. OTOH it might be slower.

[tim atherton]

Yes - trying to find 8x10 in Canada is a challenge (try finding colour film!) - especially if you are not in Toronto or Vancouver.

Some stores like Eight Elm and Harry's Pro Shop will have it in - the prices aren't too bad usually (eight elms Bergger always seems overpriced?), but they are just that - small stores with low volumes of sales of the stuff. Eight Elm also has the Forte and Bergger papers and other nice stuff. (BTW I find the quality control on Forte to be somewhat lackign compared to Bergger - the one box of J&C film I also found to be about the same)

"Film here in Canada is extremely expensive. C$100+ for ilford line of 8x10 film. arista.edu fits my budget very nicely"

Actually, the Vistek price for HP5 is usually a bit cheaper than the US price. And last time I checked it was only $8 or $9 dollars more than Freestyle Arista - which, if you add in extra shipping costs, works out about the same price. The main thing is (like Portra) they usually have it in stock. Most other places can get it, but it's a special order item. Same for Tri-X etc

Apart from that, I usually end up ordering fromt the States. B&H is usually very good with prices and shipping (I have to get Astia from there even in 4x5 because Fuji Canada doesn't sell it....).

I used to get film from Freestyle and they would ship USPS Air Mail, but refuse to do so now. Even though they have got a bit of a deal on UPS shipping, UPS fees are still extortionate.

By Contrast, Photowarehouyse have, to date, been much more helpful. They will ship via Air Mail at your request. (They also do a nice line of inkjet papers that I order from them). They do their own HP5 and FP4 equivellants (cheaper than freestyle I think?)

As for shipping - USPS Air Mail is slowish compared to couriers (and may certainly get stuck in a hot truck somewhere....and who knows what they xray these days - mail or courier - none will tell you for sure) But at most you will only pay the $5.00 Canada Post brokerage fee + GST/PST(if you have any of the latter), which you would pay anyway. And Canada Post seems to miss one in three shipments for duty anyway... :-)

UPS and Fedex always seem to have significantly higher brokerage fees. As well, they often chose the wrong tarriffs for things like LF Film.

USPS Global/International Priority (or whatever it's called) comes via Purolator in Canada and is reasonably quick. And their borkerage fees are a bit more reasonable than the others.

You can also buy some of that aerial Plus-X off ebay cut to 8x10 - for about a 120 or more sheets the price works out okay - it may have it's quirks, but it would be good to experiement with. Shipping is just a bit slow though - so don't order it if you are in a hurry.

[Jim Rhoades]

Andrew;

Check (chek) n, Also chiefly British, cheque, 10. Abbr. ch., ck. A written order to a bank to pay the amount specified from funds on deposit; draft.

from: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language.

I'm an American, as such it is my right to abuse the english language.

[Bob._3483]

Hey Jim, don't be so selfish, this is the Internet: everyone has a right to mangle the English language now: it is no longer the sole responsibility of the US citizen. No longer must the populace of the United States toil alone, ploughing their lonely furrow through the English language.

Now even Aussies, Brits, Canadians and Kiwis can join in, happy to delude the world at large that the singular of "lenses" is "lense", that capitalisation of the first word in a sentence is an optional extra to which one may not subscribe if it seems like too much bother. Ditto proper nouns. The irony being that this is a time of unprecedented written communication - one not seen since the invention of the Gutenberg Press...

Erm... sorry... what was the question again?...

chrz m8s,

[Paul Kierstead]

As a Canadian who has bought a *lot* of stuff from the US ...

UPS and FedEx will rape you on *ground* service. On air service, they are much more reasonable; no brokerage in the case of UPS, $7 in the case of FedEx. You will be charged taxes of course, but you can hardly blame that on the carrier or claim it is unfair. Of course air service will be more expensive, but on higher cost items you will usually come out well ahead. Plus it is faster.

Harry's Pro Shop, in my experience, is very good to deal with. Outside of fotochem, it is basically the only canadian shop I will deal with on the whole.

[Nick_3536]

I just got an email from Fine Art Photo Supply they ship USPS. I think they're in Rochester. I wonder if it would be cheaper to take the new ferry across the lake and pick up the film-)

[Robert Skeoch]

I've been using the HP5+ for the past few weeks. Any local store that can order Inford film can get it in. You only need to order one box and Ilford ships it right away. Kodak has a 5 box minimal order and they're 50 sheet boxes for T-max 400. No minimal on T-max 100. I paid $75 Canadian for the box of HP5+.

[Dean Lastoria]

Last time was Lens and Shutter -- I phoned and the guy said "I happen to have the rep here" and that was that. I don't shoot much of it though, and the place changes every day.

I hate Leo's, but have you looked there?

I've found if you ship from the states, use the post office as the brokerage fee on the GST is extoritionate. Like $35 to pay $7. Canada Post charges $5.00 brokerage.