ULF opportunity

[John_4185]

I was quoting QT who said, Because View Camera is a more recognized name in our community than J&C." Sorry I didn't put in the attribution.

I've had no bad dealings with J&C under any of my order-names. I was just wondering if there was something recent I may have missed. There have been suggestions that quality control nas been an issue and I really don't want to open every single lot to test the film before storage, especially when I expect to make a large order.

[Aaron van de Sande]

J&C doesn't carry Ilford, so at this point he is a competitor to them(and vice versa). Why would they go to him for marketing advice, and why would he help?

[robert_4927]

John at J&C is a gem to deal with. My first order of 8x20 from J&C is a fine example. My film arrived in a timely fashion and as I was ready to reorder again I noticed the price had doubled so I checked my box and sure enough it was the same amount of sheets that was being advertised for twice the price I had paid two weeks earlier. After asking the question in a public forum if J&C had doubled their prices in a matter of two weeks I soon found out what had happened. The manufacture changed packaging on J&C from 25 sheets to 50 sheet boxes after I placed my order. What John did was send me a box of 50 when in fact I had paid for only 25 at no extra costs and with no questions asked. So I had to humbly apologize and thank him for the exceptional customer service. I now buy all my film from J&C. The PL100 is nice film and I'm starting to grow real fond of the j&c 400. So VC and J&C can count me in on both of their endeavors. Hell just to get Kodak to consider a run is an achievement. Good Luck to both parties.

[Ralph Barker]

For the lastest update from Ilford, take a look at this post on the Ilford forum:

http://www.ilford.com/html/us_englis...?TOPIC_ID=7023

[QT Luong]

I meant nothing negative about J&C. However they are a store, and VC in a magazine (the magazine).

[David Flockhart]

This from a recent post in another forum:

Note in the post on the Ilford forum that actual ULF orders in North America will be accepted through "a select list of dealers", yet unannounced. Sending an indication of interest to a third party who isn't one of the "select dealers" may not constitute an actual order.

Posting on the Ilford PULPA section looks like it will get you an e-mail notification, however.

[steve simmons]

I will be sending names etc. to one of the select dealers.

steve simmons

[Jay DeFehr]

Thanks, Steve.

I hope that anyone even considering ULF will express their interest, and perhaps even buy some film. If the film is stored properly, there seems to be very little depreciation of value on the used market if one decides to sell, and extremely difficult to source for those without. In my own opinion, Ilford films cannot be compared to the EU films sold by JandC. Ilford films are state of the art, and their QC is unparallelled. Given the expense and limited productivity of ULF photography, less than optimum film seems a false economy. If Ilford determines the ULF market insignificant, we might all be left with old technology films, and all of the problems inherent in small production runs.

Jay

[Joe Smigiel]

"I will be sending names etc. to one of the select dealers."

Steve,

I don't like this idea at all. If Ilford has "a select list of dealers" how and why do you decide which one to inform? If there is going to be only one source, let Ilford take direct orders from the interested parties or let Ilford designate the single dealer. While I appreciate what you are trying to do, I object to singling out one dealer.

While you may think you are doing a service to the large-format community by this offer, I think it highly unfair to pick out one dealer from all of those who have stuck with the community during some rough times and stocked the specialty products for us, sometimes perhaps taking a loss in the case of ULF films going out-of-date. I'm glad there is A View Camera Store, Badger Graphics, MPEX, J&C, etc., as well as an Adorama, B&H, and Calumet. If your choice is one of Adorama or B&H, I won't be ordering any Ilford film from this point forward.

This strikes me much the same as ordering pharmaceuticals online. One big dealer gets the business and pretty soon the corner pharmacy is out-of-business and closed down. Then where do you go to get that Rx you need in an emergency or in short order? Walmart? No thanks.

[sanking]

Joe: "While you may think you are doing a service to the large-format community by this offer, I think it highly unfair to pick out one dealer from all of those who have stuck with the community during some rough times and stocked the specialty products for us, sometimes perhaps taking a loss in the case of ULF films going out-of-date."

I believe your crticims of Steve Simmons in this matter is misplaced. During the past several years there have been very dealers in this country who made any attempt at all to provide ULF film to the market. I can count them on one hand, (and if you don't count the pinky, index and thumb you know about how many there are.). I know who those folks are, and I think Mr. Simmons does as well, so I feel very confident that what he is doing here is not hand-picking dealers, but planning to communicate with the very few dealers who have tried to support the ULF community in the past.

Let's support this. It is in all of our interest as LF and ULF photograpers to do so.