While certainly color film is in production, it's looking like the days of just walking into the local pro shop to get a couple of boxes of 8x10 color film are at an end in my small market of Greater Los Angeles. This seems to indicate a needed change in logistics for me as well as anyone doing some color 8x10 shooting. My regular store, Samy's, has no plans to stock much of any 8x10 color in the future, certainly not Velvia, and perhaps not Provia. B&H listings are drying up too. And Freestyle has no listings at all for color 8x10. Calumet looks like EPP only, maybe. There are other stores, however their web sites don't seem to indicate whether anything is actually in stock or not, so who knows.
Provia 100F and Kodak EPP seem easy enough to get, although the Provia supply seems a bit limited around town. My trouble is that I really like Velvia 100 and even 100F sometimes for certain kinds of shots. At this point, it is a special order item, with the spector of 20+ box orders needed for Velvia 100. Calumet does not stock much 8x10, so that leaves about one store in Los Angeles for large format color film. A special order from this store takes weeks, not days, with no promises. I may need to find 4 or so other photographers who shoot 8x10 color to group an order together, with the hope of having enough film for early spring.
Two questions -
1 Anyone know of quick and decent procurement options for Velvia 100 and Velvia 100F films in 8x10 sheet right away? 2. Anyone interested in doing a group order of one or both of these emulsions?
Also, other emulsions, even in B&W seem to come and go now. JandC is waiting to get more Efke PL25 adn PL100, with the hope of it being here in a couple of weeks. It seems that anyone desiring to shoot in the late Winter through Spring season should order more and earlier than usual. So far, Ilford availability looks pretty good around town though.
I'm wondering if it will soon be necessary to incorporate a small film purchasing consortium / non profit to keep supplies of film and aggregate purchasing power in the near future.
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