Ouch! This hurts!

[AuditorOne]

You will have to pardon me as I have just found out how clueless I have been lately.

I have been working on a stash of 8x10 sheet film that was purchased several years ago and stored in my little freezer. The last time I bought 8x10 film I bought 10 boxes and I can't really remember when that was. This morning I loaded a couple of my film holders in preparation for a little shooting trip and realized I was down to the last 4 sheets in the box. Time to get some more out of the freezer. When I looked in the freezer I found that I am down to my last box of 8x10 film; time to order some more. No big deal, right?

Oh goody! Look at this, Freestyle is having a sale. That is great! My timing is perfect. A 50 sheet box of Fomapan 100 is on sale for............$197!!!!!! What???? That can't be!

So, time for more research and...I find....that is actually a pretty good price!!

I have been sitting here in front of my computer keyboard for the last hour trying to make peace with the fact that my days of shooting 8x10 are getting pretty short. I just cannot afford this. I am retired and I do not have that kind of discretionary income.

I mean, I will certainly sell some things, I do have a lot of unused cameras and equipment lying about that can be sold. I will probably raise enough money to pick up a few of boxes if I decide to do that, but I really need to think this over. That is still a lot of money. I can always shoot paper negatives.

Truthfully, it isn't actually the end of large format for me. I do have a fair bit of 4x5 film in the freezer and some Ilford Whole Plate film I picked up during their annual sale a few years back. I will actually be fine for a few years yet. And I do still have 50 sheets of film and a whole lot of photo paper to work with.

But this will certainly be an adjustment. I have an old Conley No 1 built around 1910 that I have owned for well over 30 years. Believe me, that poor thing has been through the wringer. Thank God they knew how to build cameras back then. I bought it at a yard sale in Salt Lake City back when my only camera was a Pentax K1000. I hardly knew anything about large format when I bought it. My wife was convinced I was crazy. What am I talking about, she still thinks I'm crazy. But I absolutely love working with that camera. I know it is an inanimate object but I swear it thinks the same way

I even picked up a parts camera a few years ago from Jim Galli so I could keep it going if things wore out. I have been shooting that camera for a very long time. Don't misunderstand me, none of it is Ansel Adams or Brett Weston material but I have some great memories of good times spent out in the boonies of Nevada, Idaho, Arizona and Utah with that camera, my old truck and an old aluminum tripod with the geared Majestic head. That old tripod is a pain to set up but believe me it takes a serious breeze to even phase it once it is set, even with a big 8x10 sail sitting on top of it. But it will certainly freeze your hands in the winter if you aren't wearing good gloves. And you know it is there when you are hiking up a hill. Carbon Fiber it ain't!

Anyway, forgive me. I know that there are probably others facing similar issues. I have just suddenly realized that it isn't age that will slow down my photography,at least the large format part, it is cost.

Thanks for listening to me. I will figure this out; I will come up with options. I usually do. But these film costs are crazy.

Ouch!

[Kino]

I feel your pain, but have always been a scavenger myself, so I thought I would point out some deals at Freestyle:

https://www.freestylephoto.com/clearance

Short-dated stock there now; you can buy 50 sheets of 8x10 cheaper than a boxy of 50 4x5 "new".

Check it out.

Edit: wait, I see a box of 50 sheets of 4x5 Fomapan 100 for $44.99. Sure it's short-dated, but...

[paulbarden]

Have you looked at the price for the 10 sheet box of 8x10 TMY lately? It's $210. for TEN sheets!! The Fomapan price starts to look a lot better.
Get a box of the short-dated Fomapan 100 - it's only $129 right now. You won't find 8x10 panchromatic film cheaper than that, anywhere.

[Bob Kerner]

This is not an inexpensive hobby, no matter how you cut it. A digital camera capable of producing 4x5 quality images isn't cheap either. I returned to film about 2 years ago and quickly picked up a medium format camera, and then a 4x5 (had a 4x5 several years ago and sold it). For a while I was keeping track of cost per roll/box of sheet film and associated costs of color processing. I develop my own B&W but that carries with it the expense of chemicals and lab time to print. It can get pretty depressing looking at the costs mount all in service of a hobby.

I look at it this way. I'm far more deliberate with film because of the cost. I was out all day with the 4x5 and TLR yesterday and took 6 images (one was a double exposure....so I don't know how to count that), whereas I would have been spraying and praying with my digital camera. I like to think I'm making something with film, not just "capturing" as some people like to say....and that brings me joy. For the most part I control the entire process (exception being color) from arrival of film to print; no outside help/expense needed. So there's a small cost savings there.

I'm more or less "vice" free. Don't drink or smoke or gamble. So my disposable income--if you want to call it that---goes to my hobbies. Photography is the only one with an ongoing materials cost.

There's a cost to being creative....other than shopping wisely there isn't much you can do when your creative pursuit requires raw materials such as film and chemicals. The only way to have no expenses is to stop making photos. Unacceptable!

[Ulophot]

Auditor, many of us are indeed in a similar boat on the income front. Short-dated film at such reductions as indicated above for the 4x5 offer a great bargain. It's not even out-dated yet, and if all the folks here who use outdated film were to chime in, I daresay this would be a very long thread in no time. I have a (now) partial box of Delta 100 4x5, years outdated when I bought it for about $20 two years ago but stored in a freezer or fridge previously and I have it in a fridge. Tested beautifully.

So far, I have stuck with Ilford, for all reasons, and hope I can continue to do so, because I know the films and have extensively tested. Right now, though, I'm nearly out of paper, and my monthly self-allowance won't buy me another 100-sheet 8x10 box until April. Wise prohibitions here on political discourse constrain me from saying much I know about the global economic-financial system situation. I'll just say: it's highly unstable, and potential for positive change it great. Meanwhile, look around for short- or out-dated film. It can be a bargain indeed!

[AuditorOne]

Thanks for the heads up on the short date special. I have put in an order on a box of 50. That will help keep me going for a bit longer until I can sell a few things.

$200 for 10 sheets is way out of my league. I used to shoot Kodak film on a regular basis but I haven't done that in quite some time now. I do have a couple of boxes of 4x5 TMAX stored on ice but I haven't seriously looked at replacing it once I use it. I guess I better.

Like I said though, I am giving all this some very serious thought. Even selling unused equipment, which I need to do anyway, doesn't really change the situation. If prices were dropping it would be one thing, but they most certainly are not. Although I do love working with these big sheets of film it may be time to retire the big camera until my financial circumstances change for the better. I have resisted doing this as I have always felt that once I stop, even temporarily, I may never rekindle the ambition and the enthusiasm. It takes work to shoot large format and if I quit enjoying it I have always felt it was time to stop. Of course my problem is that I can't afford what I enjoy so much. But finding I was down to one box, and I couldn't afford to buy anymore, was a bit stunning. Now I have an extra box on the way so it doesn't feel as if the end is quite so imminent; I can devote some thought to my other options.

And I do have options. I have a couple of 4x5 cameras on the shelf that I haven't worked with in awhile. As you have pointed out, 4x5 is quite a bit less expensive. I just have to reconfigure my thought process as I have never really looked at 4x5 as a substitute for 8x10.

As my wonderful wife pointed out this afternoon, part of the reason I have been so bothered so much by this today is that I haven't really been paying any attention, either to prices or to how much film I am shooting. In a lot of ways it is my own fault I am in this spot. I go out a couple of times a month and I almost always carry a minimum of 6 film holders. I don't always shoot all that film but I do it often enough that it isn't unusual to use up a box in six months. I need to slow down. I just see so many beautiful things when I am out and about that the amount of film I am using isn't what is uppermost on my mind.

Anyway, I am rambling now. Thanks for your help. I will sort this out and I suspect that somehow I will come up with a plan that keeps me out there using my camera. Sometimes it helps just to talk/write it out.

[John Layton]

Interesting to think about this thread in light of the "how many holders do you take with you?" thread - that where this (number of holders) question is (was) often dictated by weight and logistics...now I find that, more often than not...price is the real issue which "helps" me to reduce the amount of film I take with me. Upsides are that this helps me to be very deliberate in my approach (which is, for me, a good thing), is better for my aging bones, and yes...it also saves some $$$!

[AuditorOne]

Interesting to think about this thread in light of the "how many holders do you take with you?" thread - that where this (number of holders) question is (was) often dictated by weight and logistics...now I find that, more often than not...price is the real issue which "helps" me to reduce the amount of film I take with me. Upsides are that this helps me to be very deliberate in my approach (which is, for me, a good thing), is better for my aging bones, and yes...it also saves some $$$!

Yes. I will have to learn to be a bit more deliberate in my approach to photography.

i read what some of you post about your hiking trips with backpacks and large format equipment with great interest but that just isn't me. Unless I am hunting I have never been much of a hiker so equipment weight or bulk has never really dictated what I do or do not carry with me. If I can't get close to where I want to be with my old pickup then I usually don't go there.

[Two23]

My partial solution was to switch to wet plate. There are set up costs of course and the learning curve was steep but the cost per image is reasonable.

[AuditorOne]

Hmm. Never thought of that. I did try some of Jason Lane's glass dry plates but that certainly was not a savings; although it was a lot of fun.