Canadians, where do you buy your 8x10 film?

[Deniz]

This is directed mostly to canadians that use 8x10 film.

I bought my first pack of 8x10 film from Freestyle photo a while ago and fedex delivered it pretty fast and i was extremely happy that they didnt ask for customs tax and brokerage fees. then 2 weekslater i got a letter from FEDEX canada saying that i owe them C$21 for customs fees. I called them up and told them that there is no way on this earth that i was paying that money since i wasn't informed during the delivery and if i was, i would tell them to send the package back to where it came from. They understood my complaint and didnt ask for the payment.

Last week i was about to place another order on freestyle and just as i was checkingout i saw the little note saying ;

"Duties Notice: You are responsible for all duties, customs, and brokerage fees associated with your order. If you refuse to pay the carrier or the carrier's agent for these charges, Freestyle will charge your credit card for all amounts billed to Freestyle by the carrier or the carrier's agent."

I was a little choked since my next order was gonna be $100+ and the fees would probably be around C$50. So i canceled my order and started looking around.

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

Does any one in canada experienced something similar with JandCphotos? Their JandC Pro film seems to be similar to Arista.edu which basically is a fortepan..

How do you canadians get your big film?

Eight Elm photo in Toronto carries Fortepan 200 and 400 in 8x10 (25) sizes for C$75 which equals to $55 usd (Arista.edu is $34 and its the same film as fortepan)

So here is my dilemma.. I am on budget and i want 8x10 film...

help me out, please.. thank you

Deniz

[Doug Dolde]

That's the price you pay not to live in George W. Bushland. I wouldn't complain and would get out of Bushland if I could.

[Ron Bose]

Hi Deniz,

Two points:-

Local: I buy my 8x10 film from Michael Chan at Eight Elm and my local camera store can order Tri-X from Kodak if you buy enough boxes !! I have also bought HP5+ in 25 sheet boxes from Vistek.

Shipping: You should ask whomever you order your film from to ship via United States Postal Service. Cross border shipments are very economical.

UPS - will charge an arm and a leg especially brokerage fees - AVOID !!!

FedEx - have a more reasonable brokerage fee, but will still charge you GST and PST after the fact (most of the time).

USPS/Purolator - have a very reasonable brokerage fee, but will also charge the taxes after the fact.

I have had some of my shipments from FedEx come in without any subsequent tax or brokerage billing. I think it really depends on Customs and Revenue Canada. If they flag a package, then FedEx has to charge the taxes etc., if they don't you don't get charged.

Another 'funny', if you order something and it enters Canada in say Vancouver then makes its way to Ontario, they won't charge PST. If it enters in Toronto, you have to pay both.

In conlcusion, whenever you order anything across the border I think it's reasonable to expect that you'll be charged the taxes and a small brokerage fee. C'est la vie.

Good luck !!

[Calamity Jane]

There's a few online outfits, like Harry's Pro Shop.

I have the good fortune (snicker) to live near Winnipeg and find Don's Photo (warehouse) prices aren't too far out of line. I know Don's does a lot of mail order for out of town pros, so you might try giving them a call.

I dabble in 4x5, not 8x10, but I haven't stumped them very often.

[Moe_4073]

Deniz, unless you can find an international supplier that will declare your shipments at a value less than CDN$20, you are going to end up paying taxes and brokerage. UPS is particularly expensive (upward sliding brokerage rates + COD fee + 15% tax) payable on receipt of the shipment, FedEx is a bit better than UPS brokerage wise (and you will be billed several days later). Canada Post is the cheapest ($5 handling fee + 15% taxes) but also the slowest and the thought of a $80 box of film roasting in the back of a mail truck makes me cringe. Unless you have a family member in the UK who can send you film "gifts", be prepared to pay. Regards,

[Philippe Gauthier]

I buy my film here in Montreal. Photoservice keeps HP5+ and TMax 100 in stock, as well a Polaroid 809. The box of 25 sheets of HP5+ is sold for 73 canadian dollars, which is competitive with all US prices for the same stuff. It remains expensive, though, and I admit that I'm sometimes tempted by Arista.EDU.

Even though they don't have an online store, I know that they ship stuff on demand.

[Nick_3536]

J&C ships to Canada by airmail. Or at least they did. The only thing I could complain about is they declared it at more then the order was worth. No idea why. That caused me to get hit by higher taxes. Doesn't freestyle still offer airmail if you ask? A few months ago somebody mentioned Treck hall [Various locations in Canada] had good prices on sheet film. I haven't ask so can't say.

[Andrew O'Neill]

I get 8x10 HP5+ from Beau photo in Vancouver. You could also try The Camera Store in Calgary. <julian@thecamerastore.com> Julian said he would give me a 10% discount. Great thing about ordering from Alberta? No PST! Go Flames Go!!

[Deniz]

Andrew- I was in Beau Photo just the other day and asked Serena(film lady) about 8x10 film and she said ilford would take 3-4 weeks to come in. fastest she could get in is kodak films. she said she orders film from jandc all the time and told me to do the same for 8x10 film. Well i said "i am here already so i should buy something" so bought 50sheets of Efke 25 4x5 ...

[Jim Rhoades]

I have a boyhood friend who now lives in Switzerland. Last Christmas I gave him a 35mm film scanner. (Poor lost soul) He gave me a check!

[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.

[John Kasaian]

Hey there! It seems to me that a classic window of opportunity has opened up! In the US we're forced to buy low flow flush toilets while across the border 8x10 film seems to be as scarce as hen's teeth and costly. Perhaps some unsanctioned cross border trading is called for: "Toilets for Tri-X anyone?" I doubt if the Customs doggies on either side of the border are trained to alert on film or porcelain!;-)