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David Karp
24-Dec-2005, 16:37
Hi all,

I just received an E-mail from a friend of mine, who also happens to work at Freestyle Photo Supplies, and who also is an ULF user. Good news for ULF people:

Freestyle will be accepting orders for Ilford HP5+ and FP4+ in ULF sizes. There are 4 other U.S. dealers participating in this program. Their tentative plan is for Freestyle to accept pre-orders through January 30th, 2006. Anticipated delivery of the film would be in April 2006. Catalog numbers, prices, and sizes are not yet available.

Freestyle is also ordering some Tri-X in 11x14, so contact Freestyle ASAP if you are interested. The tentative price is $89.99 for a 10 sheet box. You will have to prepay for your order.

We have had a number of posts lately about availability of ULF film, so I hope this is not repetitive. I don't follow them very closely because I top out at 4x5.

My disclaimers: I am not an ultra large format user. I do not own stock in Ilford or Freestyle. I used to own stock in Kodak. I do have a friend who works at Freestyle. Sometimes I buy things from Freestyle. I may also have purchased items from one of the four other companies who are participating in this program, but I don't know who they are. I also gave a Saturday morning seminar on business planning at Freestyle earlier this year. I do use HP5+ and FP4+. It has been a long time since I used Tri-X, and never the large format version. I drive a Honda minivan and a Subaru Forester.

Happy holidays all. I hope this means you can get some film that you like in the sizes you need.

Barry Wilkinson
25-Dec-2005, 02:44
Hi Dave,

Catalog numbers and prices are shown on the Ilford forum site here...

www.ilford.com/html/us_english/ILFOPRO/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7037 (http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/ILFOPRO/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7037)

Barry

Pete Watkins
25-Dec-2005, 13:20
Yet again Ilford are taking care of the export markets. It appears that they are continuing the great Ilford tradition of stuffing the home market. I hate the French but thanks to the crap service we get from U.K. companies I use French film, drive a French car, snog under French mistleto (a bit of wishful thinking there) and drink more than my fair share of French red wine. Why? 'cos it's the best we can get in the U.K. (their red wine is just the best in the world) thanks to companies like Ilford who are just anti British. They don't even answer e-mails sent from the U.K. I'm fed up,
Happy Yuletide. PETE.

Jan Pietrzak
25-Dec-2005, 14:42
Pete,

TriX and a little red wine, at last check on the TriX order 2 photographers have placed orders for up/to 120 boxes/ that 1200 shetes of film. If you are interested in TriX in 11x14 now is the time to get some. Contact John Richardson at Freestyle Photographic

Part 2 Pete, I think that David (I hope you drink red wine) will go toe to toe on California vs. French reds. You come here I will buy the California wines. (David please say yes)

All the best
Jan Pietrzak

Michael Kadillak
25-Dec-2005, 16:04
Pete:

I find it rather difficult to believe that part of Ilford's corporate business plan involves purposefully ignoring their domestic customers. Pick up the phone and get a customer sales rep. With as much of a positive attitude and creativity that you can muster find out how you can skin this cat.

If there is not a domestic UK dealer set up or if the volume is so skinny that it does not make sense, ask them politely if it is possible to consumate the financial component of a deal with any of the US dealers and then drop ship your portion of the order from the factory. Or maybe you could pick it up in person?

If that does not work, ask him/her what other options there are to achieve the favorable outcome you are interested in.

Hang in there!

Cheers

Barry Wilkinson
26-Dec-2005, 03:24
Hi,

Like Pete, I live in the UK and drive a French car and drink their Red Wine. However, I much prefer HP5+ to Bergger film.

I have asked the Ilford Director, who regularly visits the APUG forums, on two occasions recently regarding UK supplies of ULF film. He has not responded. I at least expected some honesty, i.e 'The market is simply too small...' I believe they could make an arrangement with one European dealer to handle our requests. I'm sure users would pay up-front? It might not make them much money, but the goodwill would do them no harm in other sales.

I have compared the cost of re-importing Ilford ULF film from the US, but it is more economical to buy Kodak film from the US. So Tri-x and T-max here I come.

Barry

David A. Goldfarb
26-Dec-2005, 10:17
It could be that Ilford is just looking for a UK or European dealer willing to handle the transactions, since they don't seem to be set up for retail sales themselves. Robert White, Silverprint, Linhof and Studio, and Lotus would be the logical candidates, and I'm sure there are a few others. Maybe the best avenue for UK and European ULF users is not just to contact Ilford, but to contact retailers who are normally in a position to order from Ilford.

Barry Wilkinson
26-Dec-2005, 10:54
Valid point David. To be fair to Ilford, they have only just released their US offering and this is not the best time of year to set up any UK deals.

I shall be talking to Robert White as soon as they return from their break, I'll discuss this with them

Regards

Barry

Pete Watkins
26-Dec-2005, 14:06
Barry thanks for your support. Silverprint used to sell Ilford 14 x 11 and when I last spoke to the gaffer he told me that he had an 14 x 11 Deardorf. Ilford stopped selling Silverprint U.L.F. film.
What Ilford don't seem to understand is that photographers become loyal to a brand of film and tend to use one brand of film in all the formats that they use. Importing film or anything else into the U.K. is not a cheap process. This country is known as Rip Off Britain due to the fact that most things are cheaper abroad. If I import anything dearer than 18 U.K.P. I pay customs duty and V.A.T. on the item. This adds over 20% to the cost of the item. Even 8 x 10 Tri X from Silverprint is a special import and costs 116 U.K.P. for 50 sheets, this is over $200 for 50 sheets of 8 x 10. It might be worth contacting the U.K.'s weekly photographic magazine, Amature Photographer, and seeing if they can get an answer from Ilford but as Ilford advertise in the magazine I can't see a lot of hope there. The larger than 4 x 5 market in the U.K. is always going to be miniscule, I am aware of that but if they are cutting film these sizes for the export market refusing to sell these sizes to the domestic market is just poor buisness practice. The company has just crawled back from oblivion by the skin of their teeth and they are still being mis managed. This is my last word on the wine argument, I will admit that Californian reds are better that the "Maidens Water" that this country imports from Australia. Enough said. PETE.