Ilford 2015 ULF/custom film order window is open

[Oren Grad]

Per Simon Galley over at APUG, the 2015 order window for small quantities of special-sized Ilford films is now open. Deadline is June 12.

Press release:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/pressroom/article.asp?n=202

Sizes, stock numbers and participating dealers:

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/20154893840380.pdf

[William Whitaker]

Thanks Oren!

[europanorama]

Prices for 15m hp5+ 70mm. I now understand why their prices were so high with x- subdealers. producer, general-office and dealer. would be cheaper this way to deal directly with the producer. why cant they ask who want how much? we send the money for x-films and then they send to each of us. ok we could add some costs for handling-time.

[Tracy Storer]

Very glad Ilford is still up and running and doing us this fantastic service. From a business standpoint, I can see that what they do is very compicated, and direct dealing with a few thousand high-maintenance individual customers might kill them....I am happy to let them make the film and go through a dealer.

[Tin Can]

+1^

[jbenedict]

Prices for 15m hp5+ 70mm. I now understand why their prices were so high with x- subdealers. producer, general-office and dealer. would be cheaper this way to deal directly with the producer. why cant they ask who want how much? we send the money for x-films and then they send to each of us. ok we could add some costs for handling-time.

Except Harman is not set up to sell retail. There is an established process to sell to dealers wholesale which they do numerous times per day. Retail is an entirely different matter.

[StoneNYC]

Prices for 15m hp5+ 70mm. I now understand why their prices were so high with x- subdealers. producer, general-office and dealer. would be cheaper this way to deal directly with the producer. why cant they ask who want how much? we send the money for x-films and then they send to each of us. ok we could add some costs for handling-time.

Yea, I'm glad I got Simon and the board to agree to offer it, but sadly (and ironically) I never used it and sold my rolls and got out of 70mm all together. It's all timing I suppose, still glad others are able to enjoy it.

If I had only been successful with the Kodak 4x5 Eastman Double-X debacle... Ilford truly shows its flexible and amenable nature.

Thanks Oren for posting.

[JMB]

Except Harman is not set up to sell retail. There is an established process to sell to dealers wholesale which they do numerous times per day. Retail is an entirely different matter.

But the point is, "why isn't Harman set-up to perform otherwise?" It's no answer that the established process is to sell wholesale to dealers. After all, it used to be the established process to put leeches on patients to cure diseases. No doubt Harman sees some advantage in acting conventionally. But presumably the advantage that it perceives (accurately or inaccurately) is theirs, not the buyers. I suspect that the dealer does not have much of a mark-up on Ilford items, but I also suspect that the dealer has paid a stiff price himself and the buyer can only be expected to bear so much weight. To be sure, I am pleased that the service exists. I just want to resist the tendency to turn the buyer into a passive party who is forced to be grateful for a box of film at a stiff price because the industry is narrow --sort of like being grateful for a seat on an airplane fit only for a sardine because no company is offering anything better. Fair transactions need healthy buyers. Minimally, the buyer has to learn to assert himself and not to blink, no matter what. I don't buy Ilford sheet film because it is too expensive. Direct sales to photographers might have merit. I already get most of what I need directly from manufacturers in and out of the world of photography. I want manufacturers and dealers to survive. But increasingly I find dealers a bit disappointing. I stopped in a shop in Vienna a few years ago and asked the seller if he had anything other than two types of Ilford paper. His response: "this is all you need." The typical dealer almost never has the things that I am after.

[Tin Can]

As in years past, there are pricing anomalies, if you look.

I found one I will take advantage of.

Most manufacturers sell only at MSP, so they don't undercut their authorized dealers. Makes total sense. Dealers are free to sell at any price they choose.

Just as we are free to buy or not.

One dealer says their order alone is big enough to keep the special cut alive.