Kodak price increase

[Alan Klein]

The headline is clickbait. It says "up to 40%", while the article says, in various places, "upwards of 40%", "overall average coming out to about 17%", "between 20 and 40%" for Japan, and "still undetermined" for the US.

The dollar/yen exchange rate has been volatile over the past year. Even after regaining some strength recently the yen is currently still down by roughly 20% over the past year. That exchange rate trajectory by itself would be enough to explain the increase anticipated for Japan.

The value of the US dollar seems to be coming down a little compared to other currencies. That would lower Kodak prices in Japan and England and raise Fuji and Ilford prices in America.

Actually, Kodak is a strange bird. Kodak who makes the film in America, sells it exclusively to Kodak Alaris in Great Britain who adds their markups. So Kodak film gets a double increase compared to others like Ilford or Fuji where the manufacturer and distributors are the same.

[Alan Klein]

I'm using about an equal amount of FP4 and TMY these days...and my strategy for the latter has become to avoid doing multiple exposures of a given setup, as well as to "take more time" in arriving at a particular composition. In other words...being extremely careful, then trying my best to do a one-off exposure. Helps me in some ways...but scary as heck in others!

...have also become even more obsessive about taking whatever care possible during processing!

Higher prices might make us better photographers.

[Alan Klein]

I’m a longtime Tri-X shooter, primarily in sheet film. Even because of the current prices, I’m very, very selective in what I photograph. Unless I stumble on another Moonrise Over Hernandez, I ain’t tripping the shutter. I need to make my 10-sheet boxes of 4x5 last! It’s like loading thin sheets of gold into my holders.

I spent around $160 last July including shipping from Japan to buy 20 sheets of 4x5 Velvia 50. It's being discontinued. I locked it away in my freezer next to some leftovers. I hope -8 degrees F isn't too cold for film. I keep my other emulsions like Provia and Tmax there too at that low temperature.

[Drew Wiley]

An employee at the local camera store bought an entire case of 4X5 Acros for personal use from the vey last batch, 160 boxes of it as I recall, prior to the pandemic. I have one 20 sheet box of my own of Acros in the freezer. It's really TMax films I rely on most now, although I do know how to tweak Delta into so-so similarity (still not the same thing). But in large format, I'd far rather use FP4 or HP5 than default to Delta if TMax becomes unaffordable. I do have a pretty good reservoir of both speeds of TMax sheet film on hand, which will last me quite awhile.

[domaz]

100 sheets of Ilford 8x10 MG FB went from $133 to $148 at B&H... within the last week or two.

I would argue that Silver Gelatin prices are so high per sheet now, you are better off calibrating a digital negative workflow for them so you don't have to worry about calibrating exposure and contrast for every individual negative. This is what Alt Process printers do and it works quite well..

[domaz]

An employee at the local camera store bought an entire case of 4X5 Acros for personal use..

That camera store must pay better than most, or the employee is the owner??

[jnantz]

That camera store must pay better than most, or the employee is the owner??

It might be an urban legend!

[jp]

I would argue that Silver Gelatin prices are so high per sheet now, you are better off calibrating a digital negative workflow for them so you don't have to worry about calibrating exposure and contrast for every individual negative. This is what Alt Process printers do and it works quite well..

I figure every time I use my Epson printer, it disappears $10 worth of ink it seems. I spend more on printer ink and get less to show for it than from a box of photo paper.
Not a curmudgeon against the digital method of output at all just being realistic. With alt process, the Epson could save HUGE time too, since each sheet of paper has to be prepared by hand and then dried before exposure.

[Alan Klein]

An employee at the local camera store bought an entire case of 4X5 Acros for personal use from the vey last batch, 160 boxes of it as I recall, prior to the pandemic. I have one 20 sheet box of my own of Acros in the freezer. It's really TMax films I rely on most now, although I do know how to tweak Delta into so-so similarity (still not the same thing). But in large format, I'd far rather use FP4 or HP5 than default to Delta if TMax becomes unaffordable. I do have a pretty good reservoir of both speeds of TMax sheet film on hand, which will last me quite awhile.

Which Tmax 100 or 400 do you like and why and when do you use them??

[Daniel Stone]

Personally, I've taken well to the "Shoot less, make every shot count" model. Don't waste time on something unless you really like it, or know it will be worthy of a print one day.
I've found that using my eyes to enjoy a scene sometimes makes more sense than hurrying to setup the camera and losing the magic of a moment.