Sustainability of 8x10 film given the pricing situation

[Peter De Smidt]

I've had good luck with Foma, as well.

[paulbarden]

I might get jumped on but have you considered Foma. I like it but I haven't bought any for a few years now. It used to be shipped from Norway and that's non EU. Always got great service and reasonable prices. Ignore all the crap people push out about Foma, I've always got on well with it, it's just delicate when it's wet.

Agreed. I recently bought a box of Foma 100 in 5x7 and found it perfectly satisfactory. No, it's not quite the same as more expensive emulsions, but you can get good results from it if you learn its characteristics and use them to advantage.

https://flic.kr/p/2oqnzVA
Nothing wrong with that result, as far as I'm concerned.

[jnantz]

It seems the sky is always falling, and yet none of us have been crushed by it yet.

exactly

Agreed. I recently bought a box of Foma 100 in 5x7 and found it perfectly satisfactory. No, it's not quite the same as more expensive emulsions, but you can get good results from it if you learn its characteristics and use them to advantage.

https://flic.kr/p/2oqnzVA
Nothing wrong with that result, as far as I'm concerned.

looks really nice!

[Michael R]

Oh please. I'm crushed by it constantly.

exactly



looks really nice!

[ethics_gradient]

For B&W, try a box of Shanghai GP3. I bought it when I got back into 4x5 a couple years ago and was pleasantly suprised at the quality.

I empathise with your costs. I started shooting wet plate when I was living back in Australia, and we pay 5-6 times what US/EU people do for collodion owing to hazmat shipping.

[StuartR]

Thank you all. I don't think I am as interested in using alternative photographic materials...if it is between 8x10 xray film and 4x5 Tmax, I will probably take the Tmax. But I appreciate the constructive suggestions. I will certainly give Foma and Ilford another look for black and white. I will probably stick with Tmax as long as I can...at least for when it really counts. I have a real respect for Kodak's innovation and workers, so I do want to support it...for color is likely means sticking with smaller formats unless there is something really special.

[paulbarden]

Thank you all. I don't think I am as interested in using alternative photographic materials...if it is between 8x10 xray film and 4x5 Tmax, I will probably take the Tmax. But I appreciate the constructive suggestions. I will certainly give Foma and Ilford another look for black and white. I will probably stick with Tmax as long as I can...at least for when it really counts. I have a real respect for Kodak's innovation and workers, so I do want to support it...for color is likely means sticking with smaller formats unless there is something really special.

FWIW, I've actually come to prefer Delta 100 in 8x10 over any other (similar) film.

[Drew Wiley]

Stuart - I've been shopping from B&H for a long time, along with other sources, including Keith Canham's own film pre-order program. One peculiarity of B&H is that when their inventory of some particular film is running low, they jack the price way way up. I surmise there are two prongs to that strategy : 1) it prevents re-sellers or competitors from filling orders using their own limited inventory; and 2) it allows at least a little reserve to be on hand for any of the routine customers who desperately need it and are willing to pay the extra price. Then, once Kodak is ready to make a volume cut of 8X10 again, and its feast time instead of famine, the price drops significantly down again. I've seen that over and over.

Only certain parties participate in these large volume Kodak 8X10 sheet film opportunities. If you don't like B&H's feast and famine roller coaster pricing, then join Canham's order pool, and wait. Rockets do come back down; but don't expect a soft landing compared to what the same films cost a decade or two ago. The whole point to buy a reserve quantity when the price is relatively low.

Anyway, Foma film is no substitute for TMax quality and versatility, not by a long shot. But if you can live with its idiosyncrasies, you might or might not save money, depending on how many sheets you have to burn to get what you want from it. I have always supplemented my own TMax stockpile with FP4, whenever a slower film speed and a little more toe to the curve was acceptable. HP5 can be lovely too for more moderate contrast scenes. Delta 100 can partially simulate TMax 100 if you shoot it at 50 in order to boost the shadows higher up onto the straight line section of the curve. But there's no question that the current all-round champion of sheet films is TMY400. It does almost everything exceptionally well.

I got a chuckle out of Domaz's suggestion. I suspect he never actually got in the bull ring with that one. At least, I didn't see his name on any of the headstones in the matador cemetery.

I still do true optical enlargements from 8X10 color film, and yes, it still holds a distinct qualitative edge over digital options. But for all practical purposes, unless you do need really big enlargements or exceptionally detailed ones, substituting 4X5 or even 120 color film will conserve some of your money for other things you need, like 8X10 black and white film.

[Jim Andrada]

I've pretty much standardized on film for B&W and Digital for color, although I do have around 100 sheets of 5 x 7 Ektar 100 in the freezer.

[jnantz]

The cheapest way to shoot "color" might be to shoot Blue and Greeen on X-ray film and the Red layer on normal B&W film. That would lower your total price per color frame from $18 a shot to a bit over $8 a shot. Worth the savings? Probably not.

yeahhh. that is pretty cheep but then you have to contact both sheets ( or 3 ) on color paper, or scan them and teach yourself how to make digital trichomes and you have to hope the camera didn't wiggle when you switched film holders, fringing is a drag .. but it's cheep...