Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Any film shooters? where do you guys usually get your films? I am sick of the high prices here.

^^

unfortunately.

Henrys and others can have good prices on *some* products but best to do your due diligence and compare.

Freestyle's shipping sure cuts into any discount you might get.
Before Elm street photo closed they had good prices on blocks of Ilford. But they had to buy Kodak from the distributor at full Canadian prices.

I buy from Aden, Downtown Camera, and Film Plus. And I develop my slides at Northern Artists. Also the Camera shows are AMAZING if you do not mind buying and shooting expired film. You can get tons of stuff at 2-3$ per roll [35mm or 120/220] as well as tons of Fuji 4x5 instant and other 4x5 and sometimes even 8x10 film. There is a thread in Gear and Equipment about these camera shows and one is coming up this sunday the 27th.

freestyle is more expensive than bh but they have some obscure films available

it all depends on what you want to buy, for example even if I buy 1 I would still save money on this by getting it shipped to me

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... Color.html
http://vistek.ca/store/Film/113077/fuji ... -film.aspx

Typically buy film from Aden Camera (which now carries Portra 800 35/120 on regular bases) and Camera Shows. Rarely get it from Film Plus (They have good, hard to get stuff, but expensivrew~~!).
I get C-41 rolls developed from Elpro or Aden and E-6 from Northern Artist.
For the record, I only shoot 35mm format film. Hopefully I can get into 120 format someday.

new film I buy from Film Plus in the west end.....

A year or so back, I ordered 15 rolls of 35mm slide film (100 ASA) from a store in downtown Toronto. It was 3 to 4 weeks before it arrived, which was a bit close to the vacation I needed the film for.
Finding 400 ASA in slide film downtown has become difficult in the past few years.
While I believe in buying locally, I started buying boxes of film from B&H because of the frustration associated with buying my film in Toronto. So far, everything I have ordered has shipped within days.
I use Downtown Camera for development, so I keep that local
I remember as a kid going with my dad to Honest Ed's so he could pick up a few rolls of Kodachrome for his Canon Ftb. Those were the days.

The Camerama Shows usually has that one seller with boxes and boxes of expired film. Today I picked up a block (10 rolls) of TMAX 400 and a 5 pack of Portra 160 at $3 a roll. The TMAX is only 2 years expired while the Portra is about 6. Not much choice on the 120 side though, just a few rolls of Plus-X and the BW400CN C41 stuff.

On the bright side (kinda), Henry's carries Arista Premium 400 135, which is Freestyle's rebrand of Tri-X. $4.29 for 24 exposures is still a lot more than the U.S., but it's at least palatable.

Perhaps we should consider a group buy?

I'm in

I buy B&W and Color 120 from Aden and seem to get the best price there.

I'm in for the group buy.

I'd potentially be in for a group buy but... What film? How much of it? Who's going to do the leg work? I'm not sure we'd ever agree on the first two and my answer to the third question is "not me." Personally I don't think we leverage the potential buying power we have here...

I'm usually a B&H buyer

So, the consensus for film in Toronto is the local retailers are **** sad? Disappointing.

No, they're just at the mercy of a lack of proper distribution and representation. I believe they're handcuffed and don't have much room to discount and will buy local if I can but don't I lose any sleep if I have to order from B&H either.

"Proper distribution and representation"? Not by any definition I have for any of those words does that even remotely make sense. Their system is broken, flawed, misrepresents true value and completely improper in the current retail distribution climate. The problem with supporting the local guy is that we also end up supporting the broken system the local guy is handcuffed to. I have no desire to be complicit in lining the pockets of useless middlemen with money.

I'm gonna start a store. My prices will be 20% more than Amazon because that's who I'm gonna buy my stuff from and I have to make money. Acceptable? Of course not. Either I get the same damn items from a distributor with proper prices or nobody buys from me. Why are we apologists for camera stores doing this? Because they have no other choice? Possibly, but I'd sure as hell would love to be pointed in the direction of them fighting this problem.

my craptastic english meant to say that there's no Kodak rep in Canada as there used to be afaik so retail has to deal with someone in the states I understand. not in retail so could be wrong. not apologizing for stores here but I do believe their hands are tied (ie-they can't buy from B&H and resell and yes,henrys sells arista) and can't compete with B&H nor Freestyle. Few can. it is what it is.

it's still the 'if local stores go south, we're all pooched' scenario and that would be a sad day.

Finally got some Blazinal!

That reminds me -- if I ever start developing again, I need new Blazinal

I was a bit skeptical since it's less viscous than HC-110, but the first roll turned out. We'll see better after I scan it tonight.

It's the real stuff imported and re-branded I've been using it for 2 years now without a problem. HC-110 is really quite a different developer.

If you run out let me know...I've got two unopened.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across so aggressive about it. My understanding of camera equipment distribution in Canada is that a cartel of middlemen set up to make a pile of money and that it screws us. If this system trickles down to film I have no idea but I can imagine that film may be slightly more complicated given it's more of a niche now than it was. If someone who does know how this distribution system works intimately I would appreciate the insight. The old, bad, argument of too small a market and increased distances doesn't cut it for a country that has the majority of it's population within arm's reach of the US border and it all comes over on the same damn boat from Asia to North America! To support Canadian jobs? You mean the jobs created to charge me more for items for the sake of creating those jobs? No. Higher cost of doing business? Sure, a bit. But not to the margins we see. And, if this argument had any real validity why don't prices go down in cheaper markets? Rent is cheaper for Henry's in Ancaster than it is in Toronto. Stuff should be cheaper right? I realize it's not so simple as that, but that is a rational counter to the argument being made of higher cost of business. There's that Ivey Business School article I linked to in another thread that outlines the retail council middle men and their skeevy system I'm loosely describing here. Sadly, in a way, I want to see the locals have trouble. If they're gone the system they're forced to use goes with them and they're by no means a special baby that can't be thrown away with the bath water. Somebody would replace them with hopefully a more efficient rational system. I'm dreaming. Anyway, to spare everyone's annoyance at me harping on and on about this I'll drop it, for a while. And I will continue to buy from the US with impunity.

http://stores.ebay.ca/Film-Carnival?_rdc=1

This eBay store is sometimes better than Freestyle.
However as with buying film off the internet, buying a brick of 10 is often cheaper than buying 1-3-5, etc.

The store has a decent selection and does quantity discounts (though not by much).

Let's buy some film from B&H. Who's in? I need some portra

Saw this on Kijiji. Hope it helps somebody.

**NOTE: NOT MY AD**
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell ... Z455905652

Thanks for that! Great seller...and still some left.

I just picked up 15 rolls from him myself. Nice dude. Thanks for the post.