DiscussionFilm prices in 2026: what are you actually paying?

Kodak Alaris put prices up again on the 1st (silver costs apparently, anywhere from 1% to nearly 40% depending on the stock). Thought it'd be useful to have one thread where we post what we're actually paying, so new people can see what film costs now and not what it cost in 2016 lol.

Me, London: Portra 400 35mm £18.50 a roll at my local this morning, was £17 before Christmas. Gold 200 £10. HP5 £9.80.

Freezer is full so Im smug for about four months. Post yours with where you are, 35 or 120, and whether its a single roll or a pack.

Bristol. Portra 400 35mm £18 single, Ektar £15. HP5 120 £8.50. dont even ask me about 120 Portra

ok fine £92 for a 5 pack of 120 Portra 400 😩

OneMoreLens said:

Post yours with where you are

Pittsburgh, $19.99 for Portra 400 35mm at the camera store, $11 for Gold. I've basically moved to Gold and Ultramax for everything except people at this point. honestly in good light I can't always tell Gold from Portra on my scans, which either says something nice about Gold or something bad about my scaning lol

E100 is $25 a roll here before processing, and nobody in town does E-6 anymore, so add mailing both ways and a week of waiting.

Rochester. Rochester! The town Kodak built. I used to drop Kodachrome off at the drugstore on a Monday and have slides back on the Friday, six bucks a roll with the processing included, and that was with my father-in-law complaining it used to be cheaper. Now I mail E100 to a lab two states away and pray the post office doesn't lose it.

People keep telling me to shoot negative film because it's cheaper and more forgiving. I know. I don't care. Put a well exposed slide on a light table and look at it with a loupe and tell me a scan of a negative does that. It doesn't.

Kodachrome 64 on a sunny day in the Finger Lakes. You kids have no idea.

Don't get me started.

k64forever said:

Don't get me started.

Too late pal.

Glasgow: HP5 £9.50, Tri-X £13, Portra 400 £19. I mostly bulk load HP5 now, works out about a fiver a roll, and I develop it myself in HC-110 which costs pennies a roll and lasts forever. If you're shooting black and white and paying a lab, you're paying for a convenience you don't need. It's the easiest thing in photography.

Bulk loading is the way... I've been rolling FP4 off a 100ft tin since singles started making my eyes water. A Watson loader off a well known auction site, a pile of reusable cassettes and an evening in front of the telly, and you've got eighteen rolls for the price of seven or eight.

My dad loaded his own in a coal cellar in 1971 and swore it was the only way to stay sane. He wasn't especially sane, if I'm honest, but the film was cheap and he never once ran out. He also used to write the stock and the date on a strip of masking tape on every cassette, which I still do, mostly because I can hear him telling me to.

Two warnings for anyone tempted. Don't load more than about 36 frames or it won't fit the cassette and you'll tear the end off in the camera. And keep the cassettes clean, a bit of grit in the felt and you'll get a lovely scratch down the whole roll. Ask me how I know...

Brighton prices for the record: FP4 £10, HP5 £9.60. Portra I wouldn't know, I'm an Ilford man and proud of it.

lucyinthedarkroom said:

works out about a fiver a roll

This is the way honestly. Need to get a bulk loader, I keep saying it and keep not doing it. Problem is I mostly shoot colour and I'm not brave enough to do C-41 in my flat, my kitchens about the size of a camera bag lol

OneMoreLens said:

what film costs now and not what it cost in 2016

chicago, portra 400 $21 at the shop downtown. tbh it's cheaper online but i like the shop and want it to stay open

NYC, Tri-X $15.50. Paying it out of spite at this point.

Cardiff. Portra 160 in 120, £88 for five. For anyone shooting 6x7 that's around £1.75 a frame before development, and closer to £3 a frame once the lab has had its share.

Which concentrates the mind wonderfully on a cold hillside above Llyn y Fan Fach. I take perhaps four frames on a good morning now, and I'd argue the work is better for it. I don't miss the days of burning half a roll on one sunset and keeping none of it. The ones I print at 20x24 are almost always the frame I waited longest for.

Bought a digital camera. Saved a fortune.

mfrost said:

Bought a digital camera

get out

Mod hat on briefly: merged the two other price threads from last week into this one so it's all in one place. Carry on. - Ash

Well. Eastman Kodak are taking stills film back in house and Portra is now 'Ektacolor Pro'. There's a separate thread in here for the rename chat, but for this thread I'll report back on whether the new boxes cost more lol

OneMoreLens said:

I'll report back on whether the new boxes cost more

They'll cost more. They always cost more.

first Ektacolor Pro 400 boxes showed up at my shop today. same price as the Portra next to it on the shelf, $19.99. for now. the guy behind the counter said theyd been told its the same film inside and he's going to sell the old Portra boxes first. new box is kind of nice honestly, very 70s

Still HP5 at £9.50 up here, Harman haven't moved since February. Kentmere 400 still under £7 if anyone's on a budget, it's not HP5 but it's not far off once it's in HC-110. Ilford gang stays winning

lucyinthedarkroom said:

Ilford gang stays winning

Hear hear

ghent, belgium. €17 for ektacolor pro 400, €8 for kentmere 400. first time buying film (borrowed my uncles olympus) so idk if thats good or bad lol