Shoot film for less
We’ve given a lot of attention to the film photography revival in AP, but it’s a challenging time to shoot film. While most people in the UK have recently felt the pinch of an increased cost of living, film prices have been rising precipitously for a while now. Why is that?
‘It seems to be a simple case of demand outstripping supply,’ says Simon Skinner, co-founder and editor of photobite.uk, a website for photo and video enthusiasts, which also sells film. ‘My concern is that film manufacturers view the increased appetite for shooting film as a fad. That could mean a lack of investment in production to meet and maintain demand, which would keep prices high, and probably is.’
It’s colour film that is really ballooning in price. There are only a handful of companies keeping colour film in regular production, with Kodak being the biggest, and some stocks have pushed past £20 for a single roll of 36 shots!
Karen Freer, marketing manager at specialist retailer Analogue Wonderland, has seen first-hand the effect of steeply rising prices on the analogue photography community. ‘It makes me really sad that there are potentially a lot of people that just can’t afford to shoot colour film,’ she says. ‘We try to reduce the cost of film every month with different offers in our “deals on film” section, but there is only so much we can do.’
Film will always be a passion project – nobody loads
