Film supply audit surprises

lindsay

lindsay

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I decided to do an audit of my film supplies in the garage fridge/freezer, as I had no idea what was in there. I knew I'd gone a bit mad on some less orthodox films from time to time, but it was quite surprising.
In the sheet film, not that much to report - some 10x8 FP4 and 4x5 Delta 100 plus Fomapan 100
In 120, a healthy mixture: Portra 400 (3), Kentmere 100 (2), FP4 (7), Ektar 100 (5), Gold 200 (10) - nice as like shooting MF colour on the C330.

However in 35mm I found I only had 4 colour films, one of which is Velvia slide film and two are Harman Phoenix. Then I found loads of B&W film - I mean loads - ranging from Cinestill 800 and XX, to a good quantity of HP5 with some Adox, Washi, and several SFX and a Rollei IR film.

So it looks like I need to start shooting the B&W 35mm on the Pentaxes, which is not a hardship, and since Mrs P has taken a liking to her Pentax 17 and a Pentax MZ5n that I offered her, and prefers shooting mono, I think we should be ok. I did want to contribute to the FPOTY in the coming year!

Do others have a good handle on their film supplies?
 
I keep my film in a flight case in our 1/2 height cellar which though not refrigerated is generally quite cool. I have to admit there is no record of what film I hold other than my memory which does have some inconsistencies, like where did that un opened box of 54 Rollei IR come from?
 
think I've got it in a Google sheet...

at last update, 35mm - 24 rolls colour, 28 of B&W, 120 14 colour and 11 B&W - assuming "normal" square format for the 120, that's 2172 frames worth - or at my current rate of usage of 3 rolls in the past 7 years, enough for the rest of this century... All (now) well and truly out of date, been frozen for anything up to a decade or more, and something I really aught to just do something with, but frankly, I've barely even taken more than a couple of hundred frames on the digital cameras since the heart attack about 8 years ago - never mind using film. Time to flog the film, mothball the cameras until I retire, then get out and use them properly I think...
 
Not as much as I would like, sadly. Mostly B&W 120 with some 4x5 fomapan 100 and 400. Also some sheets of 5x7 for my old wooden camera.

I would say two dozen rolls of 120 and 6 rolls of 35mm.

Every now and then I see out of date film come up at auction but you just cannot know the history so I pass.
 
I have too much. There's a load in fridge salad drawer, some more on a bookshelf, a few more rolls in bags and yet some more on other shelves. At current shooting habits I'm good for the next 20 years minimum :oops: :$
 
I did do a count a couple of years ago. I'm not confident that I will ever be able to use all the film; a drawer full in the freezer and a big pile on a shelf in the dining room.

The latter mostly out-of-date colour film, 217 rolls altogether. There are also 21 packs of Fuji Instax Wide film, a mixture of colour and black and white, and a 50 sheet box of Fomapan 100 5x4, 25 sheets of Ilford Ortho 80 5x4 sheet film and some Aristo Litho film, maybe 90 sheets of 5x4 in a box. Insane quantities of film considering I'm only using about 60 rolls of film a year, not including 5x4 which is perhaps 30 sheets a year. Also an opened 50 box of Fomapan 200 5x7 and a few sheets of Ilford FP4, 5x7, plus some Harman Direct Positive 5x4. I also recently sold a load of 135 colour negative film as well because I have found myself shooting 135 black and white in preference.

The freezer inventory is largely in-date or permanently refrigerated black and white. I would say in excess of 200 rolls.

I think, over the years, I over reacted to news that the availability of film was going to be compromised. Prices used to be very keen in the past and I took advantage to overstock.

The other thing, in my defence perhaps, is that I like to have a big choice of film stock depending on what I'm shooting; 135 colour negative, 135 black and white. 120 colour negative, 135 colour slide, 135 black and white, 5x4 and 5x7 black and white, all in different speeds. That's a result of having too many cameras and trying to rotate them.
 
PeterSpencer said:
I did do a count a couple of years ago. I'm not confident that I will ever be able to use all the film; a drawer full in the freezer and a big pile on a shelf in the dining room.

The latter mostly out-of-date colour film, 217 rolls altogether. There are also 21 packs of Fuji Instax Wide film, a mixture of colour and black and white, and a 50 sheet box of Fomapan 100 5x4, 25 sheets of Ilford Ortho 80 5x4 sheet film and some Aristo Litho film, maybe 90 sheets of 5x4 in a box. Insane quantities of film considering I'm only using about 60 rolls of film a year, not including 5x4 which is perhaps 30 sheets a year. Also an opened 50 box of Fomapan 200 5x7 and a few sheets of Ilford FP4, 5x7, plus some Harman Direct Positive 5x4. I also recently sold a load of 135 colour negative film as well because I have found myself shooting 135 black and white in preference.

The freezer inventory is largely in-date or permanently refrigerated black and white. I would say in excess of 200 rolls.

I think, over the years, I over reacted to news that the availability of film was going to be compromised. Prices used to be very keen in the past and I took advantage to overstock.

The other thing, in my defence perhaps, is that I like to have a big choice of film stock depending on what I'm shooting; 135 colour negative, 135 black and white. 120 colour negative, 135 colour slide, 135 black and white, 5x4 and 5x7 black and white, all in different speeds. That's a result of having too many cameras and trying to rotate them.
Click to expand...

You've made me feel a little better about the size of my own stash. Peter. :D
 
Glad to hear it!

I should also have mentioned that I'm doing more digital photography rather than film as my current project is as a museum volunteer photographing artefacts, like Egyptian textiles.

For example this 6th century Coptic textile fragment, may I perhaps be forgiven for posting this picture on F&C...

1735729619729.jpeg

So that means I shooting less film altogether of course.
 
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