Weekly Update, June 2026
Well the world is burning and I'm sheltering inside, so here's a quick stock update for this week. First up, I have film news:
Film Stocks
I have installed a fridge! I've been meaning to do this for a while, and finally got around to picking one up and hoiking it up the fire escape yesterday. The market gets pretty warm in summer and the gas heaters in winter are pretty potent, so this will make me far more comfortable in stocking more film. As always, I'm trying to keep my prices as reasonable as possible.
I now have a wide selection of both fresh and expired stocks, as you can see (with more on the way now I have somewhere to store it).
Expired Film
I've been testing out the various expired rolls to see what condition it's in, and I think I've got a pretty good idea for most of it. I doubt it was stored in a fridge before but it would have been fairly stable at least, so overall everything that's been shot so far has been usable.
As always, expired film will be very affordable - I still don't understand why people are overpaying for it on eBay, personally. To make sure as many people as possible in Cardiff can get some cheap film, I'll be limiting the amount each person can buy at once to 3 rolls. Here's some highlights of the testing so far:
- Higher ISO colour film tends to be the most expensive when you look around on eBay etc, but from testing so far it performs worse than the slow ISO films.
- The Tudor 100 film seems to perform really well. The test roll shot at ISO 25 was very dense, so it should be fine at 50 as well. Which is good as I have tons of this. I haven't got the results of the 200 yet but I expect it to be similar.
- The Fujifilm Superia Xtra 800 I shot at 100 was still slightly underexposed, so I'd consider going even further over, but it is shootable at 100 in most situations. I don't think I've got the results of the 400 yet.
- The 1600 speed film is grainy, with dull colours, which isn't very surprising. This might go on eBay unless there's anyone super excited about it (and it needs to be shot at like 100 as well). Price might be higher for this as it sells for stupid money on eBay.
- There's a lot of expired slide film. I'm shooting some of this myself to see how it performs, as it's a huge waste of money for people otherwise. I'll report back.
- I have ~17 rolls of Kodak TMAX 100 in 120. This turned out good when shot at 50 ISO and overdeveloped by 10% (might not even need that).
Pricing
I'm still working out exact prices, but the rough idea will be between £5-7.50 per roll depending on what I expect the quality to be like, not based on their eBay prices (which are often lunacy).
Fresh Film
Now I have a fridge, I'm restocking on fresh film as I see good prices available. I will have a reasonable amount of Kodak Gold in both 35mm and 120 as of this week, and I have most of the Ilford stocks available in 35mm already. I am low on 120 B&W film in the market right now, although I have loads at home so some of that might start appearing too.
New Cameras in Stock
Not much new this week, but here's one new bit:
- A good earlier 3.5 Rolleiflex, price to be determined once I identify the model, but about £300
I am also going to be selling some of my own cameras/lenses shortly, likely a couple of Mamiya 645 lenses - including the very rare giant 200mm f/2.8 APO. Get in touch if you're interested in that. I may also have a couple of high-end Nikon Z mount lenses available - my 85mm f/1.8 S, and the 24-70mm f/2.8 II. I'm not 100% certain on those yet, but again let me know if you are interested as I'll be deciding fairly soon.