Inexpensive or Cheap film?

Greetings,

 

The other day my wife came home from the store with two big packages

of 35 mm film that she picked up on sale. I was wondering if anyone

could advise me on this film. The first package of film was from

Walmart, and it had the Walmart brand on it's lable. The second

package of 35 mm film she bought somewhere else. But, the brand name

on this film was Polaroid.

 

My questions are relatively simple. Are either of these films worth

the lower price? Is the Walmart film actually made by Kodak or Fugi,

and then just repackaged? Has anyone else used the 35 mm Polaroid

film and liked the results?

 

Between my wife and I we shoot about 3-4 rolls of film a month.

Strictly amature stuff, but we do enjoy getting the great shots on

occasion. In the past, we have mainly stuck to either Kodak or Fugi.

In fact, we have probably used Kodak for about 75% of the shots taken

over the past five years. I have a Canon 35 mm SLR, and my wife uses

a Nikon. We usually just get 4 X 6 prints, but we occasionally get 5

X 7 or 8 x 10 prints made.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jeff

Wal-Mart sells Polaroid-branded 35mm film which is manufactured by Agfa. It isn't the best film in the world but it's better than Kodak Max.

 

Fuji is the best value for the money but the Wal-Mart/Polaroid stuff isn't too bad.

 

If you get your film processed at Wal-Mart, it makes more sense to stick with Fuji film because Wal-Mart uses Fuji hardware/paper/chemicals.

Here in Europe Polaroid 35mm film is from Agfa.

As there are only a few manufactures of color-negative-film you may look at the box:

 

Is it "Made in Japan" it's most propably Fuji,

 

"Made in EU" or "Made in Germany" propably Agfa

 

"Made in EU" or "Made in Italy" --> Ferrania (was Scotch 3M)

 

"Made in the US" may be Kodak

 

You may look at the negatives after processing and compare the writing at the perforation. It will not say "Kodak" "Fuji" or "Agfa" but you can compare the style with your Kodak and Fuji negatives. Each manufacturer has it's typical character font.

 

After all you have to decide. Take some pictures and have them printed. If you like it: use the stuff, if not...

Jeff,<br><br>

 

I haven't personally used the Wal-Mart off brand, but, all the off brand films I've used say <a href="http://www.ferraniait.com/"><face="Georgia"><size:14">Ferrania</a><face="Georgia"> on the negatives. I thought the quality of the images looked fine.

Well the Polaroid will be Agfa Vista. Which I think is an excellent consumer film. People seem to either really like or dislike Agfa, it's a personal preference. I'd shoot it and see what you think.

I don't think all of the Polaroid film is exactly the same thing. I bought a box of Walgreens film -- which is known to be Agfa Vista. (It's very cheap, by the way, and I like it a lot.) Then I saw the Polaroid "High Definition" film because I'd read that the Polaroid film sold at Wal-Mart is also Agfa Vista. Well, I got terrible results, hated the film, and doubted very much it was the same thing. After reading more about the subject online, it seems the consensus is that the film Wal-Mart sells under the name "Polaroid One Film" (for 35mm, not to be confused with the instant film) IS Agfa Vista, while the other film called "polaroid High Definition" is something else (perhaps also made by Agfa, but a different emulsion). It seems to vary by your geographical location whether your Wal-Mart may/may not carry one or the other of the two films I mentioned above. Anyway, I can say from experience that the Walgreens film is nice, but I would stay away from the Polaroid High Definition. Polaroid One Film might be worth a try however.

Kodak doesn't offer film for repackaging by other parties. If the box reads "Made in U.S.A." or something similar it's probably from 3M. Not very good stuff, at least as of the last time I tried it about 6-7 years ago.

 

Most repackaged film comes from Fuji, Agfa, Konica and Ferrania.

 

If the box reads "Made in Italy" it's Ferrania and not good (again, as of the last time I tested any out of curiosity, which was 6-7 years ago). The most common repackaging of this film in my area (Texas) has been a grocery store chain (can't recall the name offhand).

 

Polaroid-labeled 35mm film has often been Fuji and not bad stuff. According to most sources I've searched if the box reads "Made in The Netherlands" it's Fuji and probably something like their Super HQ - not quite as good as their Superia line.

 

Boxes labeled "Made in Japan" may be Fuji or Konica. The main outlet for repackaged Konica film used to be Ritz in the U.S. but they've since switched to Fuji or Agfa or both.

 

Walgreen's house brand film used to be exclusively Agfa and was pretty good snapshot film - brilliant colors, tho' not great for skin tones. Dunno whether they still use only Agfa. Should be simple enough to find out if the box still reads "Made in Germany".

 

However with the globalized economy and relocation of manufacturing to whatever nation has the cheapest labor, for all I know there may be films made in New Guinea under the ownership of who-knows-what manufacturer.

 

FWIW, the only cheap snapshot films I use now are Kodak Gold 100 or whatever they're calling it now - good skin tones and a palette reminiscent of Kodachrome - and Fuji Superia X-tra 800. They're reliable performers when printed competently and available everywhere. Both are frequently available in discounted three or four packs and worth the extra buck or so the multi-pack costs compared with the other unknown films and outright crap.

The Polaroid "High Definition" film I have bought from Walmart was asa 400; OK; but not a 4 layer emulsion. It was made by AGFA; film multi box say made in Germany. <BR><BR>The 4 roll packs of X-tra 400 by Fuji says Walmart on the multipack box; film made in Japan.<BR><BR>The 4 roll packs of X-tra 800 at Walmart here say Fuji; and have no "Walmart" labeling. <BR><BR>I use asa 800 Fuji color print films alot; either mail ordered; or the local 800 Xtra stuff. <BR><BR>Fast film degrades more quickly in heat; so film bought at a rural un-airconditioned store may have more grain; or be abit off in color.

Costco used to sell Agfa film under their Kirkland brand but no more. In fact the supply of film at Costco has dwindled to a fraction of its former variety. Agfa has announced earlier in the year they are discontinuing a slew of emulsions, and camera dealers and reps "in the know" predict Agfa will be out of the film business entirely by the end of 2005. Kodak has annouced publicly it is no longer doing any R&D on film. Konica has been bought by Minolta in an attempt to remain competitive in the digital market. Fuji has discontinued all their film cameras. How much longer places like Wal-Mart and Walgreens (which BTW has just been sold to CVS and a Canadian company)will be able to contract house-brand film is unknown. From the managers of our local Wal-Mart and drugstores I have heard only that they can't sell all their film before it expires so they're stocking less and less of it. Local camera stores have the same problem *plus* they crybaby that they can't be price-competitive with Wal-Mart, Costco, Walgreens or mail-order. But the fact is, people are buying *far* less film than even 6 months ago, and if there was ever a hope (perhaps a silly pipedream)that film will transfsigure into a niche market/cottage industry/boutique product, the extremely rapid decline in sales may preclude that transition. The silly dreamers who chant that "film will always be around" yet themselves confessing to shoot "mostly digital" have absolutely no grounding in the simple precepts of capitalism.

<<film bought at a rural un-airconditioned store>>

 

You mean like the ones in those 3rd-world countries that will be the saviors of film ;>)

<< You mean like the ones in those 3rd-world countries that will be the saviors of film ;>) >>

 

I've heared that at some places, Kodak 100 is sold as pro film. O_o is that acutally true?

I realized that film is dying when we built our new home in Florida in 2002. I had outlets added in my garage and bought a large standup freezer. I always buy 25% more film than I need, storing the balance. I'm 51 and I hope to be taking pictures for the next 25 years then just printing what I have after that. Some day I'm going to have to buy 200 rolls of K64 and hope that K-14 processing will still be availablw when I shoot the last roll. I use about 20 rolls of K64 per year so I may be short. At least there will be Velvia & Provira after Kodachrome is gone.

 

I think that there will always be some type of B&W film. We may not have 85 different choices but there will be an ISO 100 and 400 to choose from.

Thanks for al of the advice. I just got one roll of the Polaroid film back, and I'm not really that impressed. I'll have to take a close look at the negatives, as the origional packing material is already gone. I had this roll developed at the usual one hour place which uses Kodak paper. The photo's looked dull or blah overall. Most were just the usual snapshots, without any tricky lighting, etc. I'll have to look closer and see if I can determine if the problem was operator/photographer induced, or if the problem is in the film.

 

Thanks again for all of the good advice!

 

Jeff