Cheap Film At Big Lots

I was at a Big Lots store here in Southern California and I noticed they had

Albertson's brand 200 speed color negative film on sale for 70 cents a role.

They all have expire dates of Jan 2008.

Albertson's brand film was sold at the now defunct Sav-On Drug Stores. The film

box reads that it is made in Japan, so I think it may be Fuji film.

Just a heads up for those looking for cheap film for whatever.

I read awhile back that the film retail stores sell under their store label is quality film because

when you bring it back for processing they want you to have good prints. I don't know if that

is still true.

Search for a recent thread where a fellow bought some Walmart film, peeled off the labels and found different manufacturers.

Listen, at 70 cents or 7 bucks a roll, if it works it WORKS! For a risk of 70 cents plus some dirt cheap WalMart processing, how can you lose?

Generic store film is often older versions of popular emulsions. Usually it's made by major film makers (Konica, Fuji, Agfa in the old days!) but may not be quite as good as their latest and greater wonder film.

 

For most purposes it's fine, and at 70c it's hard to go wrong unless you're using it for someone's wedding or shooting a cover for Vogue. Even them you might get away with it...

 

I'm just waiting for the day when they pay me to take it out of the store...but then I'm still not sure I'm going to shoot any unless they process it and high-res scan it for free.

It is always worth a try at those prices. I stocked up as much Walgreens "Studio 35" 200 as I could when it was being closed out - it was Agfa Vista 200. I still have a bit of it, it is almost outdated now, but I sure do like it.

 

I hate to disagree with Bob Atkins, but I tend to think that the store-brand films are actually the same as the 'name brand' films, not lesser versions of same. When you're running off a gazillion rolls of Fuji Superia XTRA 400, for example, why intentionally make a lesser film to sell unbranded to the secondary market? It's probably just as cheap to simply sell the same stuff. But I don't know, that's just a guess. Anyway, these days, "Made in Japan" means Fuji for sure. There is nothing else made in Japan anymore.

I work in a photo lab, and The Western Family store brand film is the same film used in Kodak

disposables.

 

They are both horrible quality, but if anyone is buying a Kodak disposable for ten bucks, I let

them know its the same stuff as the store brand thats half as much.

 

Then I let them know they'll get twice as good prints from the Fuji ones.