Re: [Leica] film and traveling

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 11:51 AM -0700 10/6/99, RP Johnson wrote:
>Anthony raises an interesting point:  why do US travelers to Europe adopt
>the techniques of professional photographers traveling to the Artic with
>respect to film?
>I confess that I am as guilty of this as many others, in that I lug (nice
>touch, eh?) large quantities of film to Europe when I travel there.  Perhaps
>I never really questioned this since the common wisdom is that US travelers
>should take unexposed film to Europe and exposed, but undeveloped film, back
>to the US.

I buy my film with processing included from the lab that I trust the most.
Kodak 100VS or SW 36exp. costs under $13CAD or about $8.50US per roll with
this processing. I usually about 100 rolls or more at a time. If I buy film
without the processing included, it comes to about $4 to $5 more when
processed by this pro lab. This is $400 to $500 or more saved. And I know I
can trust the processing.

This is apart from the other factors mentioned, since the film that you
need at that moment may not be available in the town you are in. Also, when
I'm on a trip I don't always have half a day that I want to spare on
finding out where to buy film and getting to that place.

A couple of years ago I was in Singapore and wanted to buy some Velvia, as
I had forgotten part of my supply at home. I thought, 'no problem; Orchard
is a big street, and as we stroll along it I'm sure to run into a camera
store that has some'. Nope. Many camera stores, only one with about ten
rolls of slide film. I saw it in their case, but it was no refrigerated,
and while the store was air-conditioned, the case was at the entrance where
the heat was a lot greater. The expiration date was also a month past. When
I got back to the hotel, I remembered Cathay Photo and then took a Taxi
over there and bought film. By the time I had it processed at home, I had
spent nearly double my usual price.

I'll keep on bringing film (and batteries) with me.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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