Desmolicious wrote:
That's really strange - they must not be ordering it as all the stores I have seen locally are brimming with film, the five or six mail order stores have it in stock. Pretty much everyone has it - the covid shortages are a thing of the past.
What he wrote to me was: "I would STRONGLY advise you to bring your film with you. I have been out of film for two months and the only other place that usually stocks film has been out about the same amount of time. This is not a large city like Montreal. We have one film lab and no true camera stores. Anything you think you might need you should bring with you."
Either they're not ordering it or larger customers are getting priority.
Even here in Montréal, where demand is really high, my lab is out of stock on a lot of films, Kodak Gold and ProImage 100 are sold out in 135 format; in 120 they're out of Portra 400, Portra 800, Ektachrome, and even the Fomapans.
They must not be ordering it. It has nothing to do with being in a large city or not. Anyone can order film. I'm guessing where he is there are not many film users so he doesn't want that sitting. I get that.
bjhurley wrote:
Based on what I've read, your odds are very good for getting your film hand-checked if you're traveling in the United States. I was coming in from Canada and couldn't find any info on how willing the security folks are at our airports for doing hand-checks, so it seemed more risky to me. In Europe it's not a sure thing and in Asia reportedly even less so. So I'd say it's more risky traveling overseas than within North America. Not all airports have the new scanners, so the risk really depends on which airports you're going through.
Mailing seems like a good option, unless security scans of mail pose any risk to film; I haven't heard anything to suggest that it's an issue and given that you can buy film online and have it shipped to you (or mail film to a lab in another state or even another country).
Mailing or shipping film is a real problem now that the USPS, Fedex and UPS all admit that they routinely x-ray packages. This means that if you're traveling, you're at risk of somebody ruining your film no matter what you try to do to prevent it. At least with a TSA checkpoint you have the ability to make a request that your film be given special handling. With shipping, there's no way to prevent the automated package scanning.
This brings up the question -- how do the camera/film stores deal with the problem? If they're getting their inventory shipped via a common carrier, chances are that the film on their shelves had already been x-rayed when it was shipped to them.
At least with a TSA checkpoint you have the ability to make a request that your film be given special handling. With shipping, there's no way to prevent the automated package scanning.
