BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

where can you buy pro film?

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July 05, 2004

If you want to find some Press 1600, look for a major camera dealer near you. Not one of the "chain stores" like Ritz, but an independent dealer. For mail order, B&H Photo Video or Adoroma in NYC carry nearly every film made . . . although their price is less than a local dealer, you're not likely to be ordering enough film from them to offset the shipping cost. Read on, there's good news too . . ..

Superia Xtra 800 is the same film as Press 800. Fuji's film code for it is CZ.

Superia Xtra 1600 is the same film as Press 1600. Fuji's film code for it is CU. Superia Xtra 1600 can be difficult to find. Usually much easier to find Press 1600 at a camera store that sells pro film.

There is no difference in their emulsions or their characteristics as shown on their data sheets. The differences between them are roll size and packaging. Superia Xtra is typically 24 exposure rolls; Press comes in 36 only (all 35mm pro films are 36 exposure).

Since you asked about a consumer "version" of a pro film, there are some additional differences you may be interested in. They will not affect your concert photography though.

Consumer and pro films are managed differently from manufacture through retail sale:

Pro films are:
* marked with emulsion lot numbers
* pre-aged before shipping
* stored refrigerated
* expiration date calculated differently because of pre-aging and refrigeration

Films peak in their color accuracy and a few other characteristics at about midway between manufacture and the marked expiration date. The manufacturers refer to film just off the manufacturing line as "green" . . . a rough analogy to unripened fruit. With consumer films it's presumed that the time spent in shipping and on a store shelf unrefrigerated will age it sufficiently before a consumer puts it in a camera.

To put pro films closer to their peak and hold them there longer, they're aged by the manufacturer for a while, then they're kept refrigerated after that to hold them near their peak longer. They're marked with the film lot numbers because some pros doing highly color critical work (catalog stuff comes to mind; who wants to get something a different color than the catalog showed) and they will want everything for a job from the same emulsion lot. They calibrate color correction using a couple rolls in the lot to shoot color charts first. If they get mixed lots, it's a royal pain. Not that many pros have to worry about this, but there's enough that do.

From a practical standpoint shooting a concert, whether you use the consumer CZ or CU, or the professional "Press" version of them will make no difference in your photographs. The important things are being within expiration date, and that it hasn't been baked by leaving it in a car in the hot sun all day (excessive heat is a Bad Thing for all film).

-- John Lind

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July 05, 2004