Topic: Who do you buy your supplies from (in the UK)?

[Pete_R]

With less and less people stocking darkroom stuff there are less and less choices of who to buy from. I've used Silverprint recently but they c****d up the order and I'm not sure I want to use them again. Film I get from Mailshots and they keep a few chemicals as well but not much.

So, who do you use?

[LT]

a mixture of silverprint, retrophotographic, rkphotographic, 7dayshop, morco, firstcall photographic and I get my fixer from my local jessops - still the cheapest for 5litre bottles of ilford rapid fix - and they usually get it in within 2 days.

[Andrea.]

Wot Leon Said. But not Jessops - or RK.
FirstCall are good and Retro.
I also get some things from the Fisherman's Co-op here - Ammonia and gloves [and fish as it happens].

 you could try this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ILFORD-HP5-400-film-stock-35mm-neg-PANAVISION-ARRI-HMI_W0QQitemZ140232293530QQihZ004QQcategoryZ628QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[david b]

Silverprint and 7Dayshop for the most part, and like Leon a local place (in my case Calumet) for fixer and anything else non-postable.  The only problem I've had with Silverprint is that twice - in several years of ordering from them - they've sent the wrong item as part of an order, but in both cases they sent the right thing by next-day delivery and let me keep the erroneous item ... so I wouldn't give up on them totally.

[LT]

same as David, I've had the odd wrong item in my silverprint orders, only once or twice over the past few years, and they've remedied the situation very quickly with no fuss, so as the man says, dont give up on them just yet.

[Pete_R]

same as David, I've had the odd wrong item in my silverprint orders, only once or twice over the past few years, and they've remedied the situation very quickly with no fuss, so as the man says, dont give up on them just yet.

Yes, they did correct it quickly but there were several hassles along the way that I won't bore you with. Overall, I got the impression they are pretty disorganised.

I've just placed an order with Speed Graphic so I'll see how they go. At least their postage charges are more reasonable (?2.95 -v- anything up to ?7+ for one item).

[david b]

Overall, I got the impression they are pretty disorganised.

I wouldn't disagree with that ... and I think the same is true of Retro and Morco.  At least Silverprint are disorganised and fast for the most part! Calumet have let me down quite seriously twice too (once in Manchester and once in Los Angeles!) and haven't been anywhere near as keen to rectify the situation.

I think the moral is probably to order anything you need early, and keep a good back-up supply of film, chemicals etc... so that when suppliers arse up you aren't left in the lurch.  At least that's my excuse for there being no room for food in my fridge or freezer...

[Heather]

RKPhotographic but in person, ditto Silverprint, film sometimes from 7dayshop and sometimes ebay (i think i have a lifetime supply of colour film now...). Silverprint in person isn't bad but their shop isn't really for browsing so i tend to just take a list off the website and hand it to one of the nice counterstaff to go running around for all my stuff. RK love me and have started giving me a discount on all my stuff I buy from there (usually paper and chemicals when I'm too lazy to go into London properly. Bus is cheaper than tube).

Having stood in Silverprint's shop, I'd say they're just insanely busy and it's easy to screw up when having to rush around filling hundreds of orders. I doubt even the suggestion of more staff on hand would help them as more staff would probably mean more of them bumping into each other at high speed looking for items on shelves "out back".

I went to Calumet(the branch near Euston) once to buy some Pro800Z for a wedding and pick up some more bulkloading film canisters. I suspect the staff there are run of the mill minimum wagers (at least in central london) as they seemed confused by the idea bulkloading film canisters and said they didn't have any. No real bother, I just went to Silverprint and got some there.