UK Cheaper than US?

[Andy Finney <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I read a post by Bob Caldwell which included:

"I just read a British photo magazine (Amateur Photographer) which reported on
a survey of European film prices.  The prices in the UK were the highest, but
were still lower than in the US (even for Kodak film).  IR film can be hard
to find, but for other film, you are probably better off to buy and process
it in Europe."

I just had to sit down ... take a cold shower ... contain my 
excitement. I hadn't believed that anything could be cheaper in the 
UK than the US, especially not film.  (Ah yes ... there is medical 
care but that's a whole different bath of developer.)

For my 2 cents worth on Heathrow. Maybe it's us Brits but I wouldn't 
even dream of asking for a hand check of film at Heathrow.  They only 
recently decided it was OK to put your coins in a bowl by the 
body-screener: but then the incendiary effect of our 
equilateraly-curved heptagon-shaped 50 pence piece must not be 
underestimated. You can't argue with anti-terrorism ... and if it 
eases my latent fear of flying then I'm all for it.

On the bright side. I have never had noticeable fog on 35mm infrared 
film as a result of airport x-rays .... even on the odd occasions 
when I put stuff in checked baggage. (That was before the group 
showed me the potential error of my ways on that one.) So I can vouch 
for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Amsterdam (Schipol), Havana, 
Ottawa, Toronto, Athens, Dalaman (Turkey), Oporto, Lisbon, Palma 
Majorca and Eurostar at Waterloo, Paris and Brussels. In all these 
cases the un-developed film went through two passes of a machine at 
least: remember that the fogging effect of these machines is 
cumulative.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any published figures about the 
long-term and cumulative effect of the fogging effect? I don't 
believe it when the notice says there is no effect on films below 
3200 ISO/ASA; I am more inclined to believe it when they say there is 
no 'noticeable' effect.

On the other hand, when I worked at the BBC I saw reported in the 
in-house magazine the sad tale of the documentary producer who (stop 
me if you've heard this one) hacked his way through dense 
impenetrable jungle to film a 'lost' tribe in the Amazon who had said 
they would talk to the outside world only once ... and this was it. 
Days of painstaking filming later the crew lugged their canisters of 
16mm Eastmancolour though hell and high water ... and back to the UK. 
You guessed it: the film was fogged almost beyond redemption as a 
result of a rather over-excited x-ray machine in South America.

Almost makes you long for video don't it ;-)

Andy
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