About me

I’ve spent a few years in the photographic industry supplying film and running a specialist processing lab. As well as standard b/w and colour processing, I was one of only two labs that were able to develop the the vintage C22 colour format and recover vintage films. Although I still process films, these days I don’t trade full time in this industry and only process small volume. I now specialise in the supply of film formats and processing services not available elsewhere.

About Photo Supplies UK

In its first incarnation Photo Supplies UK was a successful mainstream film and photographic supplies warehouse. Back then, we also supplied and processed rare film formats such as 620, 127 and Cine film and were the UK’s leading supplier of many of these formats. The introduction of digital photography caused the demise of many photographic businesses, including ours and the original business closed down in 2008, much to the disappointment of camera collectors and enthusiasts at the time.

The phoenix rises again

Film sales suffered badly because everyone had a new digital camera to play with. Yep, digital cameras were the latest “fad” and everyone had to have one. More recently, many photographers have realised what they have lost.

I restarted Photo Supplies UK in 2010, in order to provide “life support” for dying (and dead!) film formats. My new business is smaller, and aimed mainly at keeping these old formats alive.

Where films are no longer manufactured, I am often able to manufacture compatible films, which are made using my own resizing and film slitting techniques & equipment, then re-spooled onto original spools. I am also working where I can with other suppliers and former manufacturers to encourage investment in film, and hopefully restart production of some lost formats such as Instamatic 126 and 110.

I presently supply 127 film, 620 film, 120 film, 220 film, 110 and 126 film and Minox film where available. I also intend to supply film for 616, 116, 828 and any other film format that people want to shoot. I am here to support anyone interested in the art of film photography, especially when using classic cameras so please feel free to contact me for a chat on the subject.

If you want to know why you should bother to shoot on film, please see my article: “why shoot on film”

My Photography Hobby

One thing you should know about me  is that I’m definitely not the worlds best picture taker. I take average photos at best and I wouldn’t win any awards for composition, lighting and use of colour for instance. This lack of visual skill has made me more interested in the technical aspects of vintage cameras, toy cameras, Lomography and processing techniques, rather than the fine art of picture taking. You can see why I find digital photography so utterly boring – it’s all about picture taking and there’s nothing else to play with, or talk about, except photoshop tweaking and the number of your pixels (yawn!). I suspect I am not alone in my views.

I do take pictures on both digital and on film. If I just want a picture of something, like for eBay, my digital is great. But for fun I enjoy playing with and holding film cameras, which is kinda good really because otherwise my camera’s would join the millions of collectors’ “ornaments” out there, that never see the light of day!

Film cameras should be used – it’s what they want! People have forgotten how good film cameras are, how creative you can be with film and how good film and camera technology had become. The science and history behind film photography is fascinating.  Roll and Sheet Film still surpass digital in true resolution (detail as apposed to sharpness) when considering most people’s digital camera budget. In in my opinion film always surpasses digital in “character” and “life”.

Film photography has never been so accessible either. Professional cameras and lenses are now so cheap it’s ridiculous and they will perform as well as they did before digital came along. You can now own and use your dream camera very cheaply. Yes there’s the small cost of consumables but that’s true of most hobbies. A film cost about the same as a pint of beer but lasts longer. If you don’t “buy yourself a little fun” every now and then life could become quite dull and you could be condemned to just “picture taking” with your digital camera and viewing your virtual photos on LCD screens – Forever!!

My Blog

Through my blog I want to encourage people to collect and use their film cameras. Not just pro’ cameras and SLR’s, but to also to experiment and “play” with cheap snapshot and toy plastic cameras from the past, which can be obtained for virtually no money at all. After all, photography is a broad hobby, way beyond “picture taking” and it’s a lot of fun.

Most film types are still available. Where they’re not, I often supply alternatives which allow you to make use of your camera. Virtually no so called “collectible” cameras are rare, so I say: leave the “camera museum” to someone else and go out and play with your camera!. I will be showing in this blog how to do modify some cameras or films to get your camera working if no film is available, and how to get the most fun out of film photography, even if like me,  you’re not good at picture taking!

Home Processing

Home processing always was, and still is fun and exciting. On my forthcoming “how to guides” I will show beginners how to develop film at home without a darkroom, even sometimes using household products instead of chemicals. How to scan films, how to print in the darkroom and some other techniques too. There’s nothing like the thrill of seeing your own images appear by the work of your own hands. This is real magic and could soon become a lost art.

My Own Cameras

My camera collection is quite small. I’m mostly into modest cheap cameras (99p on eBay), rather than the “do everything” fully auto SLR (although I have one!). My regular cameras are two ancient Zenit SLR’s which I love. They are bulky and heavy, but reliable. With only a limited amount of knobs to play with I can make my “decisions” quicker!. They are very involving to use and take superb pictures – the Helios lens has a character all of its own, so much so that many high end digital photographers are after them too, adapted for their cameras.

My favourite camera is probably my Zenith 11 but I also have a 12xp with convenient through the lens metering. I also love using my Lubitel 166U, a cheap Russian TLR camera, for shooting medium format. Stopped down it is pin sharp, yet at wide apertures it takes on a kind of character of its own, making even my poor picture taking look “artful”. Take a look  at some Lubitel pictures on Flickr and you’ll see what I mean.

I also love old Kodak Brownies and Instamatic cameras for their sheer cheapness, simplicity and their domination of the consumer market for a century. The 126 format is a favorite of mine. I even have Instamatic SLR’s in both 110 and 126 formats, which take superb pictures. I like all the “square” formats because you don’t have to think which way up to hold the camera!!. Less decisions = more spontaneity. Plus the square format looks more artful than the over familiar 6 x 4 frame, especially if you add a white border when printing.

I love getting funny looks from people when I pull out my old Kodak Instamatic and Magicube flash cubes at various events. They’re all shooting photos with mobile phones and cheap pocket digital cameras these days. Now I really stand out and generate a lot of interest and conversation. Yes, film photography will help you make new friends! I just tell them I prefer film grain over ugly jpeg compression artifacts any day – then they just look at me blankly!.

Ok, enough rambling. I’m sure you get the picture. Have a look around the site and feel free to comment on my posts. This site’s content is slowly growing and will be updated as regularly as time allows, so please keep coming back.

Above all, have fun,

Mike.