Film Preview: Film Fix Subscriptions

by | Oct 16, 2021

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.—Robert Adams

Film Fix Subscriptions from UsedPhotoPro is something that I just recently heard about on Instagram. Now I never buy anything from ads on social media but this one was from Roberts Camera, one of my trusted sources for buying new and, these days, mostly used gear—including film cameras.

This service works like most monthly box subscriptions: Each month you receive a box of stuff, in this case a mix of either two 35mm film cassettes or one 35mm and one 120 roll. You pick a plan. I went with 35mm and 120 films because I wanted to shoot my special edition Seagull TLR more. I haven’t shot it in a long time and some of it’s functions are a little sticky. A subscription costs $25 per month with a $3 flat shipping rate. Considering I just paid Film Photography Project $25.97 for two rolls of film—one roll 35mm and one 120 roll of Frankenstein film, including shipping—it seemed a fair price.

I ordered my subscription on Sunday October 10 and the website states that subscriptions ordered on or before the 10’th of the month Each month, will ship around the 15’th but the day after I subscribed was Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day, so no mail. On Tuesday, I received an email from Roberts Camera saying my Film Fix box had shipped and I should received it today. I’ll let you know if that happens and what film stock I receive. Roberts also says it has a “No hassle cancellation” procedure and because it’s Roberts, I believe’em.

According to what I saw on Instagram, the films that might be in the box include: Ilford, Kodak. CineStill, Film Photography Project, Street Candy, Revolog, Dubblefilm.  As I write this the UsedPhotoPro’s website doesn’t show a list of films. So maybe the list will grow, I hope.

PS: The Film Fix box arrived later today. In it were a roll of The Film Photography Project’s 35mm Retro Chrome 400 and a 120 roll of Frankenstein film, which is funny because I ordered a roll of that film from the FPP directly and they send me a 120 roll of CineStill Double-X instead. But because I wanted to try Doube-X anyway, I’m not going to lose my mind about it. UsedPhotoPro also included cards with information about each of the films; Look for reviews of these films real soon now…

 

Excerpted by Roberts Camera’s website: On August 21, 1957, Robert and Rose Pallman opened their store in downtown Indianapolis. In the beginning, they sold everything from jewelry to small appliances to luggage to fishing poles. In 1968, Bob bought a little section of catalog to see if he could sell cameras. The store had one employee who was taking a photography class in high school and he told them “I think I can sell those things.” It was a Minolta, and they started selling cameras. Throughout the past 44 years, Bob and Rose’s son Bruce Pallman (the owner and general partner of Roberts) made knowledge about photography equipment and making their customers feel like family a number one priority. After awhile, they were getting calls from photographers around the world, including little ole me.