I have nothing but good things to say about Freestyle. They ship fast, always get my order right, and have very reasonable prices. The local Pro shop here in Portland sells 120 rolls of Ilford and Fuji film for $4.99 each! Freestyle does much better and as a results gets my hard earned money.
I very much appreciate the fact that they provide products for hobby photographers such as myself, such as the Arista.EDU line of papers and film. I'm continue to be shocked by how great this stuff is!! The old saying, "you get what you pay for" is usually quite true, but not so in this case. Some of my best quality photographs have been taken with Arista film.
"I very much appreciate the fact that they provide products for hobby photographers such as myself, such as the Arista.EDU line of papers and film. I'm continue to be shocked by how great this stuff is!! The old saying, "you get what you pay for" is usually quite true, but not so in this case. Some of my best quality photographs have been taken with Arista film."
I agree entirely. One note is that they will probably give best results if you buy them in large quantities, though. What they have told me is that the Arista stuff is relabeled stuff from various manufacturers; whatever happens to be a good deal at the time Freestyle is purchasing film. It could be Ilford, it could be Agfa, and it could be something else. So, the only problem with the stuff is not that it's bad quality; just that it's inconsistent, and can thus be unpredictable. So...buy a fridge full so you can test a bit, and then be set until you finish off that fridge full!
I have been purchasing all my darkoom supplies as well as black and white film from them for more than a decade. Their staff is very knowledgeable about everything and I am so fortunate to only have to drive south on the Hollywood Freeway from the San Fernando Valley and then east on Sunset Boulevard a few miles to get to them. I also like the fact that if I need to be sure their store is not out of stock re something I need and find that it is, I can call them and they make sure their warehouse delivers it to them within 24 hours. They always have a wonderful variety of film and paper developers and fixers on their shelves as well as multiple manufacturers' darkroom papers.
Another happy customer here. When I first began processing my own B&W film a couple years ago, I started with Diafine and Pan F+ from Freestyle. I've been ordering from them regularly ever since and have never been disappointed. Good selection, good prices (especially their Arista-branded stuff), and good service.
Sponsored Ad. (Subscribers to APUG
have the option to remove this ad.)
I agree entirely. One note is that they will probably give best results if you buy them in large quantities, though. What they have told me is that the Arista stuff is relabeled stuff from various manufacturers; whatever happens to be a good deal at the time Freestyle is purchasing film. It could be Ilford, it could be Agfa, and it could be something else. So, the only problem with the stuff is not that it's bad quality; just that it's inconsistent, and can thus be unpredictable. So...buy a fridge full so you can test a bit, and then be set until you finish off that fridge full!
All very true. I remember the first stock I ever bought was under the Arista II (Agfa) label and now it's Arista.EDU Ultra (foma) Fortunately Freestyle is also always up front about what a particular stock may be at any given time which eliminates quite a bit of guess work.
One note is that they will probably give best results if you buy them in large quantities, though. What they have told me is that the Arista stuff is relabeled stuff from various manufacturers; whatever happens to be a good deal at the time Freestyle is purchasing film. It could be Ilford, it could be Agfa, and it could be something else. So, the only problem with the stuff is not that it's bad quality; just that it's inconsistent, and can thus be unpredictable.
Yes and no. To the best of my knowledge, whenever Freestyle changes suppliers on their Arista-branded products, they also change the name slightly -- for instance, Arista Pro was Ilford, Arista II was Agfa, Arista.EDU was Forte, and Arista.EDU Ultra is Foma. To the best of my knowledge, only the Ultra product is current, although Freestyle had a special on (presumably the last of) their Arista II ISO 400 film in 35mm the last I checked, and they may have old stock of Arista.EDU in some sizes and speeds (I haven't looked recently).
FWIW, I do have one complaint/warning about one of these products: Arista.EDU Ultra (Foma) VC RC paper. I've had several prints made on this paper silver out when put in cheap frames. Prints made on Agfa MCP310 VC RC paper and placed in identical frames are fine; it's only the Arista.EDU Ultra/Foma paper that's given me problems. I gather that silvering out under these sorts of display conditions was a common complaint about RC papers when they were first introduced. It appears to me that either the Foma paper requires slightly different fixing or washing procedures (compared to Agfa) that I didn't quite nail down or that Foma hasn't quite mastered the improvements in RC technology to improve stability that Agfa did master. (I don't believe I've got framed prints on Kodak, Ilford, or other brands of VC RC paper for comparison, except for some very new ones on Oriental paper that replace the silvered-out Foma prints.)
"Yes and no. To the best of my knowledge, whenever Freestyle changes suppliers on their Arista-branded products, they also change the name slightly -- for instance, Arista Pro was Ilford, Arista II was Agfa, Arista.EDU was Forte, and Arista.EDU Ultra is Foma. To the best of my knowledge, only the Ultra product is current, although Freestyle had a special on (presumably the last of) their Arista II ISO 400 film in 35mm the last I checked, and they may have old stock of Arista.EDU in some sizes and speeds (I haven't looked recently)."
Good to know. Thanks. I assumed that the different names just meant different levels of "quality", all of which were always available. I didn't realize that when a new name came in the old one went out.
I also agree, Freestyle is awesome.
On my last order, entered late one night, I forgot to add some 4x5 negative pages.
So, I called them the next morning and got some very helpful lady who told me that they were having computer trouble but she took the details of my order and made sure they added the negative pages I forgot.
I only wish I had bought more of the stuff that went away when they had it, like Arista II (Agfa) and their fixed grade paper that was re-branded Ilfospeed.
I do buy stuff from B&H and Adorama too, but not as much as Freestyle. I have been happy with all of them and hope they all keep supplying us with the B&W stuff we need.
Linear Mode
