Film Prices 2026: What Every Roll Actually Costs Now

Prices last verified: 3 July 2026 · Next check: October 2026

Film prices went up again. If you've bought a roll of Portra 400 recently, you already felt it — what used to be a $13 roll is now pushing $18 or more depending on where you shop. Across the board, US film prices climbed roughly 9% between February 2025 and early 2026, according to analog.cafe's film price tracking — though the same tracker reported average prices holding roughly flat since mid-2025. Kodak has raised prices repeatedly: dealer costs on 35mm and 120 film rose 10–25% in March 2023, and Kodak Alaris pushed through another 5–8% on most stocks in January 2025, per Kosmo Foto. Fuji has quietly discontinued or restricted stocks that were staples just a few years ago.

But here's the thing: film photography is growing faster than it has in two decades. According to wholesale market data published by Serrano Rey, 312 new film labs opened worldwide in 2025, wholesale film order volumes grew 127% between 2020 and 2026, and demand for Portra 400 alone is up 156% since 2020 — numbers we unpacked in our film revival deep dive. The economics are strange — prices rise because people genuinely want this stuff, and manufacturers can't scale fast enough to meet demand. So let's break down what film actually costs in 2026, why, and how to spend less of it.

Film Price Table: July 2026

Every price below was checked on July 3, 2026, at the retailer linked in its row. Film prices move quickly — treat anything older than a few months as a floor, not a quote.

One wrinkle before the numbers: since Eastman Kodak's March 2026 rebrand, Portra and T-Max are being phased out as names — the same emulsions now ship as Ektacolor Pro and Ektapan, and both old and new boxes are on shelves. We use the familiar names below; the full story of the rename is covered separately.

Two things jump out of that table. As of July 3, 2026, a roll of Portra 400 works out to $17.85 even in a five-pack, while the cheapest fresh 35mm films — Kentmere Pan 400 at $8.49 and Kodak Gold 200 at $8.99 — cost less than half that. And Tri-X, of all things, is one of the few stocks that got cheaper, following Kodak Alaris's January 2025 price cut.

Current Film Prices by Category

Prices vary by retailer and region, but here's what you can expect to pay for a single roll of 35mm in early 2026:

Budget Color (C-41)

Kodak Gold 200, Kodak ColorPlus 200, and Fuji C200 (when you can find it) fall in the $8–12 range. These are honest, capable films that produce great images in good light. Kodak Gold in particular has earned a loyal following — the warm tones and visible grain give it a look that people actively seek out, not just tolerate as a compromise.

Mid-Range Color (C-41)

Kodak Portra 160 and Ektar 100 sit around $13–16 per roll. Portra 160 is a portrait workhorse with fine grain and gorgeous skin tones in controlled light. Ektar is the sharpest, most saturated color negative film available — it turns landscapes into postcards. Both reward careful shooting.

Professional Color (C-41)

Portra 400 and Portra 800 now run $15–22 depending on the retailer. That's a real jump from three years ago, when Portra 400 was comfortably under $14. The exposure latitude and color rendition are still unmatched, which is exactly why demand keeps climbing. These are the stocks that professionals and serious hobbyists build their work around.

Slide Film (E-6)

Kodak Ektachrome E100 and Fuji Velvia 50 sit at the top of the price chart: Ektachrome runs $24 at Film Supply Club as of July 2026, and Velvia typically costs as much or more where you can still find it. Add in E-6 processing (which costs more than C-41 at most labs) and you're looking at $40+ per roll, all in. Slide film demands precise exposure — use a reliable light meter or prepare for expensive disappointments.

Black & White

B&W remains the most affordable category. Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X are $9–12 per the July 2026 listings in our table above — and Tri-X is the rare stock that got cheaper. Fomapan 400 and Kentmere 400 come in around $6–9, making them some of the cheapest film you can buy. B&W also has a significant cost advantage: you can develop it at home with minimal equipment, cutting out lab fees entirely.

Why Film Prices Keep Rising

Three forces are pushing prices up simultaneously, and none of them are going away soon.

Silver costs. Film emulsion contains silver halide crystals — that's the light-sensitive material that makes photography possible. Silver more than doubled over 2025 and touched an all-time high above $120 per ounce in late January 2026 before pulling back, per Investing News Network's market tracking. Photography still consumes roughly 25 million ounces of silver a year, according to the Silver Institute, and PetaPixel asked in December 2025 whether film prices would follow. So far the pass-through has been slower than feared — but there is no substitute for silver in an emulsion, so the pressure is real.

Limited production capacity. During the digital transition, Kodak and Fuji shut down most of their film manufacturing lines. Rebuilding that capacity takes years and massive capital investment. Kodak has been ramping up production at its Rochester facility — and took distribution of its film back in-house — but demand is outpacing supply; Chemical & Engineering News reported in April 2026 that manufacturers across the industry are struggling to keep up. Fuji has moved in the opposite direction — discontinuing Pro 400H in 2021, making Superia increasingly scarce, and showing little interest in expanding film output.

Surging demand. Gen Z discovered film photography through social media and embraced it as a counterpoint to the hyper-polished digital aesthetic. That's not a fad — it's been building steadily for five years. When demand grows faster than supply, prices rise. Basic economics, frustrating results.

The Good News

The same demand driving prices up is also building the ecosystem around film. Those 312 new labs that opened in 2025 — per the Serrano Rey data above — mean shorter turnaround times and more competition on processing prices. The 127% growth in wholesale distribution means more retailers stocking film, which helps with availability even if it doesn't fix pricing.

New manufacturers are entering the market, too. Lucky C400 from China offers a capable color negative stock for around $7 per roll direct from importers, as of July 2026. Fomapan from the Czech Republic continues to produce affordable B&W stocks, sold in the US as Arista EDU Ultra for under $6 a roll. Kentmere (made by Harman, the same company behind Ilford) provides budget B&W options at $8.49 per roll at Film Supply Club as of July 2026. These aren't Portra killers, but they're genuine alternatives that make shooting more accessible.

How to Spend Less on Film

You don't have to accept retail pricing as the final word. Here are the most effective ways to cut your per-frame cost:

Bulk Loading

Buy 100-foot rolls of your favorite stock and load your own cassettes. A bulk roll of Kodak Gold or HP5 typically ran $50–60 in the retailer listings we tracked in mid-2026 and yields roughly 18 rolls of 36 exposures. That works out to about $3 per roll — a savings of roughly 40% compared to pre-loaded cassettes. You'll need a bulk loader ($25–40, one-time purchase) and reusable cassettes. The process takes about two minutes once you get the hang of it. If you buy in bulk, storing film properly keeps those savings from expiring on a warm shelf.

Budget Film Stocks

Fomapan 400 (under $6 as Arista EDU Ultra), Kentmere Pan 400 ($8.49 as of July 2026), and Lucky C400 (around $7 from importers) are all capable films that produce legitimate results. Fomapan has a distinctive old-school grain structure that many photographers find charming — our budget black and white shootout compares it frame by frame against Kentmere and Lucky's SHD400. Kentmere is smooth and predictable. Lucky C400 is the newcomer with surprisingly pleasant color rendition — we put the cheapest color film of 2026 through a full review. None of them are Portra, but they don't need to be — they're excellent for practicing, everyday shooting, and keeping your costs manageable.

Home Developing

Lab processing runs $10–18 per roll for develop-and-scan. Do it yourself and the chemical cost drops to about $1–2 per roll. A basic B&W developing setup costs around $80–100 upfront: changing bag, tank, reels, chemicals, and a thermometer. C-41 home developing is slightly more involved (temperature control matters more) but still very doable with a sous vide or temperature-controlled water bath. Over 50 rolls, you'll save $400–800 compared to lab processing.

Find Affordable Labs

Processing prices vary enormously between labs — across the 12 labs in Pellica's directory that publish an open price list, develop-and-scan menus ran from $8 to $20 for the same service in July 2026. Use Pellica's lab map to find a film lab near you, compare options in your area, and check which services each lab supports. Mail-order labs can sometimes beat local prices, especially if you batch multiple rolls to split the shipping cost.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Roll of Film?

Developing is billed separately from the film, and it is usually the bigger half of the bill. Across the 12 labs in Pellica's own directory that publish a public price list, the median advertised price to develop one roll is $19 in the United States, €10 in the euro zone, and CHF 17 in Switzerland (Pellica lab directory, checked July 2026). That is a deliberately small sample — only labs that publish prices openly are counted — so treat it as a sanity check against your local lab's menu rather than a market average.

Two things move that number more than anything else. Process: E-6 slide developing costs more than C-41 colour almost everywhere, and ECN-2 more still because fewer labs handle remjet removal. And bundling: "develop only" is typically half the price of "develop and scan", so a lab that looks expensive may simply be quoting the bundle.

How Much Does Scanning Cost?

Scanning is where lab menus diverge the most. A basic web-resolution scan is often folded into the develop-and-scan bundle at no extra charge. Higher resolution is billed as an upgrade, and hand-scanning on a dedicated film scanner is a separate service again at most labs. If you plan to print, ask for the scan resolution in pixels on the long edge before you commit — "high res" means different things at different labs, and it is the single most common reason a cheap quote turns expensive.

Scanning at home removes the line item entirely: a flatbed with a transparency unit or a digitising rig using your own camera pays for itself somewhere between 30 and 60 rolls, depending on what you buy.

What Is the Cheapest 35mm Film in 2026?

For black and white, Fomapan 400 sold as Arista EDU Ultra is the cheapest fresh film widely available in the US at under $6 a roll, with Kentmere Pan 400 close behind at $8.49. For colour, Lucky C400 is the cheapest at around $7 from importers, though US stock is intermittent; Kodak Gold 200 at $8.99 is the cheapest colour stock you can reliably find on a shelf.

Cheap film is not compromised film. Kentmere and Fomapan are made on the same coating lines as their expensive siblings, and the practical difference at normal enlargement sizes is grain structure and latitude, not quality.

Cost Per Shot: 36 vs 24 Exposures

Film is priced per roll but consumed per frame, and the two do not scale together. A 24-exposure roll rarely costs two-thirds of a 36-exposure roll of the same stock — it is usually closer to 80–85%, because the cassette, the backing, the box and the developing charge are all fixed costs that do not care how long the strip is.

The practical consequence: a 24-exposure roll costs roughly 20–25% more per frame than the same film in 36 exposures. Buy 24s when you want to finish a roll quickly or test a stock, not when you want to shoot cheaply.

Price Comparison: What a Roll Really Costs

Is Film Still Worth the Cost?

At $0.50–1.00 per frame for color negative (film plus processing), film is objectively expensive compared to digital, where the marginal cost of a photo is effectively zero. But framing it as “film vs. digital cost” misses the point.

Film changes how you shoot. When every frame costs money, you slow down. You think about composition before pressing the shutter. You learn exposure because you have to — there's no chimping the LCD and trying again. That constraint produces better photographers, and the images have a texture and character that no digital filter replicates convincingly. The cost per frame is the cost of that process.

The math gets easier when you optimize. Shoot budget stocks for practice, save the Portra for work that matters. Develop B&W at home. Bulk load when possible. A photographer shooting 2–3 rolls per month on budget color film spends roughly $50–65/month all in. That's less than most streaming subscriptions combined, and you're building a physical archive of images with actual negatives you can hold. Pair that with one of the best 35mm film cameras under $100 and the whole hobby stays surprisingly affordable.

Track Your Cost Per Frame with Pellica

When every frame costs money, knowing what works and what doesn't becomes a financial question, not just an artistic one. Pellica's film roll tracker logs your film stock, camera, and exposure settings for every shot. When your scans come back, import them and match each image to its data.

Over time, you'll see which stocks give you the results you want, which situations burn frames, and where your keepers come from. That's how you stop wasting $0.89 frames on shots that were never going to work — and start spending them on the ones that will.