How easy should it be to buy a film or a film camera today ?
Are just 3 new film cameras on sale in a major city centre enough ?
How a broken camera and a unexpected trip to Leeds raised some interesting questions.

I ended up in Leeds last minute in March and lugged along 2 lomography LC-A based cameras. But when my LC-A+ cameras jammed, I set out to get another roll film camera.

It’s Leeds I though, should be alright ?
It’s the biggest city in Yorkshire and one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the UK. And the tl:dr is Dear Reader, I walked into a camera store and bought one. But one of only 3 camera available according to my options on google.

And then there’s the film…

Jessops to the Rescue but…

The as per the tl:dr is I walked into Jessops. This is a now small UK chain camera dealer and bought a Kodak M35. Simple you think & reasonable quick swap in. But Jessops wasn’t the first place I tried and I decided to see where else I could get a camera. And to be fare we’re talking Roll film cameras only. Had I wanted a new instax or Polaroid I would have loads of choice

And let’s just say my choices were interesting both with good news and bad as well as a missed chance.

But You’ve had a M35 before, surely you could have got a second hand camera ?

That was my thinking. I’m on foot but surely there must be places to get a second hand cameras easy ?

12 months ago it would have been easy.

Back in 2024 I would have made beeline to the Grand Arcade. And that’s even if my LC-A+ hadn’t failed and dropped in on the legendary West Yorkshire Cameras. This was a Haven for film photographers in the West Yorkshire area and further a field. and if I’d been here year ago this was essentially their clearance budget stock

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But sadly WYC are no more closing around the turn of the year

And on Saturday there wasn’t anywhere else I could reach on foot that sold second hand cameras that I’d actually want to buy

Jessops didn’t do second hand film gear. There were other options that I couldn’t reach. First The Flash Centre (TFC). The Leeds branch of this rather specialist Photographic supplier was technically within walking distance although at a mile from the city centre. Although they specialise in flash equipment- they do sell a range of new film cameras and do sell second hand gear. Sadly they were shut on a Saturday (and in fairness their site didn’t list any used film gear and I suspect any gear would be likely a prosumer+ film body). Come Monday I could have got a reasonable range of new cheap film cameras

But not on a Saturday

Likewise arguably the UK biggest camera retailer WEX does have a store in Leeds and it was open. But it was 4 miles from the city centre and didn’t have any second hand film gear at the time I’m typing this. Again like TFC I suspect potentially you may get a vintage classic or prosumer+ model. It too likely would have set me up with a nice lo-fi new camera. But it was too far.

But what about Charity shops ?

Good point. And in fact they were my first tries.

Google listed 7 in the central Leeds area. But only one had any film gear. In fairness this is a serious Uni town so picking will below average. And this is not just your average Uni town. This is Arts central with several arts based colleges and Uni as well as Leeds Conservatoire. And that’s on top of your typical other students

And those of you who hunt gear in thrift shops know that student areas are picked clean usually.

But the BHF store in the Merrion centre on the north side of the centre seemed to have more promise. It’s an older less glamorous centre and although arguably nearer the universities , I did see positive noises on google about cameras.

And it had a whole table with them on it (and a shelf filled with lenses )

And for a moment I got excited there were about 3 Prakticas and a similar number of Zenit SLR, a few compacts as well as some instamatics. But all the SLR were not firing or jammed bar one with something wonky in the pentaprism.

The lone AF compact had no battery cover and even the Hanimex 35hs which I would happily use had sticky shutter blades. I confess they had a Halina Paulette but I had lost hope I didn’t even try it.

And the worst bit all these junk cameras were being sold for reasonable coin. This isn’t great as I can see folk wanting to get into film cameras but not having enough knowledge picking up one of these bits of junk

And Cashies ?

Well I did try a few Cash Convertors and related pawn shops. Film cameras are much rarer in Cashies type places but sometime you do see. But no dice.

CEX next to Jessops would have been my go to to if I needed Digital but they don’t do film.

So Jessops to the rescue

One cameras shop was open in Central Leeds and that was Jessops. Jessops used to be a massive chain of camera shops that you’d find in most reasonable sized towns. At it’s peak it had over 300 stores but sadly the original company went bust. But the name and a few stores have lived on (although last year almost closed after brush with the UK taxman)

Lucky for me Leeds has one of the 12 remaining stores.

And on the wall was this

It was the last one they had. The nice chap offered to sell me a Pentax 17 as well or a disposable. But I was happy to leave with the M35.

Hang on you said 3 cameras

I did didn’t I

Turns out Jessops wasn’t the only place I could have got a film camera. Argos just along the road would have got the same yellow M35 in that day. And British Electrical retailer Currys nearby would have ordered in a Pentax 17 for me. And I suspect I might have found my M35 or related in some trendy shop

One of those trendy shop was Urban outfitters. No M35 but they had our 3rd camera best the instant cameras and disposables.

We’ve seen that camera before. It’s the VF 201 Focus Free. Not the best Lo-Fi camera in the world but at a push would have done

On Monday it would have been more and erm… the one Google missed

Okay if I had got the bus to Wex or had been looking during the week at TFC I could have picked up several more. TFC sell both Lomography Simple use and action sampler as well as the Harman Titan sheet film Pinhole. WEX you get Kodak Ektar models, Yashica MF-1 and Leicas !!

In fact I actually had more choices I missed Fred Aldous on Kirkgate. This small chain art supply shop would have given me a lot of choices but but didn’t come up on my search (grrr Google). Turns out I could have got if their stock listing in May was valid back then a shed load of Lomography models from brilliant Lo-Fi simple use up to the woeful Lomomatic 110 as well as lots of cameras based of the Dubblefilm Show design (including a FlicFilm half frame). Google didn’t turn it up irritatingly – a flicFrame would have been fun.

And the Film ?

So on the day Jessops would have stocked me fine and I think I could have picked some rolls in UO as well. Undoubtably had I found Fred Aldous I’d have been alright and I suspect I could found film in a few other places. One I would have assumed was Boots but the branch I wandered into didn’t have any rolls but I assumed maybe naively that it was just out of stock or another branch carried

But that might have been Naïve given a later trip to Edinburgh…..

Booted in the Capital

Fast forward to the first Saturday in May. I’m in Edinburgh again unplanned at last minute performing Dad taxi duties in Scotland’s Capital and tourist meccca. But I’ve some free time and ironically I’ve the second camera from Leeds (a LC-A Wide) in the bag alongside some lo-fi digitals.

So getting film should be easy eh ?

I’d run out of XP2 at home. And when on Princess Street, Edinburgh’s legendary shopping street, I decided to pop into the Flagship Boots branch which looks out to the Castle.

Boots if you’re not from the UK is a British institution. It’s the pharamacy found on any meaningful sized town’s high street with over 2000 branches. Think of it like the UK version of Walgreens but with more history (Ironically it’s owned by Walgreens). Historically many of the bigger stores would have done photo processing. And although it’s been some years since Boots did that they were amongst the last chains to do so. They still offer to send out at all their stores via Cewe. And the company had seemed committed to sell film at many of their branches although stock levels were often poor.

But that Saturday in May in their Scottish Flagship I couldn’t even find space on the shelf for film.

I flagged down an assistant whom told me that branch no longer sells film although he though another branch in the city he worked in still did but he wasn’t sure of they were just clearing stock. Peggy Marsh of Camera Go Camera fame has confirmed that my experience in Leeds and Edinburgh was matched by her experience in Wakefield.

And how easy is it to get Film in Edinburgh otherwise ?

If you know it’s pretty easy. The simple and quickest answer would have been to walk down Princes street to the ugly brutalism of Urban Outfitters. But that’s probably not obvious and google doesn’t list it. Also you probably need to be 22 or under to look cool in there.

There is Kodak Express shop near the Meadows that sells film and a Fujifilm based Digital photo lab on Leith walk. These both hold reasonable film stocks. I had more serious options with the legendary Cameratiks second hand cameras shop and repairer in Morningside (a bit of a trudge from princes street but I was actually parked just a mile away) and there is a WEX on Leith Walk.

Further out you had a few options like Max Spielmann branches at some supermarkets towards the edge of Edinburgh and more Kodak Express options.

But for a capital City in Europe ?!!

Hometown Glory

Ironically my smalltown abode of Dumfries did much better. This is a tichy county town with a population around 35,000.

But its Boots carried film stock when I popped in a couple of weeks ago and I found a couple of AF compacts in the charity shops (although I may have donated one).

Argos had a M35 waiting to be bought and the Currys on the edge of town would have got me a Pentax 17 if I wanted. A Max Spielmann at a local supermarket would have also been the fall back for film although at at a price.

So where does this leave us ?

So Buying a film camera instore is still possible in 2025 but your choice is limited in a town centre. It’s not helped by the fact google misses some goldmines like Fred Aldus. But it’s odd my choices in a city like Leeds were limited to just 3 cameras in the centre on a Saturday afternoon.

Of course Leeds has lost WYC early this year and the brilliant but sorely missed space has yet to be replaced. Many Major cities retain their specialist independent shops like Cameratiks in Edinburgh, Real Camera in Manchester & Liverpool, Bristol Cameras in erm… Bristol but many have lost their independents (Merchant City cameras in Glasgow sniff….). Most have a Wex, Wilkinson, Park, LCE or Jessops or 2.

And most medium sized towns will have a Currys on the outskirt and an Argos so getting a M35 or Pentax 17 is fine IMHO and good to see.

You might decry that but online is where the gig is at second hand shops are up against the seller collectives known as eBay & FB Marketplace. And I’ pretty certain most of you frequent those. New cameras the same. Online sites whether massive sites like Amazon or specialist photo gear sites make High Street and independent stores suffer. Of the 3 higher end cameras I mentioned here all came to me online. My LC-A wide was direct from Lomography, my Pentax 17 from Analogue wonderland and the LC-A+ from the ‘Bay.

And film cameras are riotously alive again. We have a few high end models out there thanks to Leica, Lomography and more recently Pentax and a rise in boutique cameras like the innovative but flawed Alfie Cameras. Plastic fantastic Lo-fi is a huge business stemming 3 film formats. But again online sales dominate.

And film is a bit more of a problem if small town Boots stop stocking that on the High Street again making us source stuff online.

But there is an Instant problem with that everything online theory.

Analogue Instant remains big on the high street

Argos would have sold me 4 different Instax cameras covering all 3 formats (and in a choice of colours). And 3 different Polaroids in various packs. Currys have a wider range of these too and I’m sure I saw few at UO. All would have loaded me up with packs of film too for them.

And these are by and large by analogue standards mid range cameras. Yup some instaxes pretty much have metering only to turn the flash on. But many have (as do most polaroids) auto exposure sometimes with some manual override. And these are at Currys and Argos from about £70 up to £200.

Instax has been a perma-feature of high street shopping for over a decade. And Boots may be dropping roll film but you can still pick up instax film packs.

Granted instant moves in a slightly different market but ….

The bad guys

There are 3 in my view.

I’m for once going to single out the BHF shop Merrion Centre. I feel terrible singling a charity shop out but Really what are you guys doing ? You look like you wanna support film cameras but you’ve a table of frank rubbish that will run the risk of putting folk off. Charity shops have got wise to film stuff but other shops like Oxfam’s brilliant Keswick store may charge eBay dealer prices but they grade their gear well

Boots also WTF? are you supporting film on the High Street or not ?

And then we just need to take look in the mirror for the third culprit…

It’s all of us. Yes we all go thrift shopping now and again but where did you buy your last new or higher end used camera ? Was it a shop or was it online ? We have our share of the blame for the 3 camera problem on our High Street.