Per Frame: comparing film prices by the exposure
I got tired of comparing film prices across browser tabs, so I built a site that ranks them by cost per frame.
Every month or two, my daughter runs out of film for her Instax Mini, and I go through the same ritual. I open a handful of retailers and compare prices, because they vary quite a bit, and something's usually out of stock somewhere. Less often, I'll order a few rolls of Ilford HP5 for my own black and white work. I shoot 35mm and 120, and it's always the same dance. Amazon in one tab, B&H in another, maybe Adorama, sometimes a smaller shop, just to compare.
And it gets tricky fast. One listing might actually be five rolls. A single roll might have twenty-four frames, or thirty-six. So you're not just chasing a good price. You're trying to work out whether you're actually saving money, or whether you're about to buy ten rolls when you only needed three, because the savings weren't as big as they looked. It's the kind of problem that begs for a spreadsheet, but building that spreadsheet, and collating every price into it, just isn't worth the effort most of the time.
So I built Per Frame to make it easier, for anyone who buys film, whether that's every week or once a year. It doesn't matter which. The data updates daily, so the prices you see should be current.
What it does
Per Frame gathers film prices from several retailers, big and small. At the moment, it covers B&H, Adorama, Amazon, Freestyle Photographic, Blue Moon Camera, Film Supply Club and Mike's Camera. It normalizes everything to cost per exposure and sorts the results. A five-pack and a single roll land in the same table, directly comparable, no math required. It's very much in the spirit of diskprices.com, which I've been using for years.
The site is free to use. No account, no subscription, nothing to pay. It's just a resource you can check to find the best price on film.
About the affiliate links
There are affiliate links on the site, and I want to be upfront about that. But the goal here is to show people the best prices, full stop. So if an affiliate link isn't the best option, it won't show up first. The ranking is automatic, just price divided by exposures, so a link that happens to pay me doesn't get to jump the line.
There's one exception worth naming. When two stores land on exactly the same price, the affiliate link goes first. A cheaper store always wins, so this only ever settles a tie.
I'm a film photographer. I care that companies like Ilford and Kodak, and the smaller specialist manufacturers, keep existing and keep growing. I want to be a good resource for other people in that community who care about this the way I do.
On privacy
This is essentially a static site. I collect the data, produce a build, and publish it, and that build is what you're looking at. There's not a lot happening behind the scenes.
I do collect a couple of things: which film stocks people click on, and which store link they use. But it's aggregated and anonymous. There's no tracking that ties any of it back to a specific person. It's just enough for me to understand what people are actually interested in, so I can present those stocks better and make sure I've got good coverage. Most people don't care what database I'm using or where it's hosted, and that's fine. But I think people do care about privacy, and I'd rather tell you where I stand than make you guess.
Small shops count too
I also want this to help small camera shops, not just the big retailers. Blue Moon Camera in Portland, Film Supply Club and Mike's Camera all sit in the same table as Amazon and B&H, ranked the same way. The whole point is to surface good places to buy film, wherever they are. Sometimes the best price, or the shop most worth supporting, is a smaller one you'd never have thought to check.
Every format, not just the popular ones
It's not just 35mm and 120, either. Per Frame covers sheet film too: 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10. Large format tends to get overlooked, and pricing there is scattered and often painful to compare, so it felt like exactly the kind of thing this site should do well. It goes the other way too. Instax and Polaroid are both in there. So whether you're feeding a Mini or loading an 8x10 holder, the prices are there.
Try it
Per Frame is live now at perframe.app. It's early, and I'm sure there are stocks I've missed and listings I haven't matched correctly yet. If you shoot film and something looks off, or there's a retailer or format you'd like me to add, tell me. I'd genuinely like to hear it.