With today’s prices, film photography may feel like a luxury. But has it *really* been cheap, ever?

With today’s prices, film photography may feel like a luxury. But has it *really* been cheap, ever?

Annoyingly, the real answer is, “it depends.”

Seeing a favourite roll of film selling for a few bucks more than the last month isn’t an indicator of an average film price. There are hundreds of film brands out there (analog.cafe/app/all-film), and they all have distinct logistics, pricing, delivery fees, taxes, etc. It’s a complicated world.

I’ve been tracking an average price of 135/36exp. film rolls across various stores in the US/Canada, Europe, and HK since 2018, in a graph that visualizes those trends (analog.cafe/app/film-price…). It’s the only one of this kind. But even this graph is incomplete: it doesn’t factor in the inflation.

For example, the average price of film went from $10.77 in April 2020 to $16.17 in July 2025 (+50%), but when adjusted for the US inflation in the same date range, the price increase is 25% (or 5% per year).

An inflation-adjusted average film price increase of 5% per year for the past five years is not insignificant.

Still, I’d like to reiterate how complex the world of film prices is: the actual price effects you’re feeling will depend on the currency you buy it with, where you live, and which brands you choose. For example, the same data in Euros (using historical currency conversion adjusted at record time) shows an increase of the average film price from €9.97 in 2020 to €13.89 in 2025 (+39%), which’s a lot less than it is in the US when adjusted for inflation: 3.2%.

Given the rise of film photography’s popularity and demand in the past five years (analog.cafe/r/a-beginners-…), it shouldn’t be surprising that the prices are going up. But that also suggests that we’re in a transition period: from the near death of the medium to its complete revival. This takes investment and comes with a delayed response to market demands. In other words, the price increases we see now can be attributed to “growing pains”.

But what if we looked back further to see what our parents or our younger selves would’ve paid for film in its heyday, say in the 1990s?

I’ve recently come across an article that reported the price of Kodak Gold 100 (24exp.) costing $4.60 in the year 1990 (upi.com/Archives/1990/12/1…). In 2025 dollars, this is $11.40, which is on par with today’s average price of Kodak Gold 200 ($11.35) — or less, once we factor in the fact that 36-exposure rolls cost more (currently, a 24-exposure roll of Kodak Gold is $7 at B&H).

In other words, film is cheaper to shoot in 2025 than it was in 1990.

I’m hesitant to put any numbers on the above claim, given how complex the picture is and how limited the historical data is. Still, I think it’s helpful to see how valuable our medium has been, even at its peak production time.

Perhaps today’s film prices aren’t as bad as those who “used to shoot it back in the day” would claim.

#editorial🔥