If don't know where to start, explore the world, or simply browse through our database!
Explore Browse allA botched database migration published today caused data inconsistency. Thankfully, backup helped to find the errors; no data is lost, but we'll be taking an opportunity to massively upgrade our data models.
Direct access to locations is running, but search and discovery isn't. No worries, it'll just take some time.
We're back! We reached 350 locations today with the Film Photography Project, New Jersey, USA. Yeah, I know; it's quite baffling to me, as well, but somehow FPP always got pushed for later – everyone knows them!
In the meantime, we've been slowly working on the backend, we've updated our admin suite and cleaned our data model. A few new features are in the works. Hopefully useful!
And as always, if you know we're missing a location, head to suggestions.
2025 was a very quiet year here on Where to Buy Film.
After a strong 2024 – 300 locations, 50 countries, 6 continents – the team ran out of steam. Life happened; full-time jobs took out all the energy we had, everything became "the next weekend, I promise", and... the next week turned into the next month or not-yet-but-soon. A few new locations were added, but no major milestones, no major features.
But don't worry, the next year is here; we're not done yet. Cya in 2026!
This is... Latitude, Chicago, USA! The 300th location in the Where to Buy Film database. Five months of development, bugfixes, a lot of discovery and entering the data went by; we've covered 300 locations across 50 countries, from Argentina to Singapore. The USA is the largest single country by count (over 100), but the UK, Italy and Canada aren't that far. Croatia punches above its weight for its size; the reasons why, I'll leave to your imagination.
Welcome to Crystal Film in Johannesburg, South Africa – the first lab in Africa, the lab that makes the coverage extend to all six inhabited continents.
In two months, we've covered all six continents. Uncharted territory is still huge, but it's progressing.
After a few weeks of rushed development, we have our first 100 – we've got our 100th location today – Firstcall Photo in Birmingham, UK.
There's no plan on how we'll fill the database, it's an organic growth. For now, 17 countries from Canada to Singapore doesn't sound too bad!
We're finally up and running! The app is here, the server is running, and access to the database is working as it should. We're already working on filling the gaps as quickly as possible, and the development is nowhere near the finished state - there are bugs to fix, and features to add.
The first feature we're adding is geo-location so that the closest geographical location will appear at the top of the search results. After that, maybe custom collections, where you could keep the places you find useful.
Welcome aboard. We're in a deep beta testing phase, so have patience, and please, report bugs and contact us with suggestions.
Cheers, elkarrde
The whole idea is to make life easier for all photographers trying to find where to buy film, where to develop it, where to buy cameras and lenses, and eventually, repair cameras. The idea is to catalogue as many locations as possible, all over the world.
Currently, the database is fairly empty, but with an enormous backlog – a list of connections, links that need to be checked and categorized, and many other details to take care of.