About.
The magic of film and why this store exists.
Film is one of those rare mediums these days of delayed gratification. At best it takes hours to see the image captured.
Film photography never went away. For some, it's the process. For others, it's the tactile nature of holding a negative, a slide or a print. For others still, it's the time between making the image and seeing it. For me, it's all of these.
And film photography is having a moment. Companies like Kodak, Ilford and Harman are still making films that have been around for decades — and new films are being released too. Companies like Pentax and Rollei are releasing new film cameras. Paterson is still producing darkroom processing gear.
This is a very exciting time for film photographers — new, seasoned and returning.
You can’t delete a frame of film. You either make peace with it—or fall in love with it later.
Nelson Film Co is run by me: Jeremy. I've been taking photos on and off for the last 40 years. My parents bought me my first camera in the 80s — a Kodak 110 format. I then graduated to a 35mm camera and started getting more serious about photography in the early 2000s. I loved photography, and in 2005 I loved learning how to develop and print black and white film. At the time, I also had my first digital camera. And then slowly, I took fewer and fewer images with film. By 2010, I had three digital cameras. I was shooting thousands of images a year. I printed fewer than ten. I lost the love of photography. I tried to recreate the joy of film by limiting myself to one manual focus lens and only manual exposure. It wasn’t enough. By 2018 the camera went into a drawer and rarely came out. My phone became my camera but this didn’t feel like photography.
A few years ago I returned to film. I bought a used Minolta XD and tried to find a roll of film locally to test it. I found a roll of Kodak Gold — expired and expensive. I thought at the time — how lucky there’s still a place that sells film. My next thought was, ‘what if I created a store so I could get cheaper film?’ A few years later I decided to take that step: a proper film photography store for film photographers — seasoned, new and rusty.
Nelson Film Co launched in May 2026 with a singular focus: help film photographers take better images. That means stocking the widest range of film possible, sourcing the equipment needed for photographers to process their own images, and offering accessories appropriate for analogue photography
What we sell
- 35mm, 120 and sheet film
- film cameras
- darkroom accessories
- filters sized for film lenses
What we don't
- memory cards
- digital cameras
- anything with a subscription fee
- filters the size of dinner plates
We sell a carefully curated range of gear for the film photographer an building out the range over 2026. Tripods, bags and other stuff appopriate for someone shooting film coming later in the year.
I'm Jeremy and I'm the person behind Nelson Film Co.
When I can make it out with my camera I shoot mostly landscapes and architecture. This year I am trying to shoot a roll a month — basically an image a day. My hope is to build a dedicated darkroom in early 2027.
A few other things are cooking which I hope to reveal soon.