Ilford has started shipping this year's ultra large format and custom film run to resellers and distributors. The Ortho Plus custom sizes went out in June; the rest is moving now. End users are directed to their own reseller for arrival dates.
The campaign is Harman's annual answer to a problem that has no other answer. Sheet film in a non-standard size cannot be coated to order at a profit, so once a year Ilford gathers the orders and coats one run against them — FP4 Plus, HP5 Plus and Delta 100 Professional, in sizes the company says reflect twenty years of requests, without the minimum order quantities that would otherwise rule them out. Not every film is offered in every size.
The terms follow from the mechanism rather than from commercial caution. Payment is in full and in advance, and there is no cancellation and no return, because the run is cut to the orders received and nothing is held back in stock afterward. Orders for this year closed in the first week of June.
Which is the fact to keep if you use a camera that takes something other than 4×5, 5×7 or 8×10. The film arriving at resellers this month was committed to more than three months ago. Between one campaign and the next, those sizes are not available to buy at any price.
Source: Ultra large format, Ortho Plus and custom film campaign 2026
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