I just bought one of the newly issued 16oz FilmGuard bottles from Steve at Reel Image in the US. It arrived today with no damage and no customs levy.

The price is $35 + $25 shipping to UK. That's about £43 total, and way cheaper than the Jack Roe option for the large bottle, for which I've been quoted £97 including courier.

I buy mine there too, Steve is tops

60 dollars for half of the full sized bottle is a marginally better price Martin and offers many a user just enough of the product that may ever prove necessary.

Well done Martin and many thanks for showing it to us first! 😊😊

Have there been changes to Customs charges. I remember at one time you could import up to the value of about £40 before incurring charges, and I got one seller to put the value as less on the documents. Now, when I look for information it says that you are liable to customs charges on anything above £15, and they take postage into consideration, which is all wrong.

Well done on getting your cleaner/lubricant at a better price than you could here.

Why doesn't he licence the product to be made by someone in the uk ?, surely he'd sell more units if not faced with this stealth tax of importing it from over the pond.....

£15 sounds about right Robert based on my importation days.

I got hammered on everything possible whenever any of my goods were held.
You do pay the levy on the total Inc postage not just the declared value of the goods.

These days, you really have to want the film or goods to make it a worthwhile exercise.
While the Dollar remains strong against the Pound again now, I won't be bothering.
It's simply too expensive.

I don't believe Brad would license anyone else to manufacture this product Paul.
He describes the sales on this now as little more than a casual business interest, not a essential business model for him in this era.

I must admit i feel robbed being charge the 97 from the UK. The last two i bought were around 50. One of those was from p foster.the other from the states.

You remember Eddie Smythe got kicked off the other forum because he said he knew what the formula was. Which reminds me; didn't David Guest say he was having it analysed?

Yeh its $350 a gallon, I'm glad my car doesn't need it, ridiculous scandalous price........., what's in it moon dust

better than Moon Dust Paul!!

Blue Moon Dust!

While i am grateful to have got more i do wish i knew Steve at reel image sold it, how the hell did i miss that????? I could have got two for the price of one.

Why, how much is the standard sized bottle from Steve, Tom?
(32 Oz)

From reading Martin's post from the other forum, it is £86 to have 32oz of FilmGuard delivered to your door from Steve Osbourne as opposed to £97 for the same quantity to have delivered to your door from Jack Roe here in the Uk.
A saving of £11.

I know it greatly increased in price from Jack Roe last time around, but I'm not certain I paid quite that amount for it from them last time even including the vat and courier delivery service which isn't the cheapest either it has to be said.

I will try and find out exactly what I paid a few months back now.

I think we ended up at around 50 each bottle, ordered 3 and no taxes on top. Steve is my choice next time too

At that price I would want to make sure its applied consistently each time its used, and from what I have read its applied with a cloth between your fingers, ensuring a lot a wastage and over use. Dragging film through any gate regardless of what you have on the cloth must cause a build up of dust or particles already on the film, the likes of which your trying to prevent or remove. At that price the application of such a product is too crude for me, good luck gentlemen, unless a better method is used you will not find me using it at any price .......

If it's cheaper to import for whatever the bizarre reasons, I may do the same myself in future now Vidar. No point in paying more than you have to.

The only other consideration of course, is that for us UK residents, you can have it at your door next day while ever Jack Roe have it in stock but this still doesn't excuse the difference in price which can only be due to Jack Roe wanting a larger profit from selling each bottle than Steve O does.

This is probably down to the fact they are running the business from professional premises as opposed to home like Steve does.

What do you use on your films Paul?

As you reach the end of a cleaning session Paul, all of the dust particles gathers at the next frame after you remove your cleaning cloth from the films surface.

I can usually cope with around 400ft max cleaning footage before I decide to give my hand a rest. I then rewind a tiny amount to get back onto a spotless section of film just previous to where I removed the cloth, then begin all over again for around another 400ft of film using an additional two squirts on my cloth in a different area of the cloth.

As you keep the cloth on the film right up until the very last frame of tail on the film pulls through the cloth, you are then left with nothing but FG on the film by the end of the process with all dust particles from the gate completely removed once fully cleaned and dried.

A full sized bottle does last ages and using a ratio of around 4 squirts per 800ft of Super 8mm film, I personally don't find that I feel I am unduly wasting too much of the liquid while cleaning as the vast vast majority of it finishes up coating the films surfaces themselves, not simply absorbing into the cloth.

I'll check on it Andy, i may have read the post wrong, sorry!!

Are we talking the big bottles here or the half size?

I do use the smallest amount on a cloth with fingers but i never, (nor have i ever), used the projector to apply. Its always rewind arms. Theres no other way for me, and paying out God knows how much for a cleaning attachment is something ive never done in the 40 years of collecting.

I use Film Renew and that leave no residue, but FilmGuard I do feel leave a bit, unless properly wiped after

Film Renew works best for me, it removes unsteady picture on my Elmos and that is my main issue. Live fine with stripes, but unsteady picture is just annoying.

I prefer FG overall BECAUSE it does both jobs required. It fills in fine wear lines on the film to make them appear invisible as well as lubricating and cleaning the films surfaces to a very high standard.

Films run like a dream after coating in this stuff and I realised once again just by what greater margin only days ago when I did try projecting a dry film I received recently and it sounded very noisy through the gate and was nothing like as steady so far as on screen image stability was concerned until then coated.

The Beaulieu Stereo model is the only projector I have that I fully trust to clean films with "in run".
I either use it this way to clean or I use the rewind function on the LPU if I have it to hand at the time.

oop, yes we are talking 16oz, Sorry chaps, we have the 32oz bottles.
Have to say Vidar, i could never get hold of film renew due to it not being allowed to be posted here or some nonsense, BUT, the filmguard sure does cure any unsteady images on all our machines including 16mm.

Yes, surely it does, but I feel cleaner after Film Renew, no residue at all. FilmGuard is good, no argue from me there

It is also true to say that because FG does positively coat the film in its lubricant, then the film thereafter is slightly more prone to picking up airborne particles and then finding them landing at the gate while projecting.

While this never harm's the film in any way, it is annoying when you do get the odd particle showing up on projection which may not always necessarily be the case when projecting non coated film.

It's a trade off to me, and the smoothness of projection plus the overall cleanliness of the unmarked image quality very often visible after treatment, makes this minor downside a more than tolerable one for myself.