So I see folks posting their shots. Then I google where to buy, and all I get is eBay stuff for the old Acros. Is there some secret source? or do I just need to sit tight and wait for my back-of-the-bus turn?
Acros II 100: Where?
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At TWELVE DOLLARS a roll, I won’t be buying any of it. Absurd.
Andrew O'Neill
Moderator
I'm planning on buying a few boxes of 120 in Japan in a couple of months from now... Even though I've got a ton of the old stuff in the freezer.
i 've always stuck with one film and developer combination (t-max) and don't venture to other films... acros pricing caused me to wonder - is it really that good in photographers experience to warrant the price?
I bought my first few rolls from Amazon Japan. (its currently listed there for the equivalent of $9.50/roll in 35mm)
No. Its not. A friend of mine did a side-by-side comparison of the old Across and the new one, and found they performed almost identically.
As far as I could tell, when I used the film, its only meaningful claim to fame was its lack of reciprocity failure. If that one aspect is really important to you, then I guess its worth it. But I remember a few years back when Acros Neopan was one of the LEAST expensive films available. Now, its one of the MOST expensive. Good luck with that, Fuji. This makes Kodak's price increase look positively benign.
thank you very much.
What got your underpants all twisted into a knot? Don't like the price? Don't buy any. Don't like the performance? Don't buy any. Complain about prices that don't affect you? Dpreview is the perfect host for that type of stuff.
Rich. As if people on Photrio don't complain about all sorts of stuff all the time.
Fuji is great at creating a, rare and precious, narrative. Good for them. Brand loyalty is a powerful thing. I have a freezer full of 120 Acros that I bought from a local dealer who bought way too much. I bought it right before the news broke, so I bought it because it was cheap, and to help my friend out.
I use a ton of TMY2, the Acros is great film but I don't think I would pay a premium for it over Kodak or Ilford.
I use a ton of TMY2, the Acros is great film but I don't think I would pay a premium for it over Kodak or Ilford.
Oy! I had just received an email from Freestyle about it hours before this thread appeared and duly passed the info along. Note that I haven't bought any! I rather liked the old stuff (shooting mostly 120), and may eventually try the new, but I sorta, kinda, wanna believe the price will come down after the initial excitement of even having it around at all. But it may well be that we are seeing a new reality in film. After all, many of the other emulsions currently available are 8, 9, 10 dollars a roll. If the stuff is no longer being used in the movie industry and other large industrial/commercial areas, odds are we mere photo geeks are going to be penalized a bit by the economics of lower production volume.
To me the old Acros was a nice combination of fine grain, low reciprocity failure, and a spectral response for outdoor use that seemed to offer the results of a light yellow filter without a filter. But yeah, I started using the original in 2006 or so when it was $2.69 a roll from B&H --- oh well. (If only my Social Security had nearly quadrupled during that interval!!!
)
To me the old Acros was a nice combination of fine grain, low reciprocity failure, and a spectral response for outdoor use that seemed to offer the results of a light yellow filter without a filter. But yeah, I started using the original in 2006 or so when it was $2.69 a roll from B&H --- oh well. (If only my Social Security had nearly quadrupled during that interval!!!
)There's a lot to like about the shots on Acros I've seen. ANd there are some handy "utility" issues about it as well. As an expensive film... I'm not sure I need it. I'd wait for a five pack anyway. Single roll pricing is ALWAYs expensive these days.
For now, FP4+ and Delta 400 are and have been my mainstays - especially the latter. I'm not fanatical about one film, one developer, one camera, one lens.... but as a general guideline, it's doggone good. Doesn't mean you can't have fun or
in my case, find yourself moving up to LF and thinking to have the same films in all formats. And this drives a little bit of experimenting. Price can do that, too: I've adopted FOMA as a cheap "beginner 4X5".
For now, FP4+ and Delta 400 are and have been my mainstays - especially the latter. I'm not fanatical about one film, one developer, one camera, one lens.... but as a general guideline, it's doggone good. Doesn't mean you can't have fun or
in my case, find yourself moving up to LF and thinking to have the same films in all formats. And this drives a little bit of experimenting. Price can do that, too: I've adopted FOMA as a cheap "beginner 4X5".
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Well, I'll never be able to afford Acros in 8x10 size again; but it will probably be never made that big again anyway. Shooting roll film is inexpensive regardless. If you simply insist on machine-gunning it, habitually wasting film, can't help you there. The product changes as per mfg announcement might seem minor, but are particularly interesting to me, which imply a bit more straight line in the toe, and a bit less graininess in the highlights. I have quite a bit of previous 120 Acros in the freezer still, and shoot TMAX 120 too, but am looking forward to using Acros II when the time arrives.
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I don't think it's that simple : if Fuji manages to get away with that murder other brands might be tempted to do the same...
Kodak execs : "Hey Fuji has obscenely hiked the price of their Acros, still they sell a lot of stuff. Why don't we hike the price of Tri-x or Portra?"
Translation : if we boycott this Acros II we'll send a message to all photo brands not just Fuji : "we're film users not cash cows! Don't mess with us (please)"
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It sold like insanity around here, in every size from 35mm to 4x5, but especially 120. 8X10 had to be specially imported. When discontinuance was announced, there was a run on it. People were buying bricks of 120, and one local person bought an entire case of 4x5. The local camera store put a ration on how much you could buy per day. To get a version of Acros back into production, Fuji is apparently subcontracting the actual coating to Harman, so of course the price is going to rise somewhat to cover the additional expense of mfg. But that's a lot better than losing this film completely. What a bunch of whimpering! If you can't afford a slice of high-quality pizza, there are numerous lesser options, including dumpster diving.
I like your style, Andrew.
Consider this: Fuji stated that Acros was discontinued because of low volume of sales. I last bought a pro pack of five rolls of 120 Acros Neopan in late 2018 for $35, which was the average price for it. That's $7 a roll. Now they come back with a new version of it and its $12 a roll. How do you suppose this hefty price change is going to help boost sales??
Neopan Acros used to be an excellent "low/middle" price film a few years ago, selling for less than most other emulsions. It is a shame, I think, that Fuji has now priced this product into the high end of market prices. In fact, upon browsing B&H 120 roll film, there were few B&W films that cost more than Acros Neopan's $12 price. Heck, you can buy TWO rolls of Ilford Delta 100 for the price of one roll of Acros!
As for your snide remark about "prices that don't affect me", you're mistaken: I have used Acros in the past and found it very good *for its price category*, and was looking forward to trying the new version. However, I won't be bothering to even test a roll of it at that price. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing Acros has to offer that justifies the price. I wouldn't be saying any of this if I wasn't disappointed by the news.
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A loaf of bread costs a lot more than it used to too; so we better add that to the list of things to boycott.
I used the old in 120 and even bulk 35mm and really like both. Of course at that time it was one of the least expensive 120 films around. That was the main reason I bought it. As this is a hobby for me now and I'm not shooting for $$$ anymore , I have to make those pennies travel as far as I can. I've seen this same thing happen to another film I really like also. Shanghai GP3 in 120. When the company finally got all the backing paper bugs out and were producing a first rate product production was stopped. It seemed like eternity before it was back on the open market again. This time the price was jacked up to Ilfords equivalent. Well, to make a long story short?????? I now shoot Ilford and don't see myself changing from that, except for a few rolls of TMY2 from time to time.
Fuji aren't increasing prices for the hell of it.....nobody is going to think "hey, Fuji are doing it...so will we!"....if someone else can genuinely offer for sale a similar product a at a substantially cheaper price, then they will do so.
Too bad that "here" was too small to matter. Fuji's official reason for discontinuance was... lack of demand.
And there was always a run on film that was being discontinued. Acros wasn't special in that regard. We can only pray that Fuji will still make money on Acros 100 II (and maybe start thinking of making Neopan 400 and 1600 at Ilford - although, what would the price of Neopan 1600 be? $20?).
Kodak has already hiked their prices, citing an increase in demand and a need to invest in building capacity. Also, Portra 400 isn't actually that different from what Acros II is currently selling for in Japan. (Though Kodak's B&W films are cheaper.)
And the attitude of boycotting efforts like this is just going to cause these companies to completely give up and exit the market, and then you'll be totally out of luck. You have to face the facts that film simply doesn't have the necessary economies of scale to support lower prices anymore. And the less of it a particular company makes, the less they're able to make it cheaply.
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The "lack of demand" with respect to Fuji was relative to its overall market, of which film per se is a diminishing component. They apparently didn't want to keep an entire line going. But if the demand for ACROS itself wasn't there, why would they bow to all the user pressure to keep it going? - or to figure out how to profitably do that using a subcontractor for the actual coating? They're not stupid. If the demand wasn't there, and in considerable volume, it would have ended once for all. But it didn't. And "here" wasn't just here. An entire additional run was made for just a single distributor in Japan, among the multiple dealers stockpiling it upon announcement of discontinuance; and they were all selling out rather quickly. It was basically a home run product in terms of b&w 120 usage. That's why there was such an outcry when discontinuance was announced, and why Fuji changed its mind. It was impossible not to see the huge sudden spike in sales toward the end. Yes, that kind of sales momentum tapers off; but they had a reasonable delay reintroducing the new version, so should do fine. And it's pretty hard to call yourself, "Fujifilm" if you don't have any selection of film left.
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Find catlabs x 80 film. The back of my roll said Shanghai gp3 and only cost $5 us.
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