Counterfeit films alert

cmo · Apr 8, 2012

My momma always said, "Life was like a box of films. You never know what you're gonna get." :confused:

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/05/beware-counterfeit-35mm-film-on-ebay/

railwayman3 · Apr 8, 2012

Wonder if the seller was relooading used cassettes....the writer doesn't say what the actual film was?

mrred · Apr 8, 2012

Even if they were, it is still misrepresentation.

pentaxuser · Apr 8, 2012

It may or may not be genuine Fuji film. You'd expect the article to say that on development the proof of misrepresentation was in the film itself and it was indeed old Kodak stuff but it doesn't. Only that the label covers up a Kodak cassette

Surprisingly it took many replies before someone suggested that it may be too soon to condemn before proof is obtained.

pentaxuser

Worker 11811 · Apr 8, 2012

railwayman3 said:
Wonder if the seller was relooading used cassettes....the writer doesn't say what the actual film was?

Looking at the tails of the film coming out of the cassettes, you can see they are die cut. Unless the person has a cutter to clip the ends like that, I doubt the film would be bulk.

Ian Grant · Apr 8, 2012

It's ironic that someone appears to be passing Kodak film off as Fuji, says a lot for peoples perceptions.

Ian

Worker 11811 · Apr 8, 2012

It's my guess that the person was passing off expired film as new and didn't consider the brand.

railwayman3 · Apr 8, 2012

I have a couple of ancient "Gratispool Colour Slide" films from the early 1960's. This was known to be rebranded Dynachrome film (the Kodachrome clone from the US), but the cassettes are actually originally Ektachrome, with a covering label applied. Gratispool at that time were a large UK processing lab for all types of B&W, colour neg and reversal, so they were obviously being "environmentally friendly" and reloading used cassettes from their processing operations!

CGW · Apr 8, 2012

Real deal Superia 200 is around $2/roll, maybe $3 tops. Gotta be desperate and/or naive to sucker for this.

fotch · Apr 8, 2012

You get what you pay for.

Gerald C Koch · Apr 8, 2012

I stopped buyimg anything on ebay after being ripped off a couple of times. Ebay does a very poor job in protecting buyers.

kb3lms · Apr 8, 2012

Wouldn't you think there was something more profitable to counterfeit in this day and age?

Richard S. (rich815) · Apr 8, 2012

Very curious to find out what the film eventually was once developed. Surprised the article did not wait for that important fact to be determined. I suspect it's cheap Chinese Lucky color film spooled in used Kodak cassettes and labeled Fuji as such might sell better in China. Likely done in bulk for the Chinese mainland street "flea" markets where no one ever asks for a refund as its always done as beware-beware and most know almost every thing is knock off one thing or another...

I used to shoot Lucky color when I lived there for a few years. Not bad actually. And if I remember right I could get for 75 cents a roll retail.

daveandiputra · Apr 8, 2012

Looking from the cassette it is Kodak colorplus which sell for much lower price (here in indonesia) than new superia film, add to the possibility that the film is expired, there's maybe some profit from this type of operation.

newcan1 · Apr 9, 2012

Gerald C Koch said:
I stopped buyimg anything on ebay after being ripped off a couple of times. Ebay does a very poor job in protecting buyers.

I've had some good luck on ebay, but you do have to be careful. My best purchase was seven 400ft cans of EXR 200T movie film for $70 total. Turned out to be in quite good, very useable shape with minimal speed loss and easily correctable color shift. That works out to about 500 36 exp rolls of film or about 14 cents a roll. Of course, it's already old (1994), and will be a lot older by the time I use the last roll!

Athiril · Apr 9, 2012

Never had trouble off ebay with films.

I have noticed once I bought some happy snaps something random film (much worse than lucky, must be old expired shit) just to see how it was. The canisters were random Kodak, Fuji canisters with their own label over the top.

mrred · Apr 9, 2012

Athiril said:
Never had trouble off ebay with films.

I have noticed once I bought some happy snaps something random film (much worse than lucky, must be old expired shit) just to see how it was. The canisters were random Kodak, Fuji canisters with their own label over the top.

But it wasn't pretending it was Fuji.....

pentaxuser · Apr 9, 2012

mrred said:
But it wasn't pretending it was Fuji.....

We still don't know that it isn't Fuji film. This seller may be selling counterfeit film but must be selling a lot of it if he/she is to make a profit so you'd expect to see a lot of complaints which there doesn't seem to be. There are arguments for potentially guilty and equally rguments for potentially innocent.

However he/she is apparently guilty until proven innocent. I always thought that in the legal system we hold up to the world as the best that we made the opposite assumption.

There may be reasons to criticise a lack of transparency by the seller but we need to avoid the classic "I've got a rope so what are we waiting for" attitude until we know for sure what the film actually is

pentaxuser

Old-N-Feeble · Apr 9, 2012

My experience on eBay is there are just as many buyer scammers as there are seller scammers. At least that's the way it was 10-15 years ago. I did both (bought and sold) and often got it from both ends... so-to-speak. I just worked it into my overall costs/profits/losses. Sometimes I'm thankful that I'm physically unable to play that game anymore. It can be exceedingly frustrating if you really care about fair treatment and honesty. I don't want that kind of stress anymore. Life has plenty of stresses and disappointments without all that.

mrred · Apr 9, 2012

pentaxuser said:
......

There may be reasons to criticise a lack of transparency by the seller but we need to avoid the classic "I've got a rope so what are we waiting for" attitude until we know for sure what the film actually is

True. I guess the edge markings will tell all.

cmo · Apr 11, 2012

Digital photographers have a much bigger problem: on the same web site that I posted here they report that ca. one third of all Sandisk memory cards are counterfeit products...

mrred · Apr 11, 2012

That is a verrrrryyyy old problem. There are some products you just don't buy.

pentaxuser · Apr 11, 2012

mrred said:
True. I guess the edge markings will tell all.

I wonder how we are ever going to know. Do we just go back to the e-bay warning link to see when a conclusion is reached?

If it is a scam and the stuff isn't Fuji or the correct Fuji as advertised then it is important that we know here on APUG as well as all the potential e-bay buyers of this sellers products

pentaxuser

mrred · Apr 11, 2012

I took it for the team...lol I posted the question on that forum..... I don't really expect an answer....but you never know....

Counterfeit films alert

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