Discontinuation of FP100C

[fdonadio]

Hoarders are hard at work! FP-100c is nowhere to be found! Sold out at B&H, Adorama, Samy's, Freestyle and Unique!

Just got a 5-pack through Amazon for $60 (just in case) and will get a couple more as soon as I can find it on photo stores again.


Flavio

 

[Theo Sulphate]

No messy peel-apart? That's the part I love the most. ...

Likewise. There's still that feeling of magic when you peel the film apart and there's an image there. Watching the image appear with integral film is fun also.

 

[Tis Himself]

If color film use is in such decline, particularly slide film, why is Film Ferrania investing in the manufacture of this product? Taking this a step further, why was their Kickstarter project so successful? I would like to believe that FF identified a market segment that is sufficient in size to sustain these products. While I applaud their efforts, other than for work, I have not shot any type of color film in over 30 years. I I therefore doubt that I personally will be buying their film (unless they start making B&W film). Nonetheless, I will support them by telling any people I know that their film is (or soon should be) available. To scold/chastise/belittle a community of film photographers for not buying a product in sufficient quantity to preclude its demise, is nothing short of arrogance. I'm n the 50+age group. I have never, other when required for work, used a digital camera! I've never used the camera on my iPhone!

 

[Roger Cole]

I ordered 10 from B&H to be shipped when their backorder arrives. I will probably get some more.

Given the history of still-available-though-at-outrageous prices FP3000b, I expect I'll be able to buy some more, but at ever increasing prices.

Sigh. I have a back for my M645 Pro (really only useful for exposure proofing unless you like really small prints) and for my 4x5. I'm planning to get an RB67 system and was looking forward to those 7x7cm Fujiroids.

Oh well, I'll have 100 shots if this order comes through, and hopefully be able to stock up on some more. If I could afford to order 100 packs I'd probably have a good 10 year supply for the amount I'd use, but I can't. At least the back for the RB should be cheaper now. I'll still get one, if I have film and can still get it from old stock.

Well crap.

 

[richyd]

Glad now my bids for a 405 back haven't been successful and was also thinking of getting x50 series Polaroid. Just got into this last year and after experimenting with transfers had a project in mind. I have a borrowed 405 back and have used it a lot for large format hacking tests.

Fuji Imaging Solutions have had increasing revenues and profit mainly from, in their words, instant photo products, which to them is Instax. Even their product page lists FP100C under Instax. The trouble is that they don't produce a camera that uses peel apart.

Also annoying that film product announcements are only on the Japan site. Highlights that film is really just an embarrassment for them and would happily drop all production tomorrow.

 

[Peter de Groot]

Some 2 years ago or even less than that someone was asking a question here of the type "what is the best colour film?" or something like that.
At one point the discussion went to "how much colour films people are using".
Some members, just a few, had to post comments like "if I want to shoot colour, I'll use some digi" and "I don't use colour films any more".
I said at the time that more colour films will be discontinued if the trend wasn't stopped.
Just last week in another forum with a section specifically for films and not quite a few entirely dedicated to digital, someone asked a simple question about slide films as he wanted to try them for the first time. The first few answers were all "don't use slide films, they're awful".
You see where I'm going?
If we don't use more colour films and advertise to others, I'm afraid that more of the same downward spiral is to continue.
There's a reason why Ilford is doing well and Kodak/Fuji aren't doing so well: there's more B&W film being used than colour.
At times I wish I was wrong or that this was still 1986.

Treu but you were berating me for hoarding and then mentioned Ipmossible or Instax to me and you have never bought instant film while I have been rooting for Impossible and New55 from the beginning. You are judging people without knowing them or doing research. That is dispicable. So stop it and show respect to people who indeed are supporting instant where ever they can whit the resources available to them. Get it now? Probably not.
Check out my darkroomninja blog and you might be surprised.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Treu but you were berating me for hoarding and then mentioned Ipmossible or Instax to me and you have never bought instant film while I have been rooting for Impossible and New55 from the beginning. You are judging people without knowing them or doing research. That is dispicable. So stop it and show respect to people who indeed are supporting instant where ever they can whit the resources available to them. Get it now? Probably not.
Check out my darkroomninja blog and you might be surprised.

Peter
I know English isn't your first language, so you have an excuse.
I never called you names.
I only suggested an alternative to you and hoping others will read and consider that alternative.
So, I suggest you read it again.
BTW, I've used Instant film in the past.

Another alternative to people hoarding and spending money is to make an association of "Instant Lovers", go to Fuji and ask them how much they want for the use of their machines, make a Kickstarter project and buy directly from Fuji the equivalent of a few master rolls.
Instead of Fuji just selling a pack here and a pack there, they sell the entire production in one go.

Another alternative is to buy the machinery then and there.
That was already suggested above.

If a group can poll a million people at £10 each, it is after all £10 million.
That might be enough to do something to save pack films.

Isn't it better to do something Positive about it, instead of just buying discontinued film and moaning about it?

 

[Peter de Groot]

Well I must have read it wrong then. It didn't came across the way you are explaining it now. You were quoting my post so that is why I took it personal as well. However I use every instant film there is and I bet more people do it like that. Unfortunately Fuji has shown in the past zero interest in continuing or selling to a third party the machinery, chemical, negatives, positives and patents to keep peel apart alive. And the thought of 1 million getting 10 dollars together is a lovely thought but you would find 1 million people ready and willing to do just that. Since peel apart was very succesful in China there might be a very small chanche for them doing something but it might be just way to expensive to do just that. And kickstarter will not render enough money to create a finished product.

Something to read:
http://www.japancamerahunter.com/2016/03/film-news-fujifilm-discontinues-peel-apart-instant-film/

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Since peel apart was very succesful in China there might be a very small chanche for them doing something but it might be just way to expensive to do just that.

Hi!
There might be a way there. I hope there is.
Thanks for the link.
And I bookmarked your blog. Nice shots!

 

[Peter de Groot]

Thanks! I hope somenone will dive into the void to create peel apart again. Until then I am happy with Instax, Impossible and New55.

 

[Lachlan Young]

Making a peel apart film is relatively simple in BW & a lot more complex in colour - yet we've seen the issues New55 have had getting their receiver paper to work. And that's before you formulate a suitable monobath/ film combination. On the other hand New55 now have the tooling to package peel-apart 4x5 films.

I recall that the Fuji instants are largely based on Kodak technology which was sold after the polaroid lawsuit.

One other thing worth considering is that we now know Fuji seem to have stopped making the peel-aparts in 2012, which was about the end of the time that all the manufacturers were having to remove a specific component from their colour process films - Simon Galley commented on it with regards to XP2+ - it was also about the time that the new Portras etc were launched & vision3 - Fuji evidently had decided that investing in updating the peel-apart was not worth their while.

 

[mehguy]

this is quite sad indeed. The last peel apart film is finally retired. I feared this would be happening 8 months ago. (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[aleckurgan]

I think it's time to boycott Fujifilm altogether. Let's help them kill their film business quickly, so they won't disappoint and upset us every year. Better a painful ending, than an endless pain.

 

[Lionel1972]

Time to start protesting much louder in mainstream media about Fuji's lack of respect to their remaining loyal film customers and their deliberate price and discontinuation policy to drive away those remaining (and potentially new) customers. We need to bring attention to this in a time when mass media are getting interested in the analog ressurgence. We need to stop letting the bean counters take away what we care about without fighting or at least protesting. We did nothing when they took away Kodachrome, except moaning and abbiding to the supposedly immuable laws of economics and progress. Are we going to let them get away with it while putting the blame on the costumers again or are we going to make it such an embrassment to their public image regarding their customers at large to such a degree that they might reconsider what this decision and strategy could cost them as bad pubicity among all their photography customers and in general their mainstream public image? When they first discontinued Velvia protests made them find a way to resume production.

 

[RattyMouse]

I wish APUG had more members from Japan who could understand Fujifilm as a company. The language barrier here is massive.

 

[Lee Rust]

The peel-apart film has been very enjoyable and I will miss using my Polaroid cameras and film backs. Of course, the extra paper bits and wet stuff are always troublesome to deal with, even though I save most of the the negatives. It's easy to see why Fuji is consolidating their instant photo efforts into Instax, which is an excellent product (with a process invented by Kodak). The Instax image starts emerging immediately and there's no muss, fuss and delay in an age when instant gratification is expected. In my opinion, the Instax prints are superior to FP100c in terms of color rendition and sharpness, and they can be copied and enlarged with good results.

Hopefully some higher grade cameras and/or film backs will emerge from Fuji or others. To me, the most annoying thing about Instax cameras (and integral Polaroids) is the noisy ejection of the film just after each exposure. With peel-apart film, the leisurely extraction, waiting and peeling were part of the experience and increased the appreciation of each print as it was revealed. The Impossible film images are so slow to emerge and unpredictable in nature that they still encourage that sort of anticipation and examination, while the Instax prints are SO instant and consistent that they tend to get laid aside and forgotten after a few minutes, just as if they were cellphone images.

 

[baachitraka]

Hmm...seems I can't use my holgaroid anymore. Sad indeed.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I wish APUG had more members from Japan who could understand Fujifilm as a company. The language barrier here is massive.

I certainly don't understand Fujifilm as a company, but I do have some thoughts concerning Japan Inc., which maybe I should keep to myself.

Japan is a complicated place and its hard to sum up all the issues, but here are a few generalizations and over-simplifications, if I may:

• Seniority is important here. Who you are is important here. If the higher ups say "we are going to discontinue this film," no one below them would dare argue or try to persuade them otherwise.
• Big business is secretive. As just one example, when Fukushima first happened, the authorities denied there was any danger. But they were forced to fess up for various reasons, not least because of worldwide pressure and losing face in a different sort of way. In other ways, someone might decide to cut down a forest or put a pachinko parlour next to a housing area, and 1) most people don't find out about it until it's too late, and 2) except in rare cases, there's usually nothing they can do about it.
• The people Japan cares most about is Japanese people. Although there will be some pressure from photographers from other countries to keep this film, unless there is a similar outcry by Japanese photographers, Fujifilm probably won't really care enough to do anything about it.
• There's the Japanese attitude of "shoganai" which basically means "it can't be helped." If something is out of your control, you just accept it and move on. This word was used A LOT after the 3/11 triple disaster. In one way, it's a good philosophy for not dwelling on things you can't control, but on the other hand, it's very frustrating because people don't fight or push back against things that really bother them (I mean, some do, but not to the extent that we see in other countries). People feel they have no voice in so many things, from education to the government, so, for example, Abe's changing the constitution to re-militarize Japan is probably going to happen. Fujifilm dropping film products? Gonna happen. More price increases? Gonna happen. It's happened again and again, I don't know why we are still surprised that it happens.

So what does it all mean? The film is cancelled, there will probably be little to no protest about it here in Japan (where it really counts) from either within or without the company, and the "shoganai" attitude will mean that photographers will rush to the stores to stock up before it all goes. As for a Kickstarter project? I cannot imagine, in any lifetime, where Fuji would hand over their machinery and know-how to another entity to produce their film (or something like it). They'll destroy the equipment first (look at Holga in China - they did the same thing, before even telling anyone what was going to happen). Maybe I'm a bit pessimistic after all my years in Japan, but I really don't see it happening, no matter how many petitions people sign. That said, I am an optimist, I have signed the petition, and you never know...actually, forget that. It ain't gonna happen.

 

[mooseontheloose]

And from JapanCameraHunter:

When I first started this business about 5 years ago, Fuji FP-100 and the variants of such were reasonably popular, but professionals were no longer asking for it. I had been working for a large photo supply company and we were told (unofficially) back in 2011 that peel apart film was to stop production in the near future, so any orders we wanted of it would have to be done immediately.
But then something strange happened. FP-100 all of a sudden became extremely popular…The internet and sites such as mine raised the public awareness of said film and the sales increased to the point that over the last couple of years they have not been able to keep it on the shelves in Japan, despite the prices. In fact, over the last year it has been hard to get here because as soon as it hits the shelves it is purchased in huge amounts by Chinese buyers who have flocked to the peel apart market. Fuji simply could not get it on the shelves fast enough. It got to the point that serious bulk buyers had orders cancelled or were not allowed to order such amounts as it was considered unfair to other customers.
So here is where we see what has really happened. It is now clear that FujiFilm had already ceased the production of the film back as early as 2012 and has basically spent the last few years selling off the stock they had. Way to go Fuji(not)Film.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Japan is a complicated place...

Such a fascinatingly different social contract...



Ken

 

[Ai Print]

I don't know that this is what we need to be doing to push the entirety of the niche film movement forward. In fact, being as blatantly negative as it is, I think it is the exact opposite of what should be done.

Time to start protesting much louder in mainstream media about Fuji's lack of respect to their remaining loyal film customers and their deliberate price and discontinuation policy to drive away those remaining (and potentially new) customers. We need to bring attention to this in a time when mass media are getting interested in the analog ressurgence. We need to stop letting the bean counters take away what we care about without fighting or at least protesting. We did nothing when they took away Kodachrome, except moaning and abbiding to the supposedly immuable laws of economics and progress. Are we going to let them get away with it while putting the blame on the costumers again or are we going to make it such an embrassment to their public image regarding their customers at large to such a degree that they might reconsider what this decision and strategy could cost them as bad pubicity among all their photography customers and in general their mainstream public image? When they first discontinued Velvia protests made them find a way to resume production.

 

[mehguy]

B&H just upped the price today for FP100C. It's now 13 dollars .

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...35626_FP_100C_Professional_Instant_Color.html

 

[bvy]

B&H just upped the price today for FP100C. It's now 13 dollars .

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...35626_FP_100C_Professional_Instant_Color.html

Get it while it's there and be happy. Pretty soon it will be available for no number of dollars.

 

[amellice]

Get it while it's there and be happy. Pretty soon it will be available for no number of dollars.

Same story at Unique Photo. Good thing I ordered 10 from B&H 2 hours ago before they raised the price

 

[Theo Sulphate]

...
As for a Kickstarter project? I cannot imagine, in any lifetime, where Fuji would hand over their machinery and know-how to another entity to produce their film (or something like it). They'll destroy the equipment first...

Why?

Would that be embarrassing, a matter of pride, or a feeling that they've made a final decision and they just want the outcome they want.

I know this sounds naive, but I know almost nothing of Japanese culture.

It also may be the case that all the machinery and processes were destroyed four years ago.

Thank you for your comments and insight.