Discontinuation of FP100C

[AgX]

Well, seen with my personal experiences with Fuji executives his encounters must be described as polite and promising...

 

[twelvetone12]

I think Fuji really sees FP-100C as competing internally with it's own products. It makes business sense to have costumers concentrate on your principal offerings and invest in those. I also understand why they are not fond of having other people get their machinery and possibly create a competing market to their own instax. Too bad I just discovered you can extract the negative from fp100c...

 

[Roger Cole]

Yes, and fairly easily, and from FP-3000b (and 100b if that still existed) as well. But NOT from Instax. The products are really pretty different though overlapping. The closer thing to competition to - well not FP-100c since that's color but to FP-3000/100b would probably be New 55.

Even at ten bucks a sheet it's looking better now.

 

[Lionel1972]

Exciting and promising potential new hope :
http://the.supersense.com/blogs/news/115790851-save-packfilm-travelog-no-10-instant-miracle

 

[twelvetone12]

Miracles do happen? I'm very curious to hear more info on his news!

 

[bvy]

I read it this morning. While news of a potential backer is promising, all of this still seems pivotal on Fuji's cooperation.

 

[Wayne]

Hmmm...this is "news"? News that he can't actually tell us? I don't know what good a rich internet entrepreneur does without Fuji being on board. I'm a hopeless skeptic but I hope he succeeds anyway.

 

[Diapositivo]

More than a miracle, seems a famous (but anonymous) enthusiast more. I'm not sure Fuji will be impressed.

What would work would be Quentin Tarantino to talk with Fuji and promise, if they keep production alive, to place the product in his next film!

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Most refrigerators are about 35F in my experience. Getting too close to 0C/32F risks freezing and you specifically don't want that in a refrigerator or you'd put the food in the freezer.

Most freezers are closer to 0F/-17.8C. I'm heartened by the news above that this film actually does freeze well if done properly but can't really afford to stock up on enough for that to matter.

My fridge is set to about 35F but the vegetable and meat drawers are a bit colder. Nothing in the main compartment freezes... but I can't use the veg and meat drawers with the main compartment set to 35F.

 

[skorpiius]

Just got an email yesterday from B&H letting me know my March 1st order is still back ordered.
"We apologize for any inconvenience and will keep you posted."

 

[rbultman]

In times of energy-saving 16°C here is just under the temperature of an appartment, something that you would call a cool room. Definitions vary ...

I started my professional career writing embedded software for refrigerators. On the units I worked on, the fresh-food compartment has an adjustable range of 33F - 45F and the freezer from -6F - 6F. A "normal" setting is 37-0.

Actual temperatures at various places in the fresh food section varies by design with the "meat pan" being on the cooler side and the butter dish compartment on the warmer.

 

[Alan9940]

Even at ten bucks a sheet it's looking better now.

Where do you get New55 for $10 per sheet? Current price is $17 per, unless you have a coupon which brings it back down to the "low" Kickstarter price of about $15 per, depending on the offer.

 

[Roger Cole]

Where do you get New55 for $10 per sheet? Current price is $17 per, unless you have a coupon which brings it back down to the "low" Kickstarter price of about $15 per, depending on the offer.

I don't. I just recall that was the initial projection for the initial run.

$10 is not something I want it badly enough to do yet. I do have a project it would be helpful for, but not that helpful. I wish them well - very well in fact - that's just in realm of almost absurdity. It's so much I'd think it were a joke if I didn't realize it was actually true.

 

[petepictures]

FWIW: freezing fp-100c

Right now I've got 5 boxes here, expiration 11/2015. I'm going to double ziplock one of them, stick it in the refrigerator ( vertical ) for a week, then into the stand-up freezer in our garage. When my 30 boxes arrive on Friday, I'm going put them in my refrigerator. ( I have a small "dorm room" refrigerator in the garage for my vegetable seed collection and a small amount of film... it is set just above freezing and stays between 35 and 38 deg. F. ) I'm going to keep using the fp-100c as usual, so it will probably all be gone in 2 to 3 years, but if I change my mind in a couple years I can take the frozen one out and verify that it still works. That way I have an option of freezing some later if I decide to.

P.S. I'm not interested in selling it. I just like to use it.

I believe this film is not to be freezed because of the chemicals in it.
It is very stable though, recently I shot one expired nearly 30 years ago , and it was still very good.
It has dropped ASA to about 50 and it had a purplish cast, but still very usable.

 

[petepictures]

All FP-100C

Over the past few months I've stocked up on 68 boxes of FP-3000B, at a price of on average $18 or $19 USD.
Then in Feb I ordered 10 boxes of FP-100C from B&H at $11, and then another 50 at $11 on the day of the announcement, and another 50 at $13 the next day.

So if I get all I've ordered I'll have 680 b&w and 1100 colour peel apart instant photos to last a lifetime... (or the ~5 years it might stay good)

I believe this film is not to be freezed because of the chemicals in it.
It is very stable though, recently I shot one expired nearly 30 years ago , and it was still very good.
It has dropped ASA to about 50 and it had a purplish cast, but still very usable.
It was kept in the fridge all the time.

 

[Roger Cole]

They may say not to freeze it, but people have tried it and found no issues. I'm not yet aware of anyone who froze it and DID have issues, provided they stored it horizontally in the freezer.

 

[fdonadio]

I had a pending order of a 5-pack with Amazon at $12.99 per box until today. They canceled my order due to product (un)availability. This means Fuji can't supply Amazon anymore — at least, not in a price Amazon would profit from the sale. I got the previous order in the mail and those are, apparently, my last boxes of FP-100c (sigh).

Just had a look at the Save Pack Film blog and the outlook is definitely not good:

http://the.supersense.com/blogs/news/118987267-save-packfilm-travelog-no-17-the-reply-from-fuji

FP100c 5-packs are currently trading at $149.99 ($29.999 a box).


Flavio

 

[bvy]

It doesn't sound totally good or bad. It does sound totally ambiguous.

Reminds me that I haven't gotten my order from B&H yet, and I placed it the week after the announcement.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Just had a look at the Save Pack Film blog and the outlook is definitely not good:

http://the.supersense.com/blogs/news/118987267-save-packfilm-travelog-no-17-the-reply-from-fuji

Flavio

I just read that myself. The line "We continue to support the photographic industry" is just the generic speak that is very common here that means whatever the listener wants it to mean. To the optimist it means maybe there is a future for packfilm - not as we know it, but something will happen; to the realist it is that packfilm is gone but Fuji will continue to support most of its remaining film lines; to the pessimist it will be that packfilm is just the continuation of a long line of dominoes (film) that Fuji will topple over (discontinue) until all there is left of Fujifilm is Fuji. But they'll still have their digital cameras - that's supporting the photo industry right? (they certainly don't mention FILM photography in their letter). Sorry, I'm being a pessimist right now even though I fluctuate all the way to optimistic belief at times too.

In any event, all Fuji packfilm is gone from the stores here in Japan (and has been for some time), although it is still possible to find it in other places between $25-50 a pack.

 

[richyd]

Fuji is a large industrial company with many divisions. If you look at their PR announcements you will see diverse statements from cancer drug developments to the latest Fuji digital lens.

As far as their imaging division is concerned the photographic industry is digital. Fujifiilm is a digital camera maker. They got lucky with a rising fad of Instax products and can ride that wave but the only market for peel-apart pack film is for old Polaroid cameras and legacy film backs.

They could have taken the interest in Instax and promoted packfilm riding on the back of it or even produced a packfilm camera. They could even make the Instax film for the Polroid 600 and SX70 as Impossible do and that would be a fantastic product but they're not in that market.

They are not interested in film at all and have cut back production to one token type of film in each category. They summarily ceased motion picture film and are quite weird in the way they handle discontinuation. Usually it is by withdrawing from the international markets, without any global announcement. 220 film was available in Japan for long while after they stopped shipping it abroad. At least always Kodak made a global announcement. In this instance they did it on the sly only announcing the withdrawal of FP100C on their Japanese site, as though the rest of the world did not exist, yet the major market for packfilm I believe was outside of Japan.

Their comments in that letter are just management speak.

 

[fdonadio]

Sorry, I'm being a pessimist right now even though I fluctuate all the way to optimistic belief at times too

It's hard to be optimistic this time around.

From every point I look at this situation, it becomes clearer and clearer that FP-100c won't be back, because it's long gone.

Fuji might have torn that production line apart months, if not more than a year, ago.

Let's see if that mysterious guy from the technology business is really going to help. We can only hope.


Flavio

 

[EdSawyer]

the only market for peel-apart pack film is for old Polaroid cameras and legacy film backs.

Only due to Fuji's ineptitude and/or abject laziness. The did build the FP-1 camera, and could have built plenty of others to sell more FP100C.

B&H, adorama, and the other a-hole vendors continue to jack up the price on FP100C almost daily, even though they have none in stock. ($18.99 to 21.99 to now $24.99).

 

[Theo Sulphate]

...

Just had a look at the Save Pack Film blog and the outlook is definitely not good:

http://the.supersense.com/blogs/news/118987267-save-packfilm-travelog-no-17-the-reply-from-fuji...

Not to be harsh, but the blog's author is either in denial or delusional. The Japanese are just being polite. Fuji has terminated pack film production and there is no way they will consider restarting it or any new pack film project. Their commitment to photography is now entirely in digital equipment and Instax.

 

[skorpiius]

I had a pending order of a 5-pack with Amazon at $12.99 per box until today. They canceled my order due to product (un)availability. This means Fuji can't supply Amazon anymore — at least, not in a price Amazon would profit from the sale. I got the previous order in the mail and those are, apparently, my last boxes of FP-100c (sigh).

Just had a look at the Save Pack Film blog and the outlook is definitely not good:

http://the.supersense.com/blogs/news/118987267-save-packfilm-travelog-no-17-the-reply-from-fuji

FP100c 5-packs are currently trading at $149.99 ($29.999 a box).


Flavio

I have a backordered order with B&H (order placed March 1), I got a notification 1 week ago that it is still back ordered.
Fingers crossed.

 

[skorpiius]

Not to be harsh, but the blog's author is either in denial or delusional. The Japanese are just being polite. Fuji has terminated pack film production and there is no way they will consider restarting it or any new pack film project. Their commitment to photography is now entirely in digital equipment and Instax.

I agree, their only option is to obtain the equipment and some knowledge.
However, a bit overly optimistic (or perhaps delusional) is what I'd expect from someone who started the "Impossible Project"