Foma film

alanrockwood · Jul 12, 2014

There has been a lot of discussion about the business/financial health of various companies that manufacture photographic film, but I don't recall much discussion about Foma. How is Foma doing from a business perspective?

AgX · Jul 12, 2014

Ask them.

There are no published figures nor any published scandals.

Xmas · Jul 12, 2014

There always is some Forma in my local brick shop.

It is a university student supplier and when a class if students gets a film project lots of the shops stock dissappears. Sometimes a month before replacement.

Rumor or management statements should never be confused with reality.

AgX · Jul 12, 2014

Interesting, I never saw Foma films in a brick and mortar shop.

RattyMouse · Jul 12, 2014

AgX said:
Interesting, I never saw Foma films in a brick and mortar shop.

Foma is available in the film stores I have here in Shanghai. Also, the film store I found in Rome had a healthy supply of Foma films.

Xmas · Jul 12, 2014

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/ProductByGroup.asp?PrGrp=2212

Ricardo Miranda · Jul 12, 2014

AgX said:
Interesting, I never saw Foma films in a brick and mortar shop.

I'm almost sure Fotoimpex in Berlin has Foma on the shelves.

I was using today Fomapan 200 and 400 bought from the same shop as Xmas.
And a public thank you to Noel (Xmas) for the great company today in our photo expedition.

Ricardo Miranda · Jul 12, 2014

Foma has some 2 years ago improved their emulsions by changing the film base from their usual blue tone to a clear one. They also improved Fomapan 200 in 120 format.
To me that shows film is still important for Foma Behemia.
Oh, and they revamped their website this year: http://www.foma.cz/en/about-us

Trask · Jul 13, 2014

I kind of liked the blue film base on some 120 Foma the last time I used it - seemed to pick up the clouds very well. I believe that they still do use a blue base for some of their 120 products, but that the 35mm From 200 is now clear base.

Ian Grant · Jul 13, 2014

Foma films are far more prevalent than Kodak (B&W) around the world (except probably North America), they seem to have the distribution right where as Kodak's collapsed in many markets. This is from experience when trying to buy film in various countries, I can always find Ilford, Foma a small amount of Fuji but hardly ever Kodak and Tmax 100 & 400 were the main films I used.

It helps that, like Ilford, Foma make a full range of B&W materials including films, papers and chemistry. There's less incentive for a distributor or a store to sell Kodak particularly outside the major US and European markets. Kodak seem to have concentrated on the Colour/Minilab market.

Ian

Ricardo Miranda · Jul 13, 2014

There is a recent post on FADU about a new distribution system for AG Photographic (online retail shop in the UK) resulting in better availability, but also higher prices.
For me in London, Silverprint is just across the river and has always a good stock and prices.

Ektagraphic · Jul 13, 2014

I have wondered this before. It would be cool if we had someone representing Foma here around the forums.

AgX · Jul 13, 2014

I found Foma not willing to communicate even when approached in person. (To be fair I had even worse experiences with Fuji.)

37th Exposure · Jul 13, 2014

Fuji has the worst customer service by far. I have yet to ask Foma anything. Ilford's is the best ( and I will be a customer for life). Kodak is OK. The East German ORWO was surprisingly efficient in replying to my queries and in perfect English.
Kodak actually took legal action to keep Foma products out of the USA way back in the 90's claiming patent infringement ( as if Kodak didn't make a habit of it themselves, such as the infamous Godwin patent case). Kodak claimed Foma T200 and T800 stole Kodak Tmax technology and won. With the beheading of the King, competitor's products became more available here in the USA. Apprently nobody is enforcing the ban on Foma products anymore. Freestyle Photo in L.A. is the official US distributor and they sell quite a lot of Foma product, some of it to me. According to Freestyle, Foma the company is alive and well.

ntenny · Jul 13, 2014

37th Exposure said:
With the beheading of the King, competitor's products became more available here in the USA. Apprently nobody is enforcing the ban on Foma products anymore.

The relevant patents could well be expired by now. I couldn't find anything about the lawsuit to know what the details were.

In the last four or five years Foma seem to have made some upgrades to their production regarding coating and QC, which seems like a good sign for their financial health. It would be nice if they'd pop their heads up and be a little more visible in the analog community, but in suppose one can't have everything.

-NT

37th Exposure · Jul 13, 2014

ntenny said:
The relevant patents could well be expired by now. I couldn't find anything about the lawsuit to know what the details were.

In the last four or five years Foma seem to have made some upgrades to their production regarding coating and QC, which seems like a good sign for their financial health. It would be nice if they'd pop their heads up and be a little more visible in the analog community, but in suppose one can't have everything.

-NT

Source was a small article in Darkroom Techniques, a once regarded American publication that has since fallen to the digital age. Mid to late 1990's. Foma's then US distributor folded claiming they did not have the resources to take on EKC. If someone out there knows better, please post.

pdeeh · Jul 13, 2014

AgX said:
I found Foma not willing to communicate even when approached in person.

How odd, they were very helpful with me, in trying to sort out a difficulty I had with one of their products, and they were prompt and polite in their letters and emails.

We established that the issue did not lie with their film, but with my developer, and despite that they generously replaced the rolls I had had problems with.

Ian Grant · Jul 13, 2014

37th Exposure said:
Fuji has the worst customer service by far.

Not in the UK quite the opposite which is why much Fuji news comes from here.

Ian

MattKing · Jul 13, 2014

So many of these "service and support" issues flow from the fact that none of the manufacturers do their own distribution in most of the world.

And the distributors for analog products are frequently way more invested in other products than they are in analog products.

Historically, the system was very different. Distributors were either owned by the manufacturers (e.g. Kodak) or their suppliers provided a large portion of their business.

gandolfi · Jul 13, 2014

pdeeh said:
How odd, they were very helpful with me, in trying to sort out a difficulty I had with one of their products, and they were prompt and polite in their letters and emails.

We established that the issue did not lie with their film, but with my developer, and despite that they generously replaced the rolls I had had problems with.

my exprience too - always relaied mails - and replaced a faulty batch (big one - 15 kg's) of emulsion....

AgX · Jul 13, 2014

MattKing said:
So many of these "service and support" issues flow from the fact that none of the manufacturers do their own distribution in most of the world.

And the distributors for analog products are frequently way more invested in other products than they are in analog products.

Historically, the system was very different. Distributors were either owned by the manufacturers (e.g. Kodak) or their suppliers provided a large portion of their business.

In Europe both systems were installed: distribution by the manufacturer and via wholesaler, depending on country.

RattyMouse · Jul 13, 2014

Ian Grant said:
Not in the UK quite the opposite which is why much Fuji news comes from here.

Ian

I know that Fujifilm gets high praise in the UK regarding their digital products, but is this true of film too?

Certainly Fujifilm has better distribution in the UK as a few weeks ago I was there and could find plant of their film and none of Kodak's.

analoguey · Jul 13, 2014

The only ones to have a distributor in India!

Sent from Tap-a-talk

cmacd123 · Jul 27, 2014

The only issue I had with Foma products was a warped spool on a roll of regular 8. It made some noise in the camera, and I used a spare spool to shoot the other half of the film. No picture loss. I did report the issue to Foma and mentioned that I had used a spool gauge in my 16mm Movie camera to confirm the spool was warped.

Result was a package in the mail a few days later from the Czech Republic with a roll of Regular 8 film AND a roll of 16mm film, along with an apology for the inconvenience.

Xmas · Jul 28, 2014

I've never had any problems with Forma (or Adox) products in a decade of use.

Foma film

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