Fuji Film "Made in USA"

ulysses · Apr 4, 2011

I recently bought two 50-roll "pro packs" of Fujicolor (one 200 and one 400) off the large auction site. The price was right, just over $1/roll including shipping for 24 exp, and the expiration date is towards the end of 2011 for both, so I feel like I did okay. The only strange thing is the box says "Made in USA". I read on another thread that Fuji had a finishing plant in the US at one point. Is that what I am seeing here or is something else going on. The film looks otherwise legit, but I haven't processed any yet to check the rebate (and image quality.)

Thanks,
Ulysses

michaelbsc · Apr 4, 2011

The Fuji plant in Greenwood SC used to package single use cameras in custom packaging. But that line was shut down. Maybe the equipment has been reworked.

removed account4 · Apr 5, 2011

the film base was made in rhode island and shipped to greenwood ..
most if not all of fuji's consumer film was made in the states
your film was probably 5 or 6 years old at least ...

i shoot outdated fuji film allthe time and it works great!
have fun shooting it
john

benjiboy · Apr 5, 2011

Usa is an ancient city in Japan, it wasn't uncommon in the early 1960s to see a lot of Japanese products marked that way.

hpulley · Apr 5, 2011

benjiboy said:
Usa is an ancient city in Japan, it wasn't uncommon in the early 1960s to see a lot of Japanese products marked that way.

I was always told that too but now I don't think it was true...

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp

benjiboy · Apr 5, 2011

Harry , I remember in the early sixties seeing Usa batteries, and other Japanese products marked that way, I know they didn't name the city Usa to sell their products to the West it's more than five hundred years older than the USA, they just took advantage of the name

Pgeobc · Apr 5, 2011

>Usa is an ancient city in Japan, it wasn't uncommon in the early 1960s to see a lot of Japanese products marked that way.<

I hadn't heard that since the 1950s. It was, IIRC, always told tongue-in-cheek.

michaelbsc · Apr 5, 2011

jnanian said:
the film base was made in rhode island and shipped to greenwood ..
most if not all of fuji's consumer film was made in the states
your film was probably 5 or 6 years old at least ...

This may be. I know that the only coating that occurs in Greenwood is metal plates for printing presses. There's no photo film coating there, or at least there wasn't the last time I was there. There was talk about coating magnetic film at one time, but I don't know if that ever got off the ground or not.

I don't know if there's a slitting facility there or not. I had little to do with anything besides the plate lines. My impression was the 35mm pancakes were received and packaged into the camera bodies.

I do know that the facility has had a number of lines shut down over the past 5-7 years. I don't believe it's dwindling market share, but rather dwindling market period.

removed account4 · Apr 5, 2011

hi michael

you are probably right ...
i had a friend who worked at the plastics plant
that supplied fuji with the base ... he said whenever fuji came
up they were kind of nervous - because if the thickness was off
by a tiny amount none of it was good .. ..
i kind of smiled ..

benjiboy · Apr 5, 2011

I just had a thought, maybe just the box was made in USA

ulysses · Apr 5, 2011

jnanian said:
the film base was made in rhode island and shipped to greenwood ..
most if not all of fuji's consumer film was made in the states
your film was probably 5 or 6 years old at least ...

i shoot outdated fuji film allthe time and it works great!
have fun shooting it
john

John,

I too shoot out-of-date film all of the time, mostly with good results, and a lot of it much more than 5 or 6 years beyond the production date. This film, however, has a Sept 2011 expiration date. I don't know how long after manufacture Fuji typically says their film expires. I suspect it's less than 5 or 6 years but I could be wrong. Anyway, it's in my freezer now (except for a couple rolls for testing) until I shoot the film I have in the freezer that's even older. I was just curious about the "Made in USA" thing as I wasn't aware that Fuji ever made film in the US (as opposed to USA.)

Ulysses

Fuji Film "Made in USA"

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