Fujifilm announces worldwide price revision of Photographic Film & Photographic Paper

[Lachlan Young]

Well....I could say a lot of things but I'll just say it does not surprise me much and is a considerable increase.
It's just the reality of film photography in the post film era....

I suspect that the price increase was agreed before Kodak got E100 on the market - & it must be pretty clear to Fuji that with their competitors learning to scale production much more efficiently & successfully re-introduce discontinued films, they are going to have to find a way to respond other than cutting product lines.

On the other hand, the price rise perhaps begins to bring film prices in line with where they should be to allow future investment in the products. And that might well be their strategy going forwards - though making a single rational set of products for all markets would also be a good idea too.

 

[mshchem]

The usual Fuji-hating comes out... Film is dying, ah well.... As long as there are Portra and Tri-X, film-life continues for me....

Me too. Everything will be AOK .

 

[GRHazelton]

My Dad was a Pharmacist, graduated from University of Iowa in 1941. He made cold cream and Xray developer for the state hospital, he was involved with the navy for a few years, came back and started as a analytical chemist.
My professor at the U graduated from Wayne State, he was very well known for early work in HPLC and other separation tech. Small world !

Amazing that the Detroit City College could support a ChemEng degree, an expensive proposition! I assume that Wayne State U eventually got proper funding. Did your Dad use the GI Bill for his studies? From what I've seen that program after WW II had a ROI of FIVE TO ONE!.. Wowzer. Government support of education is a most worthy cause.

 

[mshchem]

Amazing that the Detroit City College could support a ChemEng degree, an expensive proposition! I assume that Wayne State U eventually got proper funding. Did your Dad use the GI Bill for his studies? From what I've seen that program after WW II had a ROI of FIVE TO ONE!.. Wowzer. Government support of education is a most worthy cause.

My Dad finished college in 1941, just in time to join the navy in January of 42. He trained as a medic/corpsman (Pharmacist Mate non comm.) for 18 months, married my Mom in January of 41, and shipped out to the Pacific, he was in the Seabees (CB) construction, so he was in on supporting a few major ugliness, I would need to look . He was at Iwo Jima ,Okinawa spent time in Guam and the Philippines. He saw some crazy stuff but not making landings with the Marines etc. He was lucky he didn't get turned into a medic for the USMC in 45. The medics were getting scarce. He had shipboard duties. He issued condoms, , he was in his late 20s so his guys called him doc and the old man.. All his 1st cousins were involved, one of them Pfc. Orville Loercher was killed in Italy, Nazi minefield. I missed out on Vietnam by about 3 or 4 years, I don't think I could have handled the Army. Maybe developing film on an aircraft carrier .
Crazy stuff.
Best Regards Mike

 

[mshchem]

My Dad finished college in 1941, just in time to join the navy in January of 42. He trained as a medic/corpsman (Pharmacist Mate non comm.) for 18 months, married my Mom in January of 41, and shipped out to the Pacific, he was in the Seabees (CB) construction, so he was in on supporting a few major ugliness, I would need to look . He was at Iwo Jima ,Okinawa spent time in Guam and the Philippines. He saw some crazy stuff but not making landings with the Marines etc. He was lucky he didn't get turned into a medic for the USMC in 45. The medics were getting scarce. He had shipboard duties. He issued condoms, , he was in his late 20s so his guys called him doc and the old man.. All his 1st cousins were involved, one of them Pfc. Orville Loercher was killed in Italy, Nazi minefield. I missed out on Vietnam by about 3 or 4 years, I don't think I could have handled the Army. Maybe developing film on an aircraft carrier .
Crazy stuff.
Best Regards Mike

He issued condoms when they were in Guam. I'm sure there were a few fellas that used a few on board the ship, not much privacy though . I have some of his microscope slides from when he was in training. One fellow had been in the brig for 5 weeks, was diagnosed with gonorrhea, apparently the incubation time was only a few days.

OK BACK TO FUJIFILM .

 

[spark]

I remember when Kodachrome was $1.50 a roll and processing about $3. Minimum wage was $1.35, a Big Mac (which I used to make at that time) was $0.55
You can yowl about prices but things are about the same with an x9 or x10 multiplier for inflation.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Before I say anything else, I'd like to stress that they're free to charge whatever they wish. They're a business, not a charity and they're here to make profit. Now, after stating the obvious, let me explain what seems to me a case of greed.

Let's take Velvia 50 for example and let's have a look at the typical prices in major German retailers (the prices are more or less the same allover Europe anyway). A 135-36 Velvia 50 costs about 16€, already quite steep. The 120 roll on the other hand costs ~9€, nearly half the price of the 135 film, in single rolls. This is exactly the same amount of film ~80 square inches. I also don't believe that the 120 version costs less to produce. I'd hazard a guess and say that it's the other way around. But in any case, the actual value of film itself is certainly not the largest part of it's price. What about sales volume you'd say? Still, 135 probably outsells 120. Every new film that Kodak has launched made it's debut in 135 after all. IIRC, Ilford's Simon Galley had stated in the past that 135 sells more than 120. I can't see any reason why Fuji's sales figures are any different. So, this means that Fuji has determined that asking 16€ for 120 (few exposures) would be too much and they gladly accept 9€ for that. But 135 gives the user 36 exposures, so let's charge them a lot more. Yes, a case of "what the market will bear", but IMHO greed as well. This 120/135 price discrepancy isn't Fuji specific, all companies do so, but this is the most glaring case. In the end, this becomes a vicious circle. Prices go up, consumption becomes lower and so prices must go up and...

As it is today, their prices are marginally acceptable for some of their offerings. I'd use low quantities of some of their expensive films, but an at least 30% price increase will mean I'll just stop using them. Sorry, asking for > 20€ for a film is beyond the pale.

 

[Ces1um]

I've only been shooting film regularly for about 6-7 years now and I've seen the costs skyrocket just during that short amount of time. The only film I find economical to shoot is lomography's film now (usually 3 rolls for 20 dollars cdn). Buying a single roll of film and developing that roll at a lab is now running me about $30cdn. I've been mulling my decision over for about a year now but I think at this point it's time for me to switch to mostly digital and film only under certain circumstances. I'm in the process of selling off my gear (soon to be listed on ebay through a broker). It's just getting too expensive at this point for me. Compound that with the fact that I've lost my black and white darkroom, my local lab's quality has become intermittent, and the desire to change iso on the fly, I think it's time for me.

 

[nbagno]

For me, I have a whole freezer full of expired and slightly expired film, mostly Fuji. I figure by the time I go through all that film I'll be a bad ass photographer and won't waste any more film and my keeper rate will increase to >95%. I will shoot less film and my overall cost will decrease.

 

[Wallendo]

I only shoot a few rolls of E-6 film each year, so the increase will not in itself be significant. I may switch back to E100, but enjoy shooting Velvia 50. E6 processing has also gone up, and some labs now charge extra for mounting slides. I wouldn't be surprised if Kodak silently pushes its prices up a bit.

Hopefully these increases will be enough to make it worthwhile for Fuji to continue making 35mm and 120 films Fuji is a diversified company and can continue as a profitable company without making roll film.

 

[abruzzi]

Hopefully these increases will be enough to make it worthwhile for Fuji to continue making 35mm and 120 films

This is my #1 hope. Expensive film is better than no film.

 

[lantau]

This is my #1 hope. Expensive film is better than no film.

As we know, no film means expensive film. On ebay and elsewhere. If I have to pay €20 for a roll of film I will prefer it to be factory fresh, at least.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

This is my #1 hope. Expensive film is better than no film.

Agree. I wish they would've merely increased the price on FP-3000B and FP-100C (and all the other instant pack films) rather than discontinue them first and then inform us.

Looking at the high prices even expired FP pack film sells for on ebay these days, I'm sure there's a price point where it would've made financial sense for Fuji to keep making it or sell the equipment to someone like Impossible.

 

[jrhilton]

Ouch that is a big increase! It won't just hurt film users but also those who go to labs to get their digital photos printed too.

 

[GarageBoy]

$16.09 was how much provia 400x cost me before it was axed. Painful for velvia to be that cost, but gotta pay to play