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Fujifilm: Positive News

Angarian

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There is more and more evidence that Fujifilm is realizing the recent film revival and react to it in a more positive way:
1. Fujifilm has introduced new 3-pack film packagings for the North American market with a complete new design. It is for their amateur films C200 and Superia X-Tra 400:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1413155-REG/fujifilm_600018966_135_fujifilm_200_us.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1413154-REG/fujifilm_600018965_135_superia_400_us.html
You would not invest in a new packaging if you intend to "pull the plug" for a product. You only do it if you have the intention to continue the product.

2. Fujifilm is now promoting their conventional (non-instax) films on instagram.
They are there as fujifilm_profilm
https://www.instagram.com/fujifilm_profilm/

They also regularly do a "win free film" promotion:
"Enter our ongoing Fujifilm Friday series for a chance to win 10 rolls of Fujifilm + an #ishootfujifilm t-shirt! All you need to do to enter is keep doing what you always do: Use #ishootfujifilm and tag us when you post an image shot on Fujifilm. You’ll then be automatically entered into a randomized drawing that takes place twice a month.

Be sure to include #ishootfujifilm and @fujifilm_profilm when you post an image shot on Fujifilm to be automatically entered into the next giveaway drawing. Official rules & details here: http://bit.ly/ishootfujifilm2018 "

Furthermore they offer workshops for film photography and film photo photowalks by their Fujifilm Wonder Shop in NYC.

3. In addition Fujifilm is also now promoting making prints on real photo paper (RA-4 silver-halide photo paper):
"The power of the printed image":
https://www.makeanoriginal.com/


4. At Photokina fair last week in Cologne besides their massive Instax show also conventional film types were exhibited and had their own part of the booth, including wonderful huge prints from Fuji colour reversal and negative films on Fuji RA-4 paper. And Fujifilm made a clear commitment to film: "Fujifilm is on a mission to preserve the culture of photography and with our range of silver halide films, photographers can continue to harness the emotion, permanence and appeal of film photography."
 
Great so where is their B&W film? These colour things are of very limited interest at least from my point of view.
 
Angarian said:
There is more and more evidence that Fujifilm is realizing the recent film revival and react to it in a more positive way.
Click to expand...

Excellent news! Anything that "we" (the photographic community and industry) can do to promote film and RA-4 printing is a good thing in my book.
 
Angarian said:
...
1. Fujifilm has introduced new 3-pack film packagings
...
Click to expand...

Through my own psychological desires, I read that statement with the hyphen shifted over, viz. "3 pack-film packagings..." before eventually re-reading it.

Damn.
 
Photography is deeply rooted into Japanese culture. Probably more so than any other country. And they love tradition. I doubt they’ll exit out of that market any time soon, if for no other reason than to keep the tradition alive. Plus, lots of Japanese companies are heavily diversified into other markets, yet maintain a strong presence in their original one, with or without high profitability. That’s why Yamaha still makes pianos, along with motorcycles, stereos, golf carts, archery equipment, computer components and who knows what else.

I bet they got out of the B&W market because of Ilford and Kodak’s saturation into it. They’re making a conscious effort to avoid the pitfalls of Kodak and Agfa (not reacting timely to the market), and focusing on the voids left in the market. That’s probably the same reason they dropped a lot of their films. They’re focusing on what they can provide to the market that will be self sustaining. As such, they don’t want to let certain films that don’t turn a profit endanger the livelihood of all of the others. But I doubt they’d exit the market completely, unless it was necessary to save the company. It’s just too important to their image. That philosophy is reflected in their digital camera offerings, forgoing full frame and opting for crop sensor and medium format.

With the rebirth of film, I bet they’ll start bring back films soon. It probably won’t be Acros though. And might not be Superia 800 and 1600 as long as Portra 800 is around. But I could see the pull and peel instant film coming back. And even with Ektachrome, I doubt their slide film is going anywhere.
 
News?
Fuji's Instagram tag #ishootfujifilm has been active for around 2 years now.
 
Well, not to bitch about any film being available and Superia is nice enough, but those 3-packs used to be 4-packs, which used to be 5-packs. Walmart sold the 4-packs until 2 or so months ago when they switched to these new 3 packs. And, Walmart jacked the price about $2 in the process. Not that Walmart has been any friend to film in years, but other than CVS, they are the only place around where I can walk into a store and buy film. Sometimes. Usually. CVS has finally given up and no film available there any longer.

However, the deal at B&H that you show is MUCH better than Walmart. They are 3x36 frames instead of 3x24. And $3 or $4 cheaper than Walmart (plus no sales tax for us people not living in NYS)
 
I bought a 3 pack of the 36 exposure Fuji Superia X-tra back in May because I wanted to feed my recently acquired Stereo Realist and didn't have any C-41 laying around. I shot 1 roll of it. By the time I'd shot that, I'd snagged a roll of Kodak Portra 400, which then went in the camera.

Fuji makes nice slide film, but for color negative, I end up preferring Kodak.

Suffice it to say, this is old news as the 3 packs of 36 exposure film have been available for at least 5 months in Central Illinois (it's now October).
 
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All the chat in the last few posts is how much film is increasing in price. When you take a cold remote view of the situation the price of film today is no more proportionately that it was 10 or 15 years ago. Despite what some would have us believe, our income has increased so the cost of the film and processing is very little different than it was all those years ago. Going even further back to the 1960's it was the same

When I started out with photography (1962), a cassette of 35mm B&W film cost the equivalent of around 25UK pence or about $1 then when the rate of exchange was about 4 dollars to the £) For the same B&W film (updated in performance) is around £4.50 or about $2.5. My salary or to be exact, my pension, more than makes up the difference. So perhaps we all grumble too much!
 
"Fujifilm is on a mission to preserve the culture of photography and with our range of silver halide films, photographers can continue to harness the emotion, permanence and appeal of film photography."

Fujifilm can bite me. I think its completely disingenuous to issue that statement a few months after they jettisoned Acros from production.
 
Hm.....

Nope....

Fuji just ended Acros (Actually, this very date is the end of life for Acros), which they AXED 6 months ago.

Fuji has to do MUCH more than that for me to believe that they have ANY other plans than to kill off regular film within 2020.

I'll believe you when Fuji introduce a new film, or reintroduce one of the already axed ones.
Like
Fuji Neopan 1600, 35mm, then get it onto 120
Fuji Neopan 400 35mm 120
Fuji Acros 100 35mm 120
160NS in 35mm

An others...and also for large format, they are welcome at any point, until then, fudg'em, seriously.
 
alentine said:
[RA-4] is not gelatin silver!
RA4 is colour.
Do I have a mistake here?
Click to expand...

RA-4 paper is a silver-halide product as b&w paper. And silver-halide products is what Fuji referred too. And thus they are right.
 

That last line is a good example of the pot calling the kettle black.
If photographers had bought ACROS 100 in quantities consistently high enough to justify its continued production forward of 2013 when sales began dropping, it might have escaped being culled. Yes, ACROS was a very good film (as pinholers know!), but money speaks louder than words. As with most companies, something that didn't sell well in the market was discontinued.
 
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I have to admit that I am one of the guilty people here. Acros was a pretty expensive film and I used it sparingly.

The market for iso100 films is pretty full and many are really excellent.

I decided on Silvermax to be my main 100. Fp4 is really good, shot one roll soon after beginning with film and it looked great!

I just developed the first roll of tmx and we'll see. The negatives, at least, look nice. High Dmax and a clear base like Silvermax!

I came across Acros (hehe) in HK, where it was much cheaper. Loved the results. I believe the toe is what makes it so special, and I read opinions that the highlight are almost impossible to blow out. But I love it for its shadows.

I assume it was quite normal for people to have films which they love but don't use much of it, because others are their principal choice for general use. When the market was huge that was OK. But in this tiny market luxuries like Acros, Superia 1600, hie, Panatomic, etc are wanted but not in the quantities required.

And if I understand Fuji correctly, Acros was discontinued because source material became unavailable. A reformulation was perhaps too much to ask for, given the numbers.

I, while *very* sad about Acros will be happy as long as they can maintain their current irreplaceable Fujichromes. I'm happy about Ektachrome but I didn't ask for it. The Fujis are more important for me.

If they can maintain their current colour negative portfolio, especially 400H roll film, that would be a great bonus.

I will buy Fuji as long as they sell it. But, again, being guilty, I still have quite a bit of Fujichrome frozen and don't get to shoot it fast enough to restock. But I'm trying hard as a hobbyist.
 
lantau said:
I came across Acros (hehe) in HK, where it was much cheaper. Loved the results. I believe the toe is what makes it so special, and I read opinions that the highlight are almost impossible to blow out. But I love it for its shadows.
Click to expand...

I never applied any reciprocity corrections to ACROS 100 for long exposures of 6 to 10 minutes for pinhole exposures. I was expecting to see something odd or at the margin, but instead everything came out ... normally!

The rising cost of raw materials as a latter day problem is affecting all of Fujifilm's products, including E6. It is a toss of the coin whether they will increase the prices across the board in 2019.
 
I shot a 100 foot roll of Freestyle's rebranded Fuji film, and although I loved the film, didn't buy more Fuji when I used up the roll. I ended up buying 100 feet of FP4+ instead. Maybe if Fuji had sold bulk rolls, I might have stuck with Fuji products. I was also concerned that since Fuji had discontinued Acros 400, that Acros 100 would not be far behind, based on the precedent of Kodak's handling of its EliteChrome series (unfortunately, my assumption was correct). But, to some extent, I just didn't see Acros as my go-to film.

Harman has a full line of B&W films (Pan F 50, FP4+, HP5+, Delta 100, Delta 400, Delta 3200, SFX, Kentmere 100, Kentmere 400, as well as their third world films)
Kodak has a nearly complete line, missing only a 100-speed traditional grain film - although that niche is filled by many others,

It made little sense for Fuji to proceed with just a single B&W film. I know that they manufactured a B&W movie film designed for archiving color-separations for color films, but have have not heard anything about this lately, and wonder if it is still being manufactured.
 
Ma

May be your income is increasing well - so you are a lucky guy. My income did increase too but it is not much increased over many years. On the other hand I do my job today for two (sometimes for more than two) but the main issue is : today it is with 350% more sufficiency due to much much more experience. Others have indeed less income over the last years but much more work in job.

Film pricing I remember was on a historical down during digital entered the amatheuric marked.
The big 3 (Kodak/Fuji/Agfa) did realized that digital will change the market (also Kodak did it - so it isn't realy true to say today : Kodak was sleeping) but they calculated the suddely massive advance of digital between 2003 - 2005 totaly wrong. 2000 was the best sellings of films ever - so the less demand in 2001/2002 wasn't such catastrophy but then beginning 2003 it became a dramatical speed.
As a conclusion massive overproduction in films and papers ended in special pricing.
2004 135-36 c41 films were priced with 50 cent from special retailers. E6 films you could had seen for 1 USD (short exspiration date of remaining 5 month).
The official Kodak pricing for a 10 pack Kodachrome (amatheuric version not the "E" professional films - by the way there wasn't a great difference between) was at USD 27,99 !
And some dealers make special offers : Take 10 Elitechrome at 27,99 and you get in addition 4 fresh Kodak AA bateries for less (all included 27,99).
Agfa priced E6 for example at USD 25,- (a 10 pack ) lowest pricing was by "FERRANIA" (USD 2,39 Ferrania Chrome 100).
I bought Fuji 160 Pro at 11 a half bucks but that wasn't the pricing of a single 120 roll!
(It was a short exspiration 10pack) good for the remaining 8 month.
So during the years 2004 - 2007 we indeed saw a historic lowest pricing in films we never saw before and we will never see again. All people who wonder about higher pricing (some times with nearly factor 10 compared with the absolute down) - ( many many did just realized it after 2010 )
came simply to late. Sorry to state.

with regards

PS : I wanted to buy just 2 packs Fuji 160 because I didn't need it so often and 20 Films seamed to be enought (for little money indeed)
But I ordered 8 packs and came home to my freezer with 80 Fuji "professionel" in 120 for just
"nothing" I payed for (nearly nothing to be correct).
But some days later my idea was : In some years from now I possible need this film again and then my films could be out. If I reorder this film I possible have to pay the same money for 10 films I would pay for 100 today.....
So my dealer saw me again a week later and I bought Films in addition.
The question wasn't : How much money do I have with me - should I shortly have a LOOK on my bank account? So the question indeed wasn't how many films can I afford this week?
The question was : how many films can I carry !

It was possible AND it was neccessary to come at the beginning of digital to conclusions how to proceed with films in future AND not to wait till many films got discontinued.

Sad to realized that films indeed got massive discontinued within the folowing years.
 
Forgetting to mention : Kodachrome E100G, E100 VS sheed films 4x5 inch/ 5x7 inch at 3,- bucks/6,-bucks (for a 10sheed box).
Expired since 10month but in very good condition (cooled stored from a Kodak professionel dealer)
The dealer offered also his cooling units and stated : No need to use this any more - professional photographers he had just seen every 6 weeks in his store at the final end (2008).

with regards
 
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