Ilford doubles in Japan!

[ericdan]

Dear Ilford. A few months ago you told us the black and white film industry is doing great.
This month Ilford prices in Japan!

Is that the distributor or Ilford itself?
I can hardly imagine that this is going to help your profits. It's going to scare most people away I would assume.


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[Richard S. (rich815)]

Details? Is this from one shop or more than a few?

 

[ericdan]

Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera… all the major stores have exactly doubled Ilford prices.
HP5 plus was 560 yen now it's 1040 yen.
Same for all other Ilford films.


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[Jerevan]

It could be a number of reasons (exchange rates, legislation changes, raw material prices) that may not be in the hands of Ilford itself. Or it could be a local store thing - maybe a certain store can't get a decent profit on the comparatively few rolls of film they sell.

I think it was like this back in the days that film was like toilet paper - you needed it. Thus it meant you could have larger amounts of it (and lower prices) since you knew it would sell within reasonable time. Now it may be luxury goods for most people.

I've run into several instances in the past few years where I have gotten outdated film that I paid full price for, since things are languishing on the shelves in the warehouse. In each case I have gotten an apology, a mark-off or simply the box of film for free.

 

[ericdan]

Sure. Lots of possibilities. But seriously double the price?!
The stores I mentioned are not small. Those are the major places selling film in Japan.


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[sagai]

Sounds we can exchange cameras for films! LoL:
My sympathy with you guys to be serious though.

 

[Sirius Glass]

So if I was in Japan right now the number of Ilford film rolls and Ilford film sheets would double?? Let me grab my passport and fly to Tokyo right away! Bye!

 

[snapguy]

agree

I agree there could be a lot of things going on that have nothing to do with the manufacturer that causes a price spike. I understand the cost of Kodak bulk film went way up recently in Japan. Bad mouthing a firm with no good basis for your complaint is not the way to lower prices. They may just take all their marbles and go home.

 

[RattyMouse]

Just by chance I was researching film prices in Japan for my trip to Kyoto, which starts in a bit under 2 hours. I was shocked to see how expensive Ilford film is there as well as Kodak. Clearly imported items are going up in cost due to the falling yen.

So yesterday I headed out and bought 20 roll of film to bring to Japan, all my ISO400 needs. I shoot Fuji Acros film which is local to Japan and much lower cost.

 

[cmacd123]

Those exchange rates ae Killers, and importers sometime try to hold the line to avoid price fluctuations, and then have to do big catchups. Look at the last years worth of Yen to GBPound and see if that explains most of it.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Those exchange rates ae Killers, and importers sometime try to hold the line to avoid price fluctuations, and then have to do big catchups. Look at the last years worth of Yen to GBPound and see if that explains most of it.

Same general situation for the Yen to US Dollar, except with greater volatility. Exchange rates can explain a lot.

Ken

 

[Xmas]

Dear Ilford. A few months ago you told us the black and white film industry is doing great.
This month Ilford prices in Japan!

Is that the distributor or Ilford itself?
I can hardly imagine that this is going to help your profits. It's going to scare most people away I would assume.


Sent from Tapatalk

My currency converter says 1060 yen is 6 GPB about what a cheap brick shop would charge in UK.

Our Foma prices went up 2% or so last week but we blamed the wholesaler...

Our raw chemicals have been climbing faster than film.

 

[Sirius Glass]

On the other hand the Euro has declined in value relative to the US$ so this is a good time for us to go to France in May.

 

[benjiboy]

Ilford films are more expensive in the U.K where they are manufactured than in the U.S A. and many other countries, because products are "priced to the market".

 

[mooseontheloose]

They must have just gone up! I did notice the film and paper chemicals had gone up significantly about a month ago - now they are 2-3 times more expensive than equivalent Japanese products (Ilford Multigrade: 2850 yen, Chugai "My Paper Developer" 950 yen) but that film prices remained stable. Now I'm disappointed that I didn't buy more Ilford film while the prices were still reasonable. I guess now they are comparable with Kodak film prices, which I thought were ridiculous. Tri-X (4940 yen for 5-120) is more expensive than Provia 400x (4120 yen for 5-120), for example. HP5+ is now 4750 yen for 5-120 rolls...ugh. I want to support the places that sell film here, but I may be ordering from the US if this continues.

This is so disappointing because I was switching almost completely over to Ilford for everything I could get my hands on (and Fuji for everything else). When I first saw the chemical prices go up (and Kodak's too) I thought maybe it was some ploy to get consumers to buy Japanese products instead - which is probably what I'll end up doing, even though there is little information out there about them (in English especially).

To be fair though, it does look like Ilford prices are comparable to what consumers in the UK would have to pay. The only difference is that the pound is much stronger than the yen.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Looking better for Kodak.....

 

[Prof_Pixel]

Looking better for Kodak.....

A rising tide lifts all boats.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I just checked Bic Camera website and the prices for Ilford have pretty much doubled. If I were there, I would definitely ask them why??

 

[ericdan]

Snapguy, you have a point but do you really think that would double the price?!
I'm not exaggerating when I say they doubled in price.
Seriously, every Ilford film cost times two now!
I'm going back to Tri-X which is 25% cheaper here.
And I thought that's expensive…


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[sagai]

The thing that saves money is to switch to color films as long as you do not shoot for hyper artistic purposes.

 

[Xmas]

Ilford films are more expensive in the U.K where they are manufactured than in the U.S A. and many other countries, because products are "priced to the market".

Hi Ben

That is as true of Fuji, Kodak, film, Mazda, Toyata autos etc.,... Been worse - in past you could fly to Dublin buy an auto car ferry it back drive to London and still save lots of money.

Noel

PS Kodak bulk is more expensive than Ilford here.

 

[Xmas]

Snapguy, you have a point but do you really think that would double the price?!
I'm not exaggerating when I say they doubled in price.
Seriously, every Ilford film cost times two now!
I'm going back to Tri-X which is 25% cheaper here.
And I thought that's expensive…


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It payed to ziplock and Silicagel film in fridge also useful if it dissappeard for a few months.
If enough people switch the shops...

Noel

 

[georg16nik]

In 2015 world terms.. photographic films, papers, chemistry, equipment etc. are all ridiculously cheap.
In a world where ALL “modern” digital photo goods are obsolete in about 3 to 5 years max and yet people piss money for all this junk, Silver halide materials real worth is priceless.

In case film price is an issue, then you better learn the art and craft, e.g long term storage practices for unprocessed photographic films, papers, chemistry etc.

..but then again, about 99% of all film shooters sing the “Why hoard?” song.

What a bunch of naive kids..

 

[PeterB]

The title of this thread had me initially thinking Ilford's sales to Japan had doubled. After reading the first post I think their sales might be closer to halving than doubling

 

[Michael W]

The title of this thread had me initially thinking Ilford's sales to Japan had doubled. After reading the first post I think their sales might be closer to halving than doubling

Haha - I had the same thought that it was a good news thread. I think consumers can accept mild increases that were notified, but doubling without any notice is bad practice.