Fuji...I know it was you, you broke my heart.
Not sure who all will get that reference.
I understand how these companies are going to 'trim' down to their strongest films, so that they can continue serving us with the ones that are selling well enough. But considering Fuji's seemingly continual support for all things analog, between this site and Scott's program, this strikes me as odd. Kodak has only been issuing one 'retirement' here, and one there, and then they expand Ektar, but Fuji is killing off nearly their entire Color Neg line, they aren't getting rid of 800Z in this size, or 160C in that one, but it's EVERYTHING except for 400H, which means 0 color neg in large format, and they're doing these all at once, and without a clear message to the customers either through press release, or having someone come on here to make a statement, or to go on Scotts podcast(least not yet) to keep us from panicking or getting angry.
Now if it was a rumor about one film, like 800Z a couple months ago, to sort of 'test the waters' to see if people would buy up a lot if they heard it was going away to see what their market looks like, that's one thing, but this many films, it can't be the case. I've only been shooting for about 3 years, film for little over 2. I didn't even start looking at much on the color side except in the past year, and the films I discovered I like the best were the Fuji's for the general color palette. I have been buying Fuji, I'm sorry if I don't have the money to buy huge bulk orders, or that I even shoot enough to merit it yet, but if all I'm going to be left with is 400H, I think I may look elsewhere to get the look I want. Whether that means dealing with the magenta of Kodak, or just trying something else all together I don't know, but 1 ISO rating in a series is limiting. I had built what color I was shooting around 400H and 800Z, with the 160 films for my 4x5, but if I'm only going to have 400H for either 35 or 120, and apparently nothing for my LF...well not being able to maintain any consistency throughout my range is gonna have me back to the drawing board on what films I'm shooting for color.
I'm sure Fuji thinks this will mean their 400H sales will shoot way up with their 160S, 160C, and 800Z customers all needing something else, for me, I'm not sure if that's so much the case. I may be alone here, but I'll still shoot 400H for when I need to know what I'm gonna get, though I still have some 800Z as well, and not sure how much I'll need to buy until I figure out what other films to try. Now that may lead me to the Fuji colors, Kodak, something else, cross processing E6, or even right back to 400H, but I like options, even if they're only 2 or 3, it's better than 1, or for LF, none.
Scott, I'm not crying about films I'm not shooting or not buying, but if what I'm doing is as much as I can afford, I think I have the right to be unhappy when Fuji pulls a move like this without explanation, either of their plans, or how little of everything they were selling, or what. I totally support what you mean, in the sense that if we're not buying certain films, we can't really complain if they get gone, but in general I hear that film sales are up from the downward path they were on, but a move like this doesn't help with confidence, and there are some who will leave film, or won't give it a chance, if they hear mass reductions like this with no explanation behind it, and we'll need those people on the verge to come to film in however big a part to help.