Interesting news about Fujicolor Pro

Steffen Alexander · Mar 8, 2010

Chazzy said:
I don't understand why Fuji would drop Neopan 400 in 120. It's been my impression that as the faster films get better and better, more people use them instead of the slower films. Does Fuji have another 400 speed black and white film, or are they surrendering that category entirely to Kodak, Ilford and the rest?

I'm looking forward to the successor of 400PR this year ;-) .

benjiboy · Mar 8, 2010

coriana6jp said:
Again, only Neopan 400 in 120, Fuji 160NC (160C) in 120, and T64 in all flavors are definate. And quickloads are gone, as well as some special order items. That is not the same as complete stopping distribution of items that the original poster listed.

Which is why we need to wait for confirmation from Fuji, not hearsay, which is all we have at this moment.

Gary

Do Fuji say Gary they are going to replace 160NC and 160C in 120 ?, because a lot of wedding photographers in the World who shoot this film will be very pissed off.

Chazzy · Mar 8, 2010

Steffen Alexander said:
I'm looking forward to the successor of 400PR this year ;-) .

I take it you have information on a new Fuji 400 speed black and white film? If so, what do you know? Will it be offered in 120 and sheet film sizes?

2F/2F · Mar 8, 2010

Ian Grant said:
Unfortunately the list has been released by Fujifilm officially to their dealers in the UK & US so there's no doubting anything written about what's discontinued.

Ian

Please note that I did not read THE letter itself. I was just told three times by three different people about it. I will get in there when I get a chance.

My guesses are that the 160 films were a misread by the film counter manager, and there is a repackaging and/or a discontinuation of certain formats only in the works.

Either way, we need to be concerned if 160C is going in medium format. That is how a film's death usually begins. They drop the lowest-selling formats first, before they discontinue the emulsion entirely. (It was already gone in Quickload before all Quickload was discontinued, remember?) If nothing else, it is a hint of what is to come for color film when even a film that you'd think would be very popular (high contrast, high saturation, low grain, very sharp) is being trimmed down.

I'd also think that Astia would be one of their most popular transparency films. It's hacking does not give me much hope for E-6 films even a couple of years down the road.

Ian Grant · Mar 8, 2010

2F/2F what ever way we read things the colour market is due a huge shake up, with many films disappearing, the current availability isn't viable long term.

The BJP has predicted that E6 could disappear within a year, then look how Kodak are promoting Ektar a negative film.

The reality is except for projection E6 films no longer have purpose, there's only Ilfocchrome left as a print process except for digital and thats never been accepted as an ideal process.

Ian

Photo Engineer · Mar 8, 2010

Guys;

We have all commented on how Fuji has a very large share of the E6 market while Kodak has a large share of the C41 market. This is mainly due to the fact that Kodak has the largest share of the motion picture market. As a result, The Vision films support the C41 films, but with Fuji, all films are more or less stand alone and move directly with their respective markets.

If E6 vanishes, then we are faced with a huge loss to Fuji and a comparatively minor loss to Kodak. That is the way I see it. It remains to be seen whether Fuji can withstand the shock, but it seems as if they and Kodak are preparing for what is to come.

E6 has been hit hardest by the digital revolution. What happens will happen.

PE

Prest_400 · Mar 8, 2010

2F/2F said:
I'd also think that Astia would be one of their most popular transparency films. It's hacking does not give me much hope for E-6 films even a couple of years down the road.

Indeed. I also thought It was quite popular. I thought that other films in the range like Velvia 100F would go away first if the time had to come.
And, is this confirmed? Fuji hasn't said anything, nor any dealer/advertiser at APUG.
I believe that at the worst E6 will become a small niche market. Provia and Velvia, and not much more.

I'm confused with all of this. Let me summarize what I've caught:
800Z- will stay in 35mm.
The 160's aren't confirmed, at the moment, it's just repackaging.
Astia- ? No idea
Then there are the Neopans that are just repackagings in 120.

railwayman3 · Mar 8, 2010

Googling Astia brings up a lot of information from various sources as to its discontinuance in the UK last autumn. It is no longer listed, or appears as out-of-stock on the main UK mail order websites, and it is no longer shown in the professional film range on www.fujifilm.co.uk.
I suppose the only option now might be mail order from abroad.

For the first time, I am starting to feel the pessimism shown by other posters as to the medium term future of E6, rather than just the long-term future, which has been in doubt for some time.

I'm not even sure that E6 will remain as a niche. While B&W materials can be made on a smaller scale by even tiny niche companies, color coating seems to need a whole different and larger scale of equipment, expertise and level of production to be viable.

Leighgion · Mar 8, 2010

I'm confused as to why anybody believes what local photo shops tell them about film discontinuation anymore.

In the past few years, the staff of photographic shops seem to take joy in deciding to say any film is going to discontinued.

2F/2F · Mar 8, 2010

4 SALE - CHEEP

A BUNCH OF COLOR FILM AND PAPER

GOING DIGITAL FOR COLOR CUZ DE FOLKS WITH DE MONEY SEZ I GOTS TO

DanielStone · Mar 8, 2010

clayne said:
However, you need competition. Trust me, you do NOT want reduced offerings and consolidation.

kinda like this healthcare thing trying to get passed :rolleyes:

-Dan

nickrapak · Mar 8, 2010

2F/2F said:
4 SALE - CHEEP

A BUNCH OF COLOR FILM AND PAPER

GOING DIGITAL FOR COLOR CUZ DE FOLKS WITH DE MONEY SEZ I GOTS TO

I'll take it!

(now, to tell other people that they have to sell their supplies cheap...)

marylandphoto · Mar 8, 2010

In the past few years, the staff of photographic shops seem to take joy in deciding to say any film is going to discontinued.

As someone who worked in a "big name" camera store back in the day, I can tell you that digital was treated like mana from the heavens in this place. All the sudden, they had an excuse to say, "Have you gone digital??? But...but...you need to go digital!!!" which made people buy cameras and accessories they may not have otherwise bought. I'm not going to say that all places are like that, or that there is a conspiracy on the part of the camera dealers, but I could not help but notice the glee in the salespeoples' eyes when they would say things like, "our film volumes are always dropping" or "film is going to be gone soon" to scare people into buying a digital camera (this was back in 2002-2003). It kind of bit them in the foot a few years later though, when their photo processing revenue was in the toilet...

Joachim_I · Mar 9, 2010

Ian Grant said:
The BJP has predicted that E6 could disappear within a year

You guys are scaring me. My cameras live on E6 films.

Chris Nielsen · Mar 9, 2010

On the subject of duma$$ camera store people, the least dumba$$ person at my local pharmacy where I get my C41 developed told me this time last year that 'they' are going to 'stop making film next year'

Yeah right... Who is 'they' I asked. Blank stare from her... I then gave up and went home...

lilserenity · Mar 9, 2010

Joachim_I said:
You guys are scaring me. My cameras live on E6 films.

Well the article in question had some differing view points but that all surrounded the fact that E6 processing fell off a cliff last year; but then I've never used any of the labs they queried. I use The Darkroom in Cheltenham or Genie in Wandsworth, London.

E6 still has its uses, I like slides for one and the only way we'll keep the stuff is keep using it and keep supporting the labs.

Still no word from Fuji, I'll chase them today.

Vicky

Ian Grant · Mar 9, 2010

Leighgion said:
I'm confused as to why anybody believes what local photo shops tell them about film discontinuation anymore.

In the past few years, the staff of photographic shops seem to take joy in deciding to say any film is going to discontinued.

If you want to check what's really happening just try going to the Kodak & Fuji websites, look up the Pro labs both list, then visit their websites, many still listed have stopped E6 processing, some have stopped all film processing.

Back in the UK I have some copies of the BJP "Big Book" from about 2000 which list all the Pro labs in the UK at that time, probably fewer than 10% of those labs still process E6, and a huge number of them have closed completely or become digital bureau.

This decline in the number of labs mirrors the plummeting sales of professional colour films, so we must expect a greatly reduced choice/availability.

Ian

railwayman3 · Mar 9, 2010

Chris Nielsen said:
On the subject of duma$$ camera store people, the least dumba$$ person at my local pharmacy where I get my C41 developed told me this time last year that 'they' are going to 'stop making film next year'

Yeah right... Who is 'they' I asked. Blank stare from her... I then gave up and went home...

I hope they're a bit more "with it" when it comes to dispensing medicines!

railwayman3 · Mar 9, 2010

I just wonder whether the local country distributors' websites are always reliable and up-to-date?

Kodak's websites are clearly all under the US head office, but are other local companies, e.g Fuji UK, owned and controlled by Fuji Japan, or are they just distributors.

I'm thinking of a UK engineering company (not photographic) which I deal with. The main company is in the US, licences its products and name to the UK company and obviously insists that the latter operates within its standards. But its has no financial interest in the UK company, which is entirely locally owned and is allowed to operate the UK side of the business independently, and as the local managers decide.

pentaxuser · Mar 9, 2010

I think the question asked by railwayman3 is key. For instance I contacted the UK Fuji distributor whom I thought spoke for Fuji about Neopan 400 in 120 being discontinued. It was categoric in saying it had received no such message and yet as has become clear( or has it?) Fuji do appear to have made an official announcment and yet gave no prior warning to its UK distributor.

As Ian Grant says it pays to consult the m homebase website.

pentaxuser

Ian Grant · Mar 9, 2010

railwayman, the problem is that while Fuji and Kodak for that matter may have stopped manufacturing certain films they will have stocks in their warehouses, both in Japan/USA and other countries.

We've seen this with Kodachrome where the last coating was quite sometime ago yet the film was still available for 3 or more years, and Fuji announced T64 was discontinued last March, expecting stock to run out in June last year but there's still film available.

So we can't expect local Fuji distribution to say a product is discontinued if they have stocks to last a a few weeks/months.

What's being missed in this is just how large a range of colour films Kodak & Fuji still make compared to when I began colour processing in the late 1960's.

Ian

clayne · Mar 9, 2010

Yes but tar was also a much different time in color technology. We won't "have it better" if we have nothing left, Ian.

Photo Engineer · Mar 9, 2010

When I started, we had these films and papers:

Ektachrome E1, ISO 25
Kodacolor, C-22, ISO 25
Ektacolor S and L, C-22, ISO 25

Kodachrome, ISO 10

Anscochrome, Anscochrome process, ISO 25

Printon, Printon process

No color negative paper. Two came out when I was in college after the consent decree. These were Kodak color print papers, Type R and Type C respectively and even though the names have vanished from products, people still use them.

This was constructed from very old memory so forgive the errors. If I feel up to it, I will search some old data sheets to get more exact information. Usually, they are not in my current memory nor in my current pile of reading material having been retired long before I was. (about 1960)

Agfa, Fuji and Konica products were NOT available to us at this time.

PE

Ian Grant · Mar 9, 2010

We had it better in the UK, I used Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Ferrania & Orwo colour films and Pavelle paper, and Ansco was available but I never tried it, Konica/Sakura once tried never again. Of all the Fuji E4 film was the best IMHO, although KII was good when the weather was good.

But the reality was that K25 and also C41 and E6 was such a huge sea-change in terms of quality, we have to hope that the market stabilises and we get left with a range of films that caters for our core colour film needs.

Ian

Joachim_I · Mar 9, 2010

lilserenity said:
Well the article in question had some differing view points but that all surrounded the fact that E6 processing fell off a cliff last year; but then I've never used any of the labs they queried. I use The Darkroom in Cheltenham or Genie in Wandsworth, London.

I always used the Soho branch of Metro Imaging when I lived in London for a couple of years until 2005. I heard they are closed meanwhile because of shrinking demand for film processing.

Interesting news about Fujicolor Pro

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