Of cause - my theory why Fuji discontinued film after film is real strange.
But also remember Kodak was in a terrible situation with a minus of 97,5% less demand to their whole film program.
The situation at Fuji Film was obviously the same but they were not bankrupt. And Kodak stopped film production with E6 and discontinued many other films.
If you remember the parallel of sequence from discontinued films?
It was without any logic with Kodak films. It was just the first selling out films wich was first discontinued.
Remember Agfa's bankruptcy their produced masterrolls of Agfa bw films feed the remaining marked to a full decade.
And if I would have to decide to produce films like Fuji with big coating machines in color.........???????? ..?????
In such a manner - these coating lines have to run non stop with a minimum of
some weeks just to come in a profit zone with masterrols (due to calculation of costs and sales profit) .....??
I would not let them run to 11,5 hours and stop the line because of the ammound to the full years selling is just reached. (due to -98% ).
With total inefficient costs and possible + 350% more costs.
Perhaps Fujis management spend some million bucks to new coating machines
wich are much smaler AND wich will not reach the full 1 year production wir hin some hours. But I don't believe so.
To me it seams (as I personally would have done) they made a last "big "
production run from coating with most films they discontinued later - this makes real sence.
As we know from Agfa a big amound of normal volume produced masterrols could reach to years in a suddenly very smal market.
But I realy did not know if this is indeed so. I wasn't at Fuji production and have seen the decommissioned coating lines.
But to me it is the reason to stop some films (just because they were sold out)
So it is with Superia200...
with regards
When Agfa shut down the Leverkusen plant, they used up the remaining chemical stocks on site and coated several million square feet of product as I understand - far in excess of what a normal coating run might be & that's where all the NOS APX 100/400/Scala came from. By the time Adox Silvermax hit the market, the NOS Scala was getting pretty foggy & remaining stocks seem to have been dumped/ sent for silver recovery fairly shortly thereafter.
Don't forget that the single most expensive part of a roll of film is not the strip of coated product, but rather the packaging (the 135 canister for example).
And regarding the 3rd party packaging of cheap Fuji neg film etc, it makes sense for Fuji to offload excess stock that they can't sell - if the batch has already broken even, it's pure profit for Fuji & clears dead stock from their warehousing before it goes off & is only fit for silver recovery. And the market for £1/roll neg film is not fussy about quality above the most basic level.
Thanks for that addinional info. To me it seams so Agfa stopped production from one hour to the next with pressing the buttom.
But you are right it was mentioned also from others - they first processed all chemicals AND All stuff from store - and
several weeks later someone pressed the
buttom.
To me the packaging or the canisters to each film is not the most expensive part
of production - I could imagine this is only some cent/film and can be handled also with small volumes (not with smalest of cause)
Well - I am no expert of production from film as I stated.
But to me the most expensive factor in production is the adjustment of a production run from coating lines with big machines. (in color c41,E6).
Costs of calibrations to all chems and other raw materials to one emulsion.
This means you have several test runs in big machines with several times trash films just to recalibration of all parameters from production to optimize.
This is to me one main reason of crisis.
Because of the bad volume ratio from
adjustements and waste - to volume of perfect film.
In the past a single coating line at Kodak Park wich was responcible to produce Kodak Gold 400 possible ran the whole year without stop.
A calibration from change the line to Gold 200 caused losses of efficiency in production.
And I am sure a production manager from Kodak was able to say how much this caused costs per hour (the recalibration process).
This costs are to devite from total ammount of produced films.
No problem with 219.000.000 Kodak Gold 400 within 9month nonstop. production.
Sure it was only some 1/00 cent a film.
Sure the line was calibrated within production from just one of high volume films several times.Just to control.
But it seams to me impossible to run such machines to produce just 75.000 films (in 135-36 equivalent).
AND costs are also incalculable high with
215.000 films - that should be nothing in volume with normal production lines and production possible reached this volume within some hours.
Some days before these costs per film might be
1,01375 cent per film - today this might cost $ 1,23 per film and that is the problem with very low demand to special emulsions - these costs are rising up and up to $2,xxxx AND higher.
So I doubt strongly manufacturers did not find other ways.
with regards
There are comments from Simon Galley when he represented Ilford/ Harman on here to the effect that the canisters & certain packaging etc were the most expensive components per film.
I also recall that the minimum coating length on the M14 machine at Mobberley is about 1600-2000m + startup & stoppage. The Kodak film coater might need a longer minimum length as it is considerably more complex with two multilayer coating heads to Ilford's single multilayer head. No one really knows about Fuji's machine(s) though they are unlikely to be drastically different in design. Also, by way of comparison, the Ilford machine can coat up to 60", the Kodak one 48" (I think), though I recall that the widest rolls of Ilford films available are 50".
I also recall that the Ilford machine can changeover within an hour or so between different products and about a day between paper & film - the Kodak machine is likely to be not far off - and they have the advantage of not having to deal with paper dust etc due to only coating film in B38. And anyway, by the time that a coating run reaches full scale, it should be able to run without needing major recalibration every time, if all the parameters are met, the machine is running regularly & coating more than one product. Furthermore, there may also be internal reasons for coating smaller batches more regularly or larger batches on a longer interval.
More fundamentally than digging into the weeds of multilayer coating, Fuji should be asking itself why Delta 3200 and Portra 800 in 135 are both currently bigger sellers on B&H's website than NPH in either 135 or 120...
To those interested in trying the Superia 200, or if you still can access some rolls. I wrote a review about it, I hope you guys like it.
https://carlosgrphoto.com/2017/10/23/fujicolor-superia-200-review/
I don't trust a thing fuji says regarding film, and I've accepted the fact that anything left in the line up can be gone tomorrow
It seems a strange way to try and sell films. Any thoughts as to why they allegedly act this way?Well the better method could be to believe Fuji everything they stated 100%
but to expect the 100% oposite they will do.
If they say now : We will produce C200 as alone c41/ISO 200 amateuric emulsion.
You have to know they will not produce this film - they perhaps stopped the production meanwile.
AND OF CAUSE THEY WILL (AND ARE WILLING) TO DISCONTINUE C200 ALSO !
So Fujis comunication isn't real bad.
One only have to translate it correctly.
So we can still trust
all anouncements of Fuji they will give us from now on.
As the (translated) 100% opposite.
with regards
It seems a strange way to try and sell films. Any thoughts as to why they allegedly act this way?
pentaxuser
Sure Fuji is knowing it a couple of month may be years earlier.Perhaps they are waiting to the last few weeks with a decition to start a further production run of backing such or such emulsion again.That one key question is when where the last master rolls for E6 made and are they planning to make more? You state it above but I haven't seen anyone yet answer that question. Its a scary thought but for all we know they may have already made their last of some of the remaining films we love. The way neopan 400 disappeared suddenly left a very sour taste in the mouth, the date on the cartons was close to the time when everyone became aware the film had been killed off which means Fuji themselves knew 2 maybe 3 or more years earlier but didn't tell anyone.
Q: what is the reason?
A: economics.
not sure if inability is a great answer. They have the ability to produce it, they've just made a decision to not continue producing it. Is it a shame? I think so. Fuji superia was a great film and losing the only 1600 iso colour film out there that still remains in a digital world is a loss. Does it surprise me? No. Film is a niche market, one that is quite small now. I'm surprised we still have as much film availability as we do. Cool picture though.View attachment 189642
- B : TOTAL INABILITY
SO - THIS IS THE FUTURE OF FUJI FILM. ( next step in 2018 )
IS IT A SHAME ?
with regards
not sure if inability is a great answer. They have the ability to produce it, they've just made a decision to not continue producing it. Is it a shame? I think so. Fuji superia was a great film and losing the only 1600 iso colour film out there that still remains in a digital world is a loss. Does it surprise me? No. Film is a niche market, one that is quite small now. I'm surprised we still have as much film availability as we do. Cool picture though.
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