macodirect.de no longer shipping FujiHunt 6X outside EU.

[Dr Croubie]

We are unable to ship this item outsite of Europa due to the restrictions on air traffic.

Sigh.
And just when my Tetenal 3-bath kit was finished and I was contemplating a 6-bath next time.

I've already asked Fuji Australia directly, they don't do anything less than 20L. And with almost everything from the US being ORM-D, that's about it for around here...

 

[AgX]

Now the omission of sea-transport in the offering of parcel shipping by the parcel services has its backlash.

 

[hoffy]

It looks like its quantity based. Smaller C-41 kits can still be shipped, but the bigger kits are out as well.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I bought Moerch Tanol developer from germany and my friend helped to send it with german post for 5 euros. After 3 weeks , developer turned back to my friend because german post had been refused to send it . My friend calls germans , control maniacs I think it is better to know no shipment than to wait 1 month and learn no shipment.

Good luck.

 

[MartinP]

I'd suggest looking to Japan for the chemicals, with a surface-shipping option to Oz. If necessary you could approach one of the "enabling" web-based photo-gear Japanese sites for assistance. I haven't used them, but you could Google for companies like JapanCameraHunter or JapanExposures, for example.

 

[Dr Croubie]

More interesting:
This shipping restriction applies to 5L FujiHunt E6X, 5L tetenal 3-bath E6, 5L Fuji Press C41, but not 1L Tetenal 3-bath E6 nor 1L Tetenal C41 (also nothing written on 5L Tetenal C41, but they're out of stock, this shipping notice might appear once it's in stock).
None of the B+W chems seem to be affected, but they're never in huge kits anyway.

So it appears to be volume/weight as much as chemical composition? Maybe that means if a nice European (and I've got a whole lot of friends and relatives in various countries) bought one and then posted bottles individually it would be expensive but possible?
I can't see anything on post.de about them recently changing their T&Cs, but then a) my german isn't that good, and b) they may not even use post.de. I'm curious as to whether other countries have similar restrictions (I know the US do, damned ORM-D).

I've looked at Japanexposures before and they don't have 6X listed, but I'll email them anyway, there's no harm in trying I suppose.

 

[polyglot]

Will Ag Photo still send it?

 

[Dr Croubie]

Will Ag Photo still send it?

I got as far as checkout without them stopping me, but I'll email them too and see if they let me. More expensive than Maco, but still better than unavailable. It does seem to be this new rule that's come in lately in response to some new unidentified threat on something or someone that may or may not be real...

ps, if I can get a kit I might be interested in splitting some if you're up for it? I'm going to shoot a whole buttload of RVP on the grampians trip (including the pack of 20 I bought new from japan for $150, and maybe some from my roll of Ektachrome in the 8x10) but I don't yet know how much of the chems I'll have leftover...

 

[Athiril]

Kodak do smaller amounts. You can order it from some shops in Aus.

 

[polyglot]

I'm no longer doing E6, partly the cost (though $4/roll is liveable) but mainly because I have no way of exhibiting chromes. I can't afford a 6x7 or 4x5 projector and there's no Cibachrome. Hybrid works, but it works just as well or better with C41 if I'm making reflective prints.

Tim Dodd (on the AFDUG list) has about 1/3 of an E6 kit left over that I split with him.

 

[Dirk-san]

Hi, several dimensions to this:

1) Fuji Hunt seems to be a brand used outside of Japan. So far I have not encountered it or found for a source for it

2) Not sure if the product even still exists or is actively manufactured. Fujifilm does no longer seem to make E-6 machines (only one C-41 minilab in current lineup). The traditional 6-bath E-6 processes seem to be on their way out.

3) There is a dependency on quantities when shipping dangerous goods. Mind you, even perfumes are dangerous goods nowadays and they come in much lower quantities! Inside EU seems much more tolerant than outside.

4) Even when shipping other than air, a dangerous good is still a DG and needs to be treated, packaged and labelled accordingly. Plus there is of course additional cost levied by the carrier.

5) In EU there seems to be limited service for international surface mail and one would need to switch to a freight forwarder, but minimum quantities will be much higher.

All in all, I think you need to either pester your regional Fujifilm distributor or switch to a different product altogether. As much as I would like to help here, I think it is difficult and to be honest hard to justify the effort.

That's just my quick assessment, perhaps someone else has a more positive view.

 

[Dr Croubie]

Hi Dirk, Thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure where or who FujiHunt is, although I presume that they're somehow connected to FujiFilm (or maybe they bought the rights to the chems?).

I've had a response from AgPhoto just now too:

The carrier we use will allow us to send liquid chemistry, but provided it is packaged in containers of 1L or less – unfortunately both the Chrome 6 (and the companion C41 kits) have one item in them that is larger than 1L and we have attempted to send, and been unsuccessful each time – it gets returned to us before leaving the country.
I looked at sea freight before and there seems to be a critical mass to justify it – a pallet load would be OK, but one or two boxes works out a lot more costly than sending with the regular carriers who fly everything.

So yes, it's a volume thing, and there don't seem to be many ways around it:
a) buy the 20L chems individually, but surely it will go off before it gets used up (I'll investigate the Kodak chems, but they're all NOS if they're around, not being produced anymore)
b) try get Fuji to get it locally (I've tried but I can try again).
c) convince a local shop to just buy a pallet-load and pay local markup (or get a whole-of-Aus group buy happening, not sure how many kits we'd need)
d) maybe find someone in the EU to decant the big bottle into two smaller ones and post it on? (and deal with it having been opened, depends which chem it is).

or more than likely it's just
e) stick with tetenal 3-bath and the (alleged) less quality, less longevity, and no RVP/Ektachrome in the same tank (so I've heard).

ps:

mainly because I have no way of exhibiting chromes.

If I had a larger camera (and if this roll of ektachrome I've got works I'd consider building one), I'd just make 9.5" x 20" panoramae, no need for a projector, just paste them on a window...

 

[F4user]

......
3) There is a dependency on quantities when shipping dangerous goods. Mind you, even perfumes are dangerous goods nowadays and they come in much lower quantities! Inside EU seems much more tolerant than outside..............

Last years paranoia and idiocracy get higher peaks. Probably scientists found that perfumes are mass murder weapons. Probably in the future, farting in the plane will be a criminal ofence as released gases contains methane well known as highly flamable gas.

South Park is not a cartoon, is a documentary.

 

[ndrs]

Had I known this three weeks ago...
A friend moved to Australia and shipped the entire contents of their flat in a container. There would have been plenty of room for 'dangerous' chemicals in it.

Anyway, I'd be happy to help with reshipping, decanting, etc. Just let me know.

-- Andres

 

[Dirk-san]

Perfumes are classified as a Class 3 Flammable Liquid

http://www.hse.gov.uk/cdg/manual/classification.htm

Photo chemicals could be oxidizing, toxic or corrosive, or all of the above... so it is not unreasonable. There are the limited quantity (LQ) exemptions as already mentioned:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/cdg/manual/exemptions.htm#lq

Of course you can pack all of it into a shipping container or whatever, but in case of an insurance incident you're probably on your own, not to mention the liability issue if your load causes damage to a container full of iPhones. Same for unaccompanied Lithium batteries.