Unofficial Ilford update (products)

paulmat · Sep 17, 2004

Hi,

I just read an interview with the chief of marketing and communications at Ilford France, Stéphane Douville. Hadn't seen this detailed information before somewhere, so I thought I post it here. The interview is published in the octobre 2004 issue of 'Réponses Photo', a well-known and serious French photo magazine (although too much influenced by that rather annoying digital virus, in my opinion).

Monsieur Douville says the following about the future of the different product lines at Ilford. First about film.

"According to my current information, I can inform you that the Delta line (100/400/3200) and fp4 and hp5+ [I suppose he talks about fp4+ here, pm.] will be continued except for sheetfilm. PanF+ en SFX200 will disappear without doubt. The 120 roll films will continu their career."

About paper.
"We will certainly stop the graded paper Ilfobrom Galerie, of which we sell very little. Ilfospeed will stay available, but without doubt in less gradations. In the Multigrade line, both the Cooltone and Portfolio versions will perhaps disappear. All the other products, Multigrade iV and FB and Multigrade Warmtone FB will stay available."

This means: fp4+ and hp5+ in 4x5 are not any longer with us, real soon now. But we can go on on 35mm and 120 films. That's good news, isn't it?

What I think. The above story is in my opinion thát detailed, that it not only *may* be true, but even *is* true. Note as well that mister Douville clearly says: "as far as my current information goes". Things can turn out different as well.

Cheers, Paul.

jovo · Sep 17, 2004

paulmat said:
Hi,

except for sheetfilm. .

How do you say the F word in French?

Jorge · Sep 17, 2004

paulmat said:
Hi,

"According to my current information, I can inform you that the Delta line (100/400/3200) and fp4 and hp5+ [I suppose he talks about fp4+ here, pm.] will be continued except for sheetfilm. PanF+ en SFX200 will disappear without doubt. The 120 roll films will continu their career."

About paper.
"We will certainly stop the graded paper Ilfobrom Galerie, of which we sell very little. Ilfospeed will stay available, but without doubt in less gradations. In the Multigrade line, both the Cooltone and Portfolio versions will perhaps disappear. All the other products, Multigrade iV and FB and Multigrade Warmtone FB will stay available."

This means: fp4+ and hp5+ in 4x5 are not any longer with us, real soon now. But we can go on on 35mm and 120 films. That's good news, isn't it?

Cheers, Paul.

Not IMO, most people doing digital are replacing 35 mm and 120 film for digital cameras. LF should have been a steady source of income. I can see graded papers being discontinued, even though is all I used. But getting rid of sheet fiilm, IMO is a bad move. Looks like the nw administrators have no clue as to what to do.

Joe Symchyshyn · Sep 17, 2004

How do you say the F word in French?

baise

or is it

foutre???

joe

paulmat · Sep 17, 2004

jovo said:
How do you say the F word in French?

Unfortunately, can't tell you because I am actually dutch and decent

Paul.

jovo · Sep 17, 2004

Thank you, Joe. LOL, Paul.

jandc · Sep 17, 2004

paulmat said:
Hi,

I just read an interview with the chief of marketing and communications at Ilford France, Stéphane Douville. Hadn't seen this detailed information before somewhere, so I thought I post it here. The interview is published in the octobre 2004 issue of 'Réponses Photo', a well-known and serious French photo magazine (although too much influenced by that rather annoying digital virus, in my opinion).

Monsieur Douville says the following about the future of the different product lines at Ilford. First about film.

"According to my current information, I can inform you that the Delta line (100/400/3200) and fp4 and hp5+ [I suppose he talks about fp4+ here, pm.] will be continued except for sheetfilm. PanF+ en SFX200 will disappear without doubt. The 120 roll films will continu their career."

About paper.
"We will certainly stop the graded paper Ilfobrom Galerie, of which we sell very little. Ilfospeed will stay available, but without doubt in less gradations. In the Multigrade line, both the Cooltone and Portfolio versions will perhaps disappear. All the other products, Multigrade iV and FB and Multigrade Warmtone FB will stay available."

This means: fp4+ and hp5+ in 4x5 are not any longer with us, real soon now. But we can go on on 35mm and 120 films. That's good news, isn't it?

What I think. The above story is in my opinion thát detailed, that it not only *may* be true, but even *is* true. Note as well that mister Douville clearly says: "as far as my current information goes". Things can turn out different as well.

Cheers, Paul.

My guess would be that Delta 3200 goes too.

John McCallum · Sep 17, 2004

jovo said:
"will be continued except for sheetfilm"

How do you say the F word in French?

Grrrrrrrrrrr... shuzzbutt

.

Tom Smith · Sep 17, 2004

I don't speak French but the English is really ambiguous.

"According to my current information, I can inform you that the Delta line (100/400/3200) and fp4 and hp5+ [I suppose he talks about fp4+ here, pm.] will be continued except for sheetfilm. PanF+ en SFX200 will disappear without doubt. The 120 roll films will continu their career."

I asked here awhile ago whether Pan F+ was available in sheet film: the answer was no - at least not for a few years.

Is SFX200 available in sheet film too then?

If Pan F+ is going to disappear - is this in 35mm or sheet film, but not 120 roll film?

Bah! This is awful no matter what it means. I'm off to sulk for the weekend.

mikewhi · Sep 17, 2004

Are these product changes also going to happen in the US? No more HP5 and FP4 sheetfilm? Thank god I have about 500 sheets of 5x7 HP5......

Lee Shively · Sep 17, 2004

"PanF+...will disappear without doubt."

So, I guess I had better spring for another 100 rolls or so. My wife is gonna friggin' love all this film in the freezer.

glbeas · Sep 17, 2004

Lee Shively said:
"PanF+...will disappear without doubt."

So, I guess I had better spring for another 100 rolls or so. My wife is gonna friggin' love all this film in the freezer.

You can buy a small chest freezer from Home Depot pretty cheap, much cheaper than the ire of a housewife!

Lee Shively · Sep 17, 2004

Good idea, Gary. I'll look into that.

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 17, 2004

Another freezer? Those of us who live in Manhattan don't buy a new shirt unless we can throw out another one to make room in the tiny closet.

noblebeast · Sep 17, 2004

No more Pan F+? I guess I better start making friends with Efke 25 & 50....

ann · Sep 17, 2004

walmart also has some very cheap chest type freezers

bmac · Sep 17, 2004

Is this information about Ilford products worldwide or just in France? Hard to tell while reading it out of context.

bwfans · Sep 17, 2004

What can I say. Last week I have posted tons of messages to push for stocking some Ilford films, esp. Pan-F. I surprised how precise I am able to predict the Ilford future actions .

Here are some quotes from my posted messages last week:

"The reason I choose to stock Ilford film is, clearly, Ilford b&w film division is not in a good shape and is for sale. The reason I choose to get Pan-f is because it is the current slowest traditional b&w film in the market. Slow films are always the first one on film industry's discontinue/kill list when there is any profit related issue (think about Ilford!). Even there is no profit concerns slow films are always the targets for upgrading to a higher ISO speed ."

Look what I have just stocked last week:

"By now I stocked Pan-f on 35mm and 120. FP4 and HP5 on 4x5. Should be good for a while."

Another prediction:

"I don't think Pan-F will be in production in 10 years. And Ilford will not produce B&W films and papers by that time. They might stop being a B&W supplier in three years."

Here is the link to the thread:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

bmac · Sep 17, 2004

bwfans said:
What can I say. Last week I have posted tons of messages to push for stocking some Ilford films, esp. Pan-F. I surprised how precise I am able to predict the Ilford future actions .

Congrats, here is a trophy for you.

bwfans · Sep 18, 2004

paulmat · Sep 18, 2004

Tom Smith said:
I don't speak French but the English is really ambiguous.

"According to my current information, I can inform you that the Delta line (100/400/3200) and fp4 and hp5+ [I suppose he talks about fp4+ here, pm.] will be continued except for sheetfilm. PanF+ en SFX200 will disappear without doubt. The 120 roll films will continu their career."

Tom, I see what you mean. I read his story this way: delta and fp4+ and hp5+ will continue to be produced in 35mm and 120, but not as sheet film anymore. Panf+ and SFX200 will disappear completely (any size of it).

Tom Smith said:
I asked here awhile ago whether Pan F+ was available in sheet film: the answer was no - at least not for a few years.

My supplier in Paris does not list panf+ in any sheet film format, only 35mm and 120. They do list other films until 20x25 / 8x10 sizes.

Tom Smith said:
Is SFX200 available in sheet film too then?

Not as far as I know.

Tom Smith said:
If Pan F+ is going to disappear - is this in 35mm or sheet film, but not 120 roll film?

PanF+ is going to disappear completely, any size of it. Again -- this is how I understand his words.

Tom Smith said:
Bah! This is awful no matter what it means. I'm off to sulk for the weekend.

Sorry for that. But remember, this is not an official Ilford announcement, Things can turn out different as well.

Paul.

argentic · Sep 18, 2004

jovo said:
How do you say the F word in French?

Merde !

Konical · Sep 18, 2004

That's not the translation I learned!

Konical

argentic · Sep 18, 2004

Depends upon wether you want the litteral translation or the functional one. When an American says F..., a Frenchman would say Merde ! If you want a litteral translation it's more like nique ! But no frenchman would use that word in this sense.

I think I've done enough cursing on this site now

G.

TPPhotog · Sep 18, 2004

It's not significant in the big game, but I went to one of my local "privately owned" retailers today and got the last handful of his FP4+ and HP5+ (and I only mean a few rolls of each). Seems last time I was there I had the last of his Pan F.

He told me his not heard anything from Ilford and won't be ordering from them again until the outcome is known. If other retailers do this then things are not looking too good for Ilford whatever they decide

As I'm a regular customer he even threw in a couple of free rolls of TMAX 100 for me to try for an alternative in the future.

Tony

Unofficial Ilford update (products)

paulmat

jovo

Membership Council

Jorge

Joe Symchyshyn

paulmat

jovo

Membership Council

jandc

John McCallum

Tom Smith

mikewhi

Lee Shively

glbeas

Lee Shively

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

noblebeast

ann

bmac

bwfans

bmac

bwfans

paulmat

argentic

Konical

argentic

TPPhotog

Unofficial Ilford update (products)

Membership Council

Membership Council

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency