Why fuji across 100 was discontinued?

[Andrew O'Neill]

Lets hope it maintains its unsurpassed reciprocity characteristics!

 

[GLS]

I just hope the new formulation retains the reciprocity characteristics of the original.

edit: whoops, didn't see the above post

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I'm wondering now if this was all planned on their part. Discontinuing a product and then reintroducing it when they were able to source certain components, and R&D them?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Whenever Fuji does tell you something, it tends to be cryptic anyway, so I won't hazard a guess.

 

[1kgcoffee]

I'm wondering now if this was all planned on their part. Discontinuing a product and then reintroducing it when they were able to source certain components, and R&D them?

I doubt it. Fuji has already been on that are discontinued products the fact that there was demand for this one is why they brought it back

 

[Lachlan Young]

I'm wondering now if this was all planned on their part. Discontinuing a product and then reintroducing it when they were able to source certain components, and R&D them?

It happened with Fomapan 200 a few years ago, but Foma were open about it.

 

[pentaxuser]

I doubt it. Fuji has already been on that are discontinued products the fact that there was demand for this one is why they brought it back

I wonder what source of evidence told Fuji that Acros was sufficiently in demand to make a re-start worthwhile?

pentaxuser

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I wonder what source of evidence told Fuji that Acros was sufficiently in demand to make a re-start worthwhile?

pentaxuser

Us...

 

[DREW WILEY]

Once the discontinuance of ACROS was announced it sold like crazy. People were buying in volume. I don't know if that was a premeditated strategy or not, but it certainly worked on me. ACROS has been excellent all along, and the price was right, so there was no way to go wrong. Large dealers were running out, and the demand was still high, so that gave Fuji a clue if they hadn't otherwise premeditated how to scour out their existing stock quickly to make room for a replacement. Its hard to imagine the necessary R&D wasn't already somewhat in motion. But now they're clearly hinting how their new ACROS II will be even better with respect to highlight reproduction, without losing previous its features. So it's good news all around except for sheet film users who will have to wait and see.

 

[pentaxuser]

Us...

Wow, we're a powerful bunch I haven't counted how many of us made our protest clear but it may have been as high as 20? 200? I rule out 2000. Is there that many of us that even post? So where did the numbers indicating viable demand come from?

When a film is discontinued there is always a hike in price. People buy for own use and people buy for a quick profit. I seem to recall that rolls of Kodak IR film went for much more than Kodak's official price after it was discontinued. That "hue and cry" and other "hue and cries" went unheeded so the reasons for the return of Acros, I feel, has to be more complicated.

If sufficient demand was always there but there were production difficulties that primarily caused its cessation then Fuji might have been better to have been totally honest as opposed to being inscrutable but openness and honesty seem to be seen as unrewarded qualities in recent times.

pentaxuser

 

[GLS]

The relatively short time period between this announcement and the previous one concerning the original's discontinuation is a little suspicious, and I can therefore see why some might suspect this to be all part of some long game on Fuji's part. If the reformulation was a fairly simple affair I suppose it's possible, but one would think that R&D would take longer. Probably we'll never know, but either way having a new Acros is better than none at all.

 

[Disconnekt]

Found some more info from Emulsive website:

https://emulsive.org/articles/news/...ros-ii-announced-begins-shipping-autumn-2019#

 

[pentaxuser]

Maybe there ought to be a new thread entitled "Why was Acros Re-started" . Nearly all the comments on Emulsive are one liners. Are they restricted to a set number of characters like a "Tweet" or are we beginning an era anyway when the whole population will be "schooled" in one line communications.

I love the sentiment that wants to just celebrate the new beginning and not question the reasons why we are where we are. Isn't that a bit like celebrating the end of a war that had a high cost and disapproving of those that want to question why it ever began in the first place? I do concede however that uncovering the truth can be an uncomfortable and unless we guard against it a fractious process.

pentaxuser

 

[John Wiegerink]

The relatively short time period between this announcement and the previous one concerning the original's discontinuation is a little suspicious, and I can therefore see why some might suspect this to be all part of some long game on Fuji's part. If the reformulation was a fairly simple affair I suppose it's possible, but one would think that R&D would take longer. Probably we'll never know, but either way having a new Acros is better than none at all.

Maybe R&D was working on a new formulation for sometime and when they perfected it, minus the then hard to get raw material, Fuji shut down to switch over. I'm sure they didn't just shut down Acros production and then started playing with formulas.

 

[abruzzi]

there is a tendency to read a lot into the actions of companies. These days paranoid theories seem to reign. Remember that Fuji garnered a huge amount of ill will over the cancellation of Acros and their other stocks. There are campaigns out there to boycott Fuji over their film cancellations. So I doubt it was a ploy or an intentional fake cancellation. I suspect it was a combination of raw ingredients being difficult to source, fuji's manufacturing processes not being suited to smaller production, and surprise at the volume of the outcry over Acros' cancellation. After cancellation they probably had someone look into options for them to revive it profitably based based on pre cancellation sales, and found a path forward.

 

[Arcadia4]

Well taken directly from the fuji press release (google translate - a japanese speaker would probably give a more nuanced translation)

"The company terminated sales of black and white films last fall due to a decrease in demand for black and white films and the difficulty in obtaining raw materials essential for production. However, the film enthusiasts and other young people of the SNS generation who prefer the photo with the unique texture of the film, many people voiced the desire to continue the sales of our black and white film, We have been working on the resumption of sales from all angles. We have succeeded in developing the black and white film “Acros II” by researching substitutes for raw materials that became difficult to obtain and radically reexamining the manufacturing process to match the new raw materials".

Also for those worrying;
"The newly developed "Neopan 100 ACROS II" is an ultra-high-quality black-and-white film with ISO 100 sensitivity, with the world's highest level of graininess, three-dimensional tone reproduction, and excellent sharpness. It is suitable for shooting in a wide range of fields, such as product photos and architecture photos, as well as long-exposure celestial and night-shot photographs"

nb. SNS = Social Networking Sites, but in short millenials want to shoot film so weve brought it back

In the UK Acros 100 in 35mm can still be obtained, whilst 120 sold out in just over a 1 month, no doubt mainly in the fridges of certain readers on here! Its not clear yet what the distribution will be for the film, margins on film are much better in Japan (high prices, high costs for imported film) .

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

"with the world's highest level of graininess"

Lost in translation, me thinks.

 

[Arcadia4]

Yeah, I re-translated it from the original and missed that and should of changed it to 'world highest standard of granularity' (i..e fine grain) as corrected on emulsive

 

[MattKing]

the world's highest level of graininess

Maybe it is really being made by Ferrania, using the old recipes for GAF slide film .

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

 

[foc]

Maybe it is really being made by Ferrania, using the old recipes for GAF slide film .

Maybe Fuji have this up their sleeve

 

[Beverly Hills]

I'm wondering now if this was all planned on their part. Discontinuing a product and then reintroducing it when they were able to source certain components, and R&D them?

Maybe it's just not alone the R&D. Maybe it's just not having
new sources for the chemistry.

Notice : For a while the market has changed. After a period
of decreasing selling film, and increasing film pricing there is
a new situation. Film manufacturers and photographers wonder about a sold out of photographic stuff.

As a result of that analogue revival hype, we noticed a historical pricing explosion.

So now manufacturers thing about : " making business "

Be shure you will have some new releases of photographic
stuff ( chemistry, b&w films , and cameras for 135 ) the next time.

......have a nice day