Fuji film status update.

Just in case anyone missed the latest discontinuations.....

 

Fujifilm Abandons ACROS Large Format Film & more - Fuji Rumors

Wow, are they discontinuing Provia 100F 36 exposure 5 packs? And Kodak is reintroducing Ektachrome 36 exposure film rolls later this year/2018... thank goodness!

I went to Fujifilm's website, and I can't find any mention of any film being discontinued.

 

Now that I reread the original post, I see reference to "Fuji rumors." Not sure I should be worried yet.

Ouch!

 

The specifically mention 5 packs of all the current 35mm E-6 emulsions, although AFAIK all are only sold in 5 packs(if you buy a roll from the major retailers, it comes unboxe). I have 10 rolls of 35mm in the freezer.

 

It looks like it's time to make a MASSIVE order before it goes...although at $65 a box it's not exactly an easy thing to do in one fell swoop. I should start tacking on a box every time I make an order from B&H or Freestyle.

I went to Fujifilm's website, and I can't find any mention of any film being discontinued.

 

Now that I reread the original post, I see reference to "Fuji rumors." Not sure I should be worried yet.

 

Here is the link to Fuji. It doesn't show on the Us site because they never report anything there. It is real.

 

写真フィルム 一部製品の販売終了のご案内 : お知らせ | 富士フイルムイメージングシステムズ株式会社

I just orderd a box of 100 rolls of 36 of Fuji Industrial 400....which is Superia 400 unbranded from Japan. A friend who is a street photographer is shipping it out for me. I used the film for street work in Tokyo earlier this year.

Here is the link to Fuji. It doesn't show on the Us site because they never report anything there. It is real.

 

写真フィルム 一部製品の販売終了のご案内 : お知らせ | 富士フイルムイメージングシステムズ株式会社

 

RATS! Better stock up... there goes November's photography budget!

RATS! Better stock up... there goes November's photography budget!

 

Yep...it's a bummer. The Industrial is the same as Superia 400 and XTra 400.

Okay, so apparently the 35mm reversal films are going to carry on in individual packages.

 

The issue is that they don't seem to be available in the US market. I don't know if it's a matter of the retailers not stocking them, or if it's a matter of Fuji not supplying it to the US(much like 4x5 Velvia 50).

 

There's a guy in Japan on the Large Format Photography forum who does a decent business reselling Japanese domestic market film to the US(and I'd guess elsewhere) at reasonable prices. I suppose he's always an option if individual boxes aren't available.

I just thought how to save $500+ in November... I started shooting Ektar 100 color negative film recently but haven't gotten any results back yet. Gonna send the rolls off Monday LOL. If I like the results, and I'm figuring I will based on all the positive reviews I've read, then I'll just shoot color neg film instead of stockpiling Provia 100F while it's available.

Vincent,

 

You will like Ektar-I put off trying it for a while but it's the film that's at least drawn my somewhat back into shooting C41.

 

It has the "punch" that I use to get from the long-gone Portra 400UC(I have a few 120 rolls in the freezer) but with much finer grain.

 

With that said, it's a bit more of a "touchy" film than Portra films. It still has more latitude than slide film, but it's not like the good old Kodak Gold or Fuji Superia where you could go 5 over and it not be phased.

 

Still, though, I'm not ready to give up transparencies.

Vincent,

 

...Still, though, I'm not ready to give up transparencies.

 

I forgot to mention that I'd like to try Ektachrome when it comes out. If it doesn't cost too much more than Provia 100F, I'll keep shooting slide film.

 

By the way, how does a scanner work (simple explanation, please...LOL) for negative film? For transparencies? Does the slide cardboard/plastic mount interfere much?

 

Thanks.

By the way, how does a scanner work (simple explanation, please...LOL) for negative film? For transparencies? Does the slide cardboard/plastic mount interfere much?

 

Scanning can be a fun topic in and of itself, but I have two scanners. One is a Nikon Coolscan V, which is a dedicated 35mm. The other is an Epson V700, which is a flatbed. The Nikon is better for 35mm, although the Epson can handle film up to 8x10.

 

The Nikon is as easy as can be. If you buy them used, they typically will come with two "units" that plug in the front. One of them is designed for mounted slides. Pop a slide in, scan it, and press the button to pop it back out. The other is a strip scanner that can handle strips 2-6 frames long. You start the strip and the scanner takes it in. You can then(using either the Nikon Scan software or a third party program like Vuescan) have it carry the film to a specific frame and then tweak the position as necessary.

 

On the Epson and every other flatbed film scanner I know of, you have a light in the lid. You will have a panel that covers this to provide a backing when you're scanning flats(documents, prints, etc) and it will be removable when scanning film. For most formats, you have have plastic holders to hold the film on the scan bed. One of the perpetual complaints about Epson scanners is how terrible the medium format holders are-they don't hold the film very flat. In any case, on the V700, V750, and V800 series you can load 4 6-frame strips of 35mm film at a time(2 strips of medium format or 2 frames of 4x5). The Epson slide holders are nice in that they have little plastic spring clips to hold the mount in place. I've had other scanners where the slide "holder" was really just a template for laying the mounted slides directly on the glass. You can also lay/tape the film directly on the glass, which has potential issues(but is how you do 8x10) or you can use the Epson glass mounting tray to wet mount film(a totally different topic with a steep learning curve).

 

No matter how careful you are, you will always have dust on your film. Both the Nikon and the Epson have digital ICE, which is a Kodak system that combines both infrared-channel scanning with an algorithm to identify and correct dust spots(Vuescan uses the IR channel but doesn't use the ICE algorithms and IMO isn't effective). ICE can be a life-saver, but has its downsides. The first is that it doesn't work on Black and White or Kodachrome-both of those completely block IR. The second is a quibble, but I've noticed some strange artifacts that can result from large dust spots.

Hmm... I'm interested in the Coolscan V. I need to know if the software included will work on an Apple iMac. I bought my computer about 1-1/2 to 2 years ago. It has OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6 and has a 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, whatever that means.

Vuescan is up to date and will run on any current operating system.

 

Nikon Scan is an old software package. The Mac version is "carbonized" which means that it was designed to run on both OS 9 and OS X. It was well before the Intel era, though, and is a PowerPC Native application. This means that it won't on any operating newer than 10.6.8(Snow Leopard) as PowerPC emulation was stopped with 10.7(Lion). I actually use a PowerMac G5 running both OS X 10.5.8(Leopard) and 10.4.11(Tiger) for all my scanning work, and this is part of the reason(the other has to do with SCSI support for an ancient Polaroid film scanner that does some things the others won't do, but which I otherwise rarely use).

 

if you want to run Nikon Scan, you'll either need to pick up an older Mac-either a PowerPC or an Intel old enough to run Snow Leopard, or you can virtualize either Windows or Snow Leopard inside whatever version of OS X you're running.

 

I'm working on upgrading my G5 to a Mac Pro 5,1(haven't done the migration work needed yet and still want to get a few more things fitted to it). It CAN run Snow Leopard and although I have it currently installed on that computer, I need to actually migrate the install from the G5 before changing(doing it the way I want requires cloning the drive then fitting it to a Mac Pro 1,1 and upgrading the install to 10.6.8 from there before installing in the 5,1). I have gone the virtualization route on my laptop, but IMO it's less than ideal.

 

I will also say that I find Vuescan a lot more user friendly and a lot less buggy than Nikon Scan(Nikon can't seem to write good Mac software to save their lives) but use the Nikon software because the scans from it are just better.

Thanks for all your help, Ben. I'm not sure what I'll wind up doing... maybe when I get my Ektar 100 negatives back, I'll try some custom color prints from various labs to see what that's like before investing in a scanner.

Most scanners use a 1D CCD array, either one line, or three (R, G, B). (Some use R, G, B light sources, and switch them fast.)

 

Then move the film, (or other object), sensor, or mirrors in between to scan across the scene.

 

Some cheaper scanners use a 2D array, such as for smaller digital cameras. This simplifies the mechanics, and the CCDs are readily available.

RATS! Better stock up... there goes November's photography budget!

Unless I'm missing something, isn't this just a packaging deletion for Superia 400? No more three packs, OK, but where does it say the emulsion itself is over? Suspect we'll still be able to get it but as singles at a higher price. Haven't seen either Superia 200 or 400 around Toronto in 3-pacs since early this year. Lots of single rolls, though.

Here is the link to Fuji. It doesn't show on the Us site because they never report anything there. It is real.

 

写真フィルム 一部製品の販売終了のご案内 : お知らせ | 富士フイルムイメージングシステムズ株式会社

Think you need to re-read the story below JCH click-bait title--unless, of course, Bellamy got it wrong. Hope you got a deal on all that Superia, Dave. It's apparently not discontinued.

Thanks for all your help, Ben. I'm not sure what I'll wind up doing... maybe when I get my Ektar 100 negatives back, I'll try some custom color prints from various labs to see what that's like before investing in a scanner.

 

Generic lab scans can be OK. The results you'll get with your own scanner can be far better. Ektar 100 scans beautifully. I use it a fair bit. My favorite though for general shooting, street, travel, etc, is the Fuji Superia/Industrial 400. Scans really well. I order a few packs of 100 every year as the 100 packs save a bit of money...or I grab them on my frequent trips to Tokyo.

 

The Fuji link I posted gives a lot of details including sub films...sorry it is in Japanese.

Think you need to re-read the story below JCH click-bait title--unless, of course, Bellamy got it wrong. Hope you got a deal on all that Superia, Dave. It's apparently not discontinued.

 

The link is directly to the Fuji site. It is not click bait. I never said the 400 was discontinued. Not sure where you got that. I see you still have a reading comprehension problem with my posts.

The last time I bothered to look, Superia 400 was still available in a 5 pack of 24ex. I'm guessing that will stick around-I'd guess it's one of the higher volume products they sell.

Ben, the 24 rolls are indeed high volume products. In Japan, they carry a huge section of Fuji films and the 400 speed section is very large...in all formats.

The link is directly to the Fuji site. It is not click bait. I never said the 400 was discontinued. Not sure where you got that. I see you still have a reading comprehension problem with my posts.

 

Perhaps it's your posts' misleading implication that Superia 400 was no more. Posting an image of the pile of it you ordered certainly suggested that was the case. But it's not. Hope you got a deal. Why not simply say it's the package format, not the film, that's discontinued? That's what the Fujifilm release states.

As I increase my work in film again I also am busy scanning old family slides and there are a bunch of them!. I'm using a Coolscan IV and it works beautifully. It is limited to my older XP machine as it is not compatible with my Windows 7 or 10 machines. I can spend an hour or so and scan 25-50 slides at a time. I'm glad to see Ektachrome coming back. I shot thousands of images on E-6 and processed it as well. Mostly 100 or 200 speed but it worked great. The problem then was getting good prints without going through the pricey CibaChrome system. I used a lot of that too.

 

Rick H.