Which films brands are only sold outside the US?

[brian_m.1]

<p>Kodak and Fuji have of course been the big players domestically. Are there any brands sold abroad that we can't get here? Even in the heydays of film there were some brands that I did not see here very often; like Sakura Color. Agfa and Konica were harder to find too.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>A surprising number of "can't get" foreign films are actually available from sources like Adorama or <a href="http://www.freestylephoto.biz/">Freestyle</a>, or via eBay offerings.</p>

<p>That being said, film producers are dropping like flies. Many companies that were formerly mainstays of the market are now either giving up film production altogether or restricting their production to niche products. Some companies like ORWO (East German Agfa) still make films, but offer these in either bulk production for special uses or sell in bulk to re-branders.</p>

[walter_degroot]

<p>Just got the new photowarehouse catalog and that have agfa possibly cold stored<br>

www.ultrafineonline.com<br>

they may have a few rolls of konica left.</p>

[tony_duda]

<p>Sakura and Konica were one and the same. Ferrania is somewhat scarce in the U.S., but can be found if you look hard enough.</p>

[brian_m.1]

<p>I must say Agfa dropping out was very surprising to me. It was a household name in Europe. Losing Agfa is like losing VW. Any explanation why they went under so quick?</p>

[glenn_mabbutt]

<p>The only ones I'm familiar with that don't have distributors in North America are the mainland Chinese films - Lucky, ERA, Shanghai. These are available from eBay from various sellers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, usually pretty reasonably. </p>

<p>I know that Fuji has a few films that are only sold in Japan - Natura 1600, Industrial 100 and 400, Fujichrome Trebi, and others. You can still get them from <a href="http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/index.php?cPath=24">Japan Exposures</a>, but, of course, shipping is a factor.</p>

<p>I would like to try the Natura 1600 at some point - supposedly a very nice high-speed colour film, which is unusual.</p>

[glenn_mabbutt]

<p>re: Agfa's demise - there's a decent summary <a href="http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=85737">here</a> (you have to dig through the thread a bit), but the long and the short of it as I see it:</p>

<p>- when the writing was close to being on the wall, they split the company into a holding company and a bunch of subsidiaries for legal reasons</p>

<p>- a few of those subsidiaries went bankrupt, including the consumer film division(s)</p>

<p>- prior to going bankrupt, the consumer film division created a whole bunch of master rolls of film (particularly the APX b&w films) that they knew they couldn't sell before bankruptcy, but knew that these would be frozen, ultimately sold, cut and redistributed by others so the films would live on</p>

<p>- the Agfa holding company licensed the names and trademarks "AgfaPhoto" and "APX" and other film names to a new company called "Lupus Imaging". Lupus also bought some of the remaining master rolls. They are now selling AgfaPhoto branded films, using Ferrania's equipment to cut down the rolls and package and resell them. Rumour has it they are out of the original Agfa colour neg and slide, so the current colour neg is actually Ferrania's (same as "Solaris"), and the slide is possibly rebranded Kodak Elitechrome.</p>

<p>- Maco also bought some of the APX master rolls and resell them as "Rollei Retro" 100 and 400.</p>

<p>- at least 1 of the consumer division's film coating machines was bought by a new company made up of former Agfa engineers called "InovisCoat", who I believe are currently coating some photo paper for Maco, and hope to resurrect new batches of classic APX (or as close to it as they can)</p>

<p>So, that's my best summary of the situation :) Also, apparently the Belgian Agfa plant is still going strong - surveillance film and the like.</p>

<p>Others know more about this than I do, but that's my take when I tried to make sense of it all.</p>

[starvy]

<p>If the cheap films are rebranded versions of major brands, that should mean a certain element of quality control is or was assured? So the TruPrint free films I started out with four years ago that were given out free when a roll was processed was actually a major brand?</p>

[User_502260]

<p>Film made by Agfa, Ferrania and Konica was often found under names like CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid etc. Sometimes these were previous generation film stocks. When Agfa and Konica left the market Fuji supplied these same stores. I have a nice supply of Fuji-made CVS film on hand. The 200 seems fine at 200 but I rate the 400 at 320.</p>

[brian_m.1]

<p>Is there any definitive way to know who makes drug store branded films? May be clues on the box etc.?</p>

[glenn_mabbutt]

<p>Because there are so few manufacturers, you can get a pretty good idea from the country of origin. For colour film, "Made in Japan" is Fuji, "Made in Italy" or "Made in EU" is Ferrania, and if Kodak gets into the rebranding game, "Made in the US" would be them, but I'm fairly certain they don't do that at this point.</p>

[photo5]

<p>In 1986 I was in Japan during the summer as an exchange student, and we were in Kyoto and I needed film. I bought a roll of "Sakura" print film, as it was the cheapest at the Kiosk that had film. I'd never seen that brand before, and haven't since. The prints were beautiful when I developed the roll.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Re: Ferrania<br /> Much of the Walgreens house brand color negative film I have bought has Ferrania marked on the film margins. Most films tend to have ID of some kind in the margins, except that it may just be bar code these days.</p>

<p>I don't know how you could tell before the film is developed.</p>

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>Glenn, thank you greatly for that very enjoyable explanation.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Kodak is in the rebranding game through Freestyle. The Arista Premium 100 and 400 are Plus-X and Tri-X respectively.<br>

Sakura film had been around for a long time. The instruction manual for my Konica Auto S-2 shows a roll of Sakura black & white film being loaded. Not sure if the Sakura brand was ever officially imported, but Konica film was offered at some U.S. retailers.<br>

IIRC, Sears once sold rebranded Anscochrome through their catalogs. They also had a store brand of black & white roll film that was made in Belgium.</p>

[glenn_mabbutt]

<blockquote>

<p>Kodak is in the rebranding game through Freestyle. The Arista Premium 100 and 400 are Plus-X and Tri-X respectively.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>True, and as I mentioned up-thread it's being speculated that currently distributed Agfa CT Precisa slide film is actually rebranded Elitechrome, but so far Kodak's colour neg hasn't shown up anywhere as rebranded, which is what I meant by them not being in the game (as that's what usually shows up as "drugstore brand" film). Sorry for the imprecision.</p>

[tony_duda]

<p>Glenn, there are the "new" Centuria color negative films (not Konica) found on Ebay that many people claim is repackaged Kodak Gold. A Japanese company called DNP is now using the Centuria name. I guess they must have bought the rights from Konica when they left the film business. This company does not manufacture film, it's only a distributor. I believe the box states "Made in USA, Finished in Mexico" or "Packaged in Mexico"...something to that effect. If that's the case, it would be Kodak.<br /><a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/DNP+Photo+Marketing+Launches+'CENTURIA+Film'+Series+of+Color+Negative...-a0162305433">http://www.thefreelibrary.com/DNP+Photo+Marketing+Launches+'CENTURIA+Film'+Series+of+Color+Negative...-a0162305433</a></p>

[Dave Luttmann]

<blockquote>

<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=589033">Walter Degroot</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Subscriber" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/sub8.gif" alt="" /></a>, Sep 01, 2010; 09:33 p.m.</p>

</blockquote>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Just got the new photowarehouse catalog and that have agfa possibly cold stored<br /> www.ultrafineonline.com<br /> they may have a few rolls of konica left.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Just visited their site and tried to order 20 rolls of NPS. Their shipping charge by mail, ground, was $25....in other words, what they don't make on the film, they rip you off on shipping. I've had other shipments of the same volume for less than half that from other businesses. I don't support companies the rip off their customers in shipping.</p>

 

[glenn_mabbutt]

<p>Tony - I stand corrected, I had forgotten about that as I haven't seen that brand around locally. The speculation is, though, that it's rebranded Kodacolor, which is Kodak's older emulsion.</p>

[User_502260]

<p>A friend brought ten rolls of the DNP Centuria 100 film back from Japan for me. It's Kodacolor 100. Even the shape of the box is identical when you unfold it. I shot two rolls of it in Alaska last month. The film went from Rochester, NY to Japan. It then came from Japan to the East Coast, to Alaska and back to the East Coast again. This film has really been around. </p>