FUJIFILM announces price increase of Photographic Films

[Colin O]

<p>"FUJIFILM Corporation has announced that it will implement a worldwide price increase for its photographic films. The price increases are substantial and it would be double digit, but will vary depending on products, markets and regions.</p>

 

<p>Products: Photographic Films: Color Negative Films, Color Reversal Films, Black and White Films, and Quick Snap.<br>

Date of Price Increases: Effective from May 2012"</p>

 

<p><a href="http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n120423.html">

http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n120423.html</a></p>

 

<p>Even if I stockpile film, I wonder how difficult it's going to be to find labs to process it in the future...</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>I will suffer for my art. I was wondering when this would happen Fuji held out the longest. Ilford and Kodak raised prices a time back.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Well, Fuji did "give up first" on most of their C-41 portrait films. Kodak beat them there.<br>

But they had market dominance in E-6 films for years, and have finally achieved the pyrrhic victory of E-6 monopoly. </p>

 

[marc_bergman1]

<p>Just make every image count.</p>

[douglas_vitello1]

<p>No suprise,just imagine what will happen after Kodak dumps all film products.It will be like if Toyota was the only car company remaining in the world.Pay up or ride the bus.</p>

[rossb]

<p>Well I shoot Kodak anyway. I think they just had a price hike also or at least there was another thread about it. </p>

[larrydressler]

<p>I shoot film Most days I think...? Welll what todaay. Lately it has been ORWO UN54 plus and ORWO N74 plus. I did shoot some Neopan 400 recently but I am down to 100 feet of it. And the 120 Neopan 400 is dead.. ACROS 100 hates to push so in 120 I went with TMY-2 and Foma 200 new 2015 expire and a one to 3 stop push in Xtol or Acufine. I tooled myself for adjustment and still adjust.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>All I can say is "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall..." and get to making film.</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>Um well there is still a film production plant in the FSU. And they still make film by the miles both C-41 E6 and B&W.... Mostly for Movie 35mm but they still have the 120 machines.... All coating machines and welll the price is not right at the moment........... Still running the machines and coating and cutting.... TASMA.. is the name... </p>

 

[john_h.1]

<blockquote>

<p>It will be like if Toyota was the only car company remaining in the world.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not really. The market for automobiles is vastly different.</p>

[nathan_bonsal]

<p>Film is not so terribly difficult to produce that a startup with several million dollars could not begin to produce film even if Kodak and Fuji both stopped producing. Moreover, if that unlikely scenario were to occur, it would be nearly guaranteed that someone would feel compelled to produce film, provided that there were several thousand people worldwide willing to pay 12.00 US per roll. Certainly, the business units producing film within Kodak and Fuji would be sold, not dismantled. Some of these film factories would end up turnkey businesses for investment groups.<br>

I think there are that many people willing to pay that price. Not all of us are, and to be sure, if the price increased that drastically, many of us would bow out of color film. Certainly not all of us would, though. For the right emulsion, like Kodak Portra, if I<strong> had</strong> to, I would pay 11 or 12 dollars a roll, but it would hurt, and I'd use it a lot less. Processing and scanning costs me 20 dollars a roll already.</p>

 

[User_502260]

Last week I got the Freestyle catalog in the mail. What's the price for a 36 exp. roll of Portra 800? $12.99. We no longer have to wait for film to be come expensive. It already is. With some films it almost looks like existing stock is just being sold off at the highest price possible and that no additional production will take place. Once you get past a certain price the sales volume will get too low to sustain the product altogether. Could someone else in the future make film if the current major manufacturers drop out? I suppose it could happen but don't look for films like TZ, TMY-2, Ektar 100 or Portra 800. We'llbe back to the days of Polariod One Film. The speed is 200. Take it or leave it.

[Dave Luttmann]

<p>Nathan, it would take far more than a few million to setup a colour line of the same quality of Fuji and Kodak. You'd be looking at many tens of millions.</p>

[rossb]

These days I just buy Kodak Gold 400 from Target on the cheap and they process the film for 95cents a roll. I just scan it myself. Pretty much just pocket change. I have some Portra in the house but when it's used up I am not buying anymore of it.

[JAPster]

<p>Wonder what Walmart will do, since they are all about getting the lowest price. In our area Walmart no longer carries Kodak film, only a small handful of popular Fuji color negative film.</p>

[nicholas_rapak]

Larry, I checked Tasma's website, and they appear to only have black-and-white stocks remaining. Do you know for a fact that they have E-6/C41, because if they do, it would be an interesting thing to bring over stateside.

[larrydressler]

<p>I will have to recheck with my buddy but they were making most of it and selling it directly. You might be right and they are down to B&W now.</p>

[Paul Lewis1664881697]

<p>I don't care about the price as long as it's made. I just bought ten rolls of Provia 400X at 11.99 each from Dwayne's Photo.</p>

[douglas_vitello1]

<p>Last week just picked up my first two rolls of early spring slides.Compared them with same stuff shot on a 10 meg whatever.Don't worry Fuji I'll pay the 'price' until hell freezes over or nobody makes E6 or can process it anymore.The must be millions around the world who feel the same way and you know it.Kodak bankruptcy beancounters "stick your head where the sun don't shine".You are killing the best.</p>

[roman_p]

<p>Douglas,<br>

I don’t have 10mp DSLR but I completely share your emotions.</p>

<p>But it’s not that easy as we think. Let me share some of my thoughts.<br>

I don’t think that film industry is in worse shape than any others in Japan. Nikon and Canon are losing their share against others electronic brands; Nikon, hoping to make recovery from its big loss in 2009-2010, introduced mirrorless cameras but the sale of these cameras is dreadful slow across America and Europe, meanwhile sale of DSLRs keeps plunging. A couple weeks ago Sony announced more than 10000 layoffs which is about 10% of Sony manpower. And digital cameras are not getting cheaper either. $3500 for semi pro D800 and $2300 for the obsolete D700 it’s just ridiculous. Making electronic/digital equipment is more natural for Japan since they don’t have much natural and energy recourses. So that’s why they are using their mighty financial power and our addiction to their products to twist our arms trying to recover their ailing yen. And Fuji, taking monopoly in the camera film production, is not going to stay apart from its country mates. So far their attempt to digitalize our photographic world is causing tremendous damage to our economy and culture. Would be nice to break this dependency one day.</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>My take on this.. The market got too saturated too fast with the Digitals and changed too often. For me Film at any price is priceless and I will do what I have to to use it in my cameras. Anyone remember the early 60s-mid 70s when Film cameras went through changes? Well it happened to Digitals too. Now I have nothing to do but bulk load,shoot.develop.scan-enlarge and print. I have to say At any price though I am a hobbyist not a pro and all I can do is pay the price for my love.</p>

[Colin O]

<p>I also will probably just pay what it costs...but that only works as long as the film is available.</p>

 

<p>Provia 400 is my film of choice. Coincidentally, just last week I contacted Fujifilm Japan directly to enquire about its long-term availability. Of course they're not going to be telling me their inside information, but this is the reply I got:</p>

 

<p>"As you know, the situation of the photo film market is getting harder day by day.<br>

However, at the moment, we don't have a plan to stop providing the 135 Provia 400X.</p>

 

<p>Though we think our mission is to do our best to provide the photo film as long as we can, we have no certainty at all about how long we will be able to continue to provide it.</p>

 

<p>Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this matter.<br>

We hope you will continue to patronize our products."</p>

 

<p>(Note - the reply specifies 135 format, just because that's the format I enquired about.)</p>

[jeff_z.]

<p>I'm not sure this adds anything additional to the conversation, but I'd like to say that I strongly agree with Douglass and everyone else that loves and much prefers film. I was also deeply disappointed with Kodak's decision to discontinue E-6 transparency films; they've been my preference for nature shooting all along, and remain so. I've recently tried Fuji's Provia 400, and like that very much as well, especially for having the added speed at times. Of course, I can't help but wish that Kodak was in the game, and still had a selection in that speed range, as I think that with the progress they've made in color negative film technology, that they could almost certainly have made similar improvements in their faster transparency films.<br /><br />As far as price, I guess I'd somehow pay even higher prices for favorite emulsions if forced to, especially if they would level off not much higher than where they are now, and stay more or less there. As we've discussed in prior threads, and as people with much more direct knowledge than I have intimated, the evidence seems to strongly implicate Kodak management for not concentrating much more on their consistent money-maker, film, and for pouring millions of dollars into commodity-type businesses in which they have lost a lot of money. That their film division has remained profitable, despite large drop offs in volume, and without any discernible advertising on Kodak's part whatsoever, speaks profoundly, I think. It's clear that there are a lot of people still interested in film photography, so I very much hope that this bodes well for its future.</p>

[benny_spinoza]

The price of just about everything is going up. It's called inflation. I was surprised when shopping at the stationary store the other day for some things for my son. I remember when a box of thumb tacks was around 25 cents. Now it is a couple of bucks. Same for other supplies. So when film prices are raised 10% to 15%, I say "what else is new?" And regarding Kodak.....if they are making a profit and employing people in their film business, do you think the bankruptcy court would approve of winding down that operation, putting more people in the unemployment line? I don't think so. As long as it is a viable business, Kodak or a spinoff will make color film, no matter what entity owns it.

[Colin O]

<p>I don't consider these price increases "just inflation". Fujifilm mentions "The demand for film products is continuously decreasing, yen's appreciation and the cost of production, such as raw materials, oil and energy, continues to rise or stay at high level. [...] Fujifilm is unable to absorb these costs during the production process".</p>

 

<p>I believe there will be a long-tail market for film for decades. But what is of concern to me is whether Fujifilm's reversal emulsions remain available or not. If these price increases were just down to inflation, there wouldn't be much to worry about. But we all know there's a much more lamentable possible outcome here.</p>