These are the film stocks Fujifilm will abandon in 2018
Oct 20, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Every few months it seems like Fujifilm are going a bit less “film”. To the point where they should probably get ready to just drop the latter half of their name altogether. In the latest round of culls, Fujifilm have announced a few more film stocks and formats that are going to be disappearing in 2018.
Fujifilm seem hell bent on killing off their film products entirely. Well, if that’s their plan, they’re certainly doing a good job. Many film photographers have already made the switch to Kodak & Ilford films due to the doubt over Fuji’s future. Kodak’s decision to bring back Ektachrome has also aided a few choices.
March 2018
The first round of product culls begins in March. Several 3 and 5 packs of film are being killed off, although single rolls should still be available. Obviously, though, single rolls come at a greater overall cost, and who knows how long those will last?
- Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400, 24 exposure, 3 packs
- Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 400, 36 exposure, 3 packs
- Fujichrome Velvia 50, Professional, 36 exposure, 5 packs
- Fujichrome Velvia 100, Professional, 36 exposure, 5 packs
- Fujichrome Provia 100F, Professional, 36 exposure, 5 packs
May 2018
This is where we start to see the actual killing off of certain stocks. Large format photographers will not be happy.
- Fujicolor Natura 1600, 36 exposures, individual rolls
- Fujicolor 1600 Single Use Cameras (39 and 27 exposures)
- Neopan 100 Acros 4×5 (20 pieces)
- Neopan 100 Acros 8×10 (20 pieces)
It was only last year that Fujifilm killed off Superia X-Tra 400 in twin and 5 packs. Now with 3 packs gone, we’re down to just single rolls. It strikes me that, perhaps, they’re not making any more. The move from multi packs to single packs sure would be a good way to squeeze every penny out of those rolls that they can before stocks run out.
Natura 1600 3 packs also disappeared last year, and now the single packs are gone, too, suggesting that the above may also happen to Superia in another year or two.
It’s a shame, really. Fuji made some great films. They still make a few, although who knows for how much longer?
[via Albedo Media]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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17 responses to “These are the film stocks Fujifilm will abandon in 2018”
Fujifilm will have to change their name to Fuji.
I used to shoot sensia slide film sometimes
Velvia! They’re killing off Velvia 50!!!!! What is this world coming to.
Only the pro-pack, so far, but stock up anyway. Some folks I know think they’ve stopped making anything but Instax at this point and are just selling off their stockpiled film.
Noooo
Supposedly their long term plan is to end all photographic film production by the end of 2020. They need the resources for their cosmetics division which uses similar production and is way more profitable. Instax is the only photographic film they plan on keeping ?
Shit…I got 2 boxes of 1600 natura in the freezer. looks like that’s gonna be it
Dickheads….
Nothing to see here, folks. They’re abandoning the packages, not the entire film emulsions. Not yet anyway.
you can’t recut 120 Acros into 4×5. It was the best thing there was for night photography.
I love my digital, but even with all of its advantages and advances, I just don’t think it captures things like film :(
It’s all to do with volumes. The manufacturing set-up they have will be geared for the old days when you used to produce immense amounts of film. But now, that manufacturing set-up is far too big for the volume they sell. Whenever they turn up the plant to produce a film stock, they have to put a ton of material through it, chemicals, etc. What if the demand has dropped that it doesn’t all sell before it’s expired? This is why we see film stocks disappearing every so often, when demand drops below profitibility. This is why the reborn Ferrania is using what is effectively the R&D lab – it suits the volumes of todays demand.
Well, the moment Fuji abandons film alltogether it makes room for the smaller brands, and it was to be expected that they’ll move in this direction. Time for a “generation change” in film production …
couple o’ years ago, Fuji announced it wold cease production of Provia 400, my favorite 400iso film. so i bought a thousand dollars worth of film. anyone else can, too.
otoh, it looks like we’ll be getting Ektachrome back. wonder which emulsion they’ll choose. remember when there were 5 different “E” films?
“It was only last year that Fujifilm killed off Superia X-Tra 400 in twin and 5 packs. Now with 3 packs gone, we’re down to just single rolls.”
Fujifilm doesn’t sell Superia X-Tra 400 in single rolls here in Japan, so that actually means they are killing X-Tra 400, at least in the Japanese market.
That is why they recommend the Superia Premium 400 (available only in the Japanese market, btw) as a replacement.
“Many film photographers have already made the switch to Kodak & Ilford films due to the doubt over Fuji’s future.” = “fujifilm is stopping production on their films because of the lack of demand so we’re not gonna buy fujis film anymore”
Logic? Where?
Do they still make Supria 200? That was always my favorite but can’t find it anymore. Prices of film on ebay is of f control!