Fujifilm discontinues two professional films [update]

Another one bites the dust...

And just as I am getting bored with digital and returning to film... just my luck.

Sadness

It's sad to hear this news, just as it feels like a resurgence in film photography is about to take place, especially with the Lomo cameras. Film will always have a place in a photographers heart and there's always Kodak Portra and Ektar.

Velvia RIP

One of the all time great films.
The benchmark for large format quality & resolution for Landscapes,changed the game.
I for one shall miss it ,although like so many others I haven't used it since PhaseOne P45 delivered the resolution in 2005. Now I want it ,its going .

Not the end of the world...

At least we still have Velvia 100. Velvia 50 was too difficult to work with anyway... Let's just hope they don't discontinue Provia any time soon.

Poor strategy...

It is sad but the problem is that each time Fuji announce they are withdrawing a film many photographers have bought up existing stocks and put them in their deep freeze! I have done so with Fuji Quickload and 5x4 sheet film and have enough stocks for the next 3-5 years. Other people I know have even larger stocks (& more freezers!).

Fujifilm UK Disinformation?

I've just contacted Fujifilm USA, Badger Graphic and BH Photovideo and none of them has heard anything about discontinuations.

This sounds like the same issue that Fujifim UK had when they announced the discontinuation of Astia a couple of years back (as mentioned in the article). Strangely it's still available in the rest of the world but not the UK.

If this is the case then Fujifilm UK should be ashamed of themselves for spreading disinformation about the future of film, adding fuel to the fire that film's future is still in jeapardy and potentially stopping people taking up film again.

in actual fact it seems that Fujifilm UK can't manage to get film imported or distributed for a decent price. Buying 20 sheets of 4x5 Velvia in the US costs £33, the same film in the UK costs £86. Even with tax and import duty, that difference is astonishing and it's not surprising that people aren't buying much in the UK.

victim of the capitalist system

Stopping film is a disgrace. It is not because it is obsolete, or because something else is better. It is just because it brings in less money than before. It is simply a consequence of financial conjuncture. This is the global capitalist system killing creativity. And saying that this very system created Velvia in the first placed thing doesn't wash.

MANY ERRORS IN YOUR REPORT

The following statements contradict each other:

"Fujifilm has announced the discontinuation of two of its professional films – the Fujichrome Velvia 100F and Velvia 50"

"Fujifilm tells BJP that its Velvia 50 will continue to be distributed in 35mm and 120 formats."

"When the last shipments of Velvia 50 and 100F films will reach the UK, only three types of colour reversal films will remain in Fujifilm's range: Provia 100F, Provia 400X and Velvia 100."

Your article is downright misleading, in that it shows an image of a box of 35mm Velvia 50, when, according to your own text, this format is not actually being discontinued!

IF the remainder of your article is correct, one film -- Velvia 100F -- is being discontinued, and certain film format -- Velvia 50 in sheet film sizes -- will no longer be cut. This is NOT the same as saying Velvia 50 is being discontinued completely, yet, many attention-deficit-challenged web readers will scan your page and conclude Velvia 50 is out of production. As if the film using community don't have enough problems as it is with incorrect rumour-mongering about films being discontinued, as it is.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Want to correct these glaring mistakes, please?

Needs verification

This report is very ambiguous. I would not take all of it as gospel, but rather a piece of journalist reporting that has not been adequately verified for accuracy. Discontinuing film, any film, can have a nasty knock-on affect in a business that gets a flow of additional work e.g. scanning, printing, matting/framing or dibonding. Digital people don't go the extra mile to achieve quality: to them, a screen picture is the epitome of quality. It's actually the epitome of tom-foolery and laziness.

Would the journalist who wrote this please provide readers with additional information to verify the accuracy of this report?

Dear Brett

Thanks for the lovely tone of your message. At the time of writing, it remained unclear whether Fujifilm UK would discontinue all of its Velvia 50 film formats. We reached out to Fujifilm to find out what was going on and this story was updated accordingly, and we communicated these results to our readers on our social networks as well to clarify the situation.

These "glaring mistakes" you talk about have been clarified.

Sincerely, as ever,
Olivier Laurent

Spot on......

victim of the capitalist system

Stopping film is a disgrace. It is not because it is obsolete, or because something else is better. It is just because it brings in less money than before. It is simply a consequence of financial conjuncture. This is the global capitalist system killing creativity. And saying that this very system created Velvia in the first placed thing doesn't wash.

Why dont these big greedy companies "give" their films to Illford, the small batch experts!

Reply to Olivier Laurent

"At the time of writing, it remained unclear whether Fujifilm UK would discontinue all of its Velvia 50 film formats."

But you decided to go ahead, anyway, and publish an article that disagreed with its own assertions in at least three ways, and could thus not possibly be accurate in ANY eventuality. Nice work. The "lovely tone" of my previous comment was thoroughly deserved...proof is that the article has indeed required correction.
Sincerely, as ever,
Brett Rogers

Glaring Mistakes!

Brett's on the money Olly, this is a terrible piece and the fact that you've got a box of Velvia 35mm rather than 5x4 shows just how random it is. If you write articles like this about Film then you're gonna take a few hits and my advice would be to simply take'em on the chin!

I'd probably just take it down, have a few beers at the weekend, a shout out the mirror and hopefully Monday will be a better day?!

Have a good'un,
Tim.

Only UK relevant?

I've just asked @choosefilm about the discontinuation with regard to my feedback from Fujifilm USA that they had no knowledge of any discontinuation. They said "Hi Tim, we can only speak on behalf of our UK arm of Fujifilm"

Can someone please interrogate them and get the facts?! This affects a huge amount of people worldwide and Fujifilm UK via the BJP has started a literal landslide of bad press for the whole of film again.

Even if the story is true, there are still hundreds of threads, stories and blog posts talking about the end of transparency film.

Please, please confirm with Fujifilm worldwide somehow

Velvita

I was host to the last major gathering of dye transfer printers, a group of men who had worked with all of the available slide films for years. Whenever Fuji Velvia was mentioned someone would inevitably mumble something about Velvita, and someone else would make a more pointed disparaging remark about that film. Everyone there regarded it as a horrible, amateur film that had a terrible habit of falling instantly from mid-tones to black without any subtle shadows at all and the worst colour curves of any available slide film. It was made to look super saturated on a slide table or when projected, but it did not provide a good source for the information needed to make a great print.

Fuji Velvia variant discontinuation

Could BJP please clarify. Often the regional importers discontinue import due to lack of sales in their region. That does not automatically mean production in Japan has ceased.
So has/will Fuji Japan actually cease/d production or is it just Fujifilm UK who have ceased importing?
Please update us on this because if its the latter then Fuji Europe may still be importing and/or we may still be able to source from outside of the UK.
Thank you.

Velvita? Not when scanning..

To the commenter about Velvita not having good shadow response or dynamic range. Here's my first 10x8 shot taken on Velvia 50.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timparkin/5450255203/in/photostream

I've tested Velvia 50 scanned on my Howtek and get about 8 or 9 stops of dynamic range with a shoulder that extends perhaps another stop or two with yellow light.

Update the picture too!

I would advise changing the picture illustrating the article, as it’s very misleading. Anyone seeing this would be forgiven for initially thinking that Fuji plans to discontinue Velvia 50 altogether.

And what about news?

In other news, The Impossible Project is going strong, Lomography (*gak*, I know) is putting out color AND b&w 110 films, Bluefire and Rollei are making 127, and Adox may put out 126. Or is news about films being discontinued just sexier from the media standpoint?

.. and in America

BH Photo Video have said "The UK says goodbye to Fujifilm Velvia" and in their newsletter say "No news about America yet" .... the same answer as Fujifilm USA gave me... Perhaps "worldwide" means something else in the UK or perhaps Fuji haven't a frackin' clue..

Perhaps it's the same as Astia

Fujifilm UK announched that Fuji Astia was being discontinued nearly two years ago now but I see you can buy new Fuji Astia 5x4 from Badger Graphic and Glazers.

a rich man's hobby.

Why can you buy an f5 Nikon guaranteed and in good condition today for £150?

Answer, because Velvia costs £10 a roll of 36 exposures UNPROCESSED, that's why.

Anyone would think people here were all millionaires, or didn't take pictures at all!

Film is superior, but the mechanisms for its production to publication require the end user to maintain darkrooms, stock chemicals and staff these labs, and then scan the results to digital anyway: and if you have ever done these things full-time as I have, you will really prefer your FREEDOM!