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View Full Version : Fujicolor Pro 160NS being discontinued



B.S.Kumar
1-Aug-2016, 01:49
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Fujifilm has announced the discontinuation of Fujicolor Pro 160NS in 4x5 in September 2016, and the 8x10 size in August, 2016. As of now, stocks are available with large retailers.
http://ffis.fujifilm.co.jp/information/articlein_0054.html (Japanese only)

Kumar

Tobias Key
1-Aug-2016, 02:10
Yes I read about this, don't know how Fuji treats the Japanese market but in the UK 160NS went from being half the price of Portra to being more expensive within about 18 months. I always thought Portra was a little better than 160ns so once the prices became equal I stopped buying Fuji. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I got the feeling that Fuji were deliberately trying to kill the product.

Drew Wiley
1-Aug-2016, 09:40
That's not good news. It had its own look; but that now leaves all our eggs only in one basket, as far as color neg sheet film is concerned. Don't get me wrong -
I'm perfectly happy with the Kodak selection. But if they turn tail and run too ....

richydicky
1-Aug-2016, 11:56
I had in mind to pose the question a few months ago - How many large format photographers use colour as I have picked up quite a few boxes of Portra 400 just out of date at bargain prices. I am new to this format and don't have a complete setup but have been amassing film where I can. I shoot mainly E6 in 120 and now 4x5 and acquired some 100f recently and also Ektachrome, well expired but frozen, at a great price and with good results.

Fuji would gladly be out of film completely it is death by a thousand cuts with them but if people aren't using it or on the other hand if you don't make the film available in a large market, i.e. the US, and then wonder why sales have dropped, well...

Peter Gomena
1-Aug-2016, 12:22
I use 4x5 color negative film, but only occasionally. I would use more if it wasn't so expensive. At $4.00 or more/sheet, I use it sparingly. Sadly, my personal economy limits my expenditure. What really irks me is the discontinuation of 50-sheet boxes. I would spring for one occasionally if it was available. It makes no sense to me that I have to buy it in little tiny boxes, and that those boxes probably add a lot to the cost.

B.S.Kumar
1-Aug-2016, 16:07
This is all part of the modern corporate economy. The large manufacturers are public corporations answerable to the big institutional shareholders. They need to report increasing sales and profit figures every quarter. And if they can't, they at least need to show that they are getting rid of product lines that are not as profitable as the other lines. Fuji is a very large company, and today film is a legacy business, overshadowed by its digital imaging and medical businesses.

Kumar

Drew Wiley
1-Aug-2016, 16:19
Duuuh. Quaterly profits, regardless, yeah, that's the wonderful business model Wall St has given the world, and one reason why so many manufacturers in this
country have gone out of business in recent years. Drop your specialty lines, do what everyone else is doing, tweak those reports. What is at risk in this case is
the domino effect. Less emulsions being coated on film base, then the necessary film base market falls off the cliff too, and you can't revive the sheet film even
if you wanted to. Glad I have a freezer.

richardman
1-Aug-2016, 19:04
...How many large format photographers use colour as I have picked up quite a few boxes of Portra 400 just out of date at bargain prices. I am new to this format and don't have a complete setup but have been amassing film where I can. .

I burn through about 200-300 sheets of mainly Portra 160 a year doing my project (see my website on my signature line).

Drew Wiley
2-Aug-2016, 09:31
Yeah, Portra 160 is a wonderful portrait film. But I do more landscape imagery, so gravitate mostly to Ektar.

unityofsaints
10-Aug-2016, 20:45
I know it possibly doesn't bode well for the industry as a whole but if I look at 160NS in isolation I can't help but feel that it never had much of a following to begin with and that we basically have all our bases covered with Ektar and Provia. It reminds me of the BW400CN discontinuation in 35mm/120.

Drew Wiley
11-Aug-2016, 08:30
It has a good following in Japan and China, but primarily in roll film now. There are certain hues it handles differently than Portra - a slightly different skintone
rendition, and for lack of a more polite term, the smog or haze veil of industrial cities in a more interesting manner. There are certain complexions I've preferred
it for, over Kodak's equivalents. But for nearly all analogous purposes, Portra 160 is an entirely suitable substitute with just a pinch of tweaking.