Kodak

[Drew Wiley]

Fuji's color neg sheet films have pretty much dried up in this country. Besides, Kodak
has made better R&D progress in this category. The overall film business is probably
sustainable for Kodak in a popular category like this. The problem is that they've pissed
away all their momentum by galavanting off in several different directions at once,
mostly into territory where they've got some brutal competition and are only half-hearted anyway. Typical bad corp strategy intended to appease stockholders rather than realizing sustainable profits. Look like you're branching out when you're really selling your own blood and getting more and more anemic as time passes. The question is whether someone else could in fact purchase the film & paper division and still maintain the R&D infrastructure intact, then let Kodak go ahead with what works at the other end. Something like this did happen when Ilford summed up their b&w products with Harman, but sold off Ciba and the other color lines to Oji Paper of Japan. Kodak has long suffered from trying to wear too many hats at the same time.

[Brian C. Miller]

Japan Exposures lists Fuji 160NS and 160NC in sheet film sizes, 4x5 and 8x10. This means that if Kodak dies, ULF color shooters are going to be screwed.

[Oren Grad]

Does Fuji still make color negative films? The Fuji USA website only shows a few kinds of 35mm negative film, but what I guess is the international site shows pro films, including 160NS, 160C, etc., and the PDF datasheets still show that these films come in sheets.

"Pro" color neg still listed on the Fujifilm Japan website and offered in the home market as of today:

160NC: 4x5, 4x5QL
160NS: 120, 220, 4x5, 4x5QL, 8x10
400: 35/24, 35/36, 120, 220
Reala Ace: 120, 220

http://fujifilm.jp/personal/jan/colo...?pSch501010108

[David Luttmann]

"Pro" color neg still listed on the Fujifilm Japan website and offered in the home market as of today:

160NC: 4x5, 4x5QL
160NS: 120, 220, 4x5, 4x5QL, 8x10
400: 35/24, 35/36, 120, 220
Reala Ace: 120, 220

http://fujifilm.jp/personal/jan/colo...?pSch501010108

I'm not sure about that Oren. Fuji ceased making Quickloads a while back. If they are still listed, I'd say the website simply either is not updated, or they have current inventory.

I still have a a couple of dozen boxes of 160 in 4x5QL, but everything I hear is that they are done.

Standard sheets are still being made.

[mortensen]

Noah, Fuji Pro160NS is available in europe in 20 sheet 4x5" boxes. For instance at FotoImpex Berlin:
http://www.fotoimpex.de/cgi-bin/shop...or=Fuji&items=

... not cheap, though!

[Oren Grad]

I'm not sure about that Oren. Fuji ceased making Quickloads a while back. If they are still listed, I'd say the website simply either is not updated, or they have current inventory.

I still have a a couple of dozen boxes of 160 in 4x5QL, but everything I hear is that they are done.

Standard sheets are still being made.

When these discussions come up, the word "made" is usually tossed around pretty loosely. Most of the time, people on the outside don't actually know what's still being manufactured. All we know is what the manufacturer lists in its catalog - which may or may not be updated in a timely way - and what we can actually find in retail channels. The rest is typically rumor, third- or fourth- or fifth-hand.

It's certainly not rare for a product to continue to be listed in the catalog and to be available through retail channels after production has ceased. FWIW, though, at least in Japan, Fujifilm has usually been pretty good about announcing film discontinuations in advance and tagging the corresponding catalog listings with a "remaining stocks only" mark, or something to that effect. And also FWIW, the 160NC and 160NS QL listings are not currently tagged that way.

So all we know for sure is that as of today, those QL products are still listed as current by Fujifilm Japan and are still available through the retail channel in Japan.

[John Kasaian]

I wonder if Kodak will sell off the sheet film end of the biz to somebody who can satisfy the market? Ilford, IIRC leases it's facilites.

[Roger Cole]

Is it possible someone else would jump into color if Kodak went away? I believe Ilford has the ability to coat color (or I guess in their case "colour") film but wisely chooses to focus on doing B&W very well. It seems I read something too about one of the various European companies involved with the scattered remains of Agfa having their coating equipment capable of coating color. Anyone know anything about that?

I'd miss T-Max RS and TMY-2, but not all that badly. Delta 400 is not quite TMY but it is good, and I bet Ilford would start making it in sheets again if TMY vanished. I can do fine in a world completely without Kodak for black and white. Color...not so much, between Fuji color neg being either gone or rare and the fact I've recently really come to like E100G since Fuji did away with Astia.

[Richard Mahoney]

Color...not so much, between Fuji color neg being either gone or rare and the fact I've recently really come to like E100G since Fuji did away with Astia.

A little off topic but wouldn't mind some clarification on this. I may have been oblivious to recent developments but has Astia in 4x5 really been discontinued? (I bought some in 20 sheet boxes only a wee while back from Badger.)



Best,

Richard

[Oren Grad]

I may have been oblivious to recent developments but has Astia in 4x5 really been discontinued?

Same as with some of the color neg SKUs: today, Astia 100F is still listed as current in Japan, in 120, 220, 4x5, 4x5QL and 8x10.

http://fujifilm.jp/personal/jan/film.html?pSch501010104

Tomorrow is anybody's guess.