Fuji Velvia 100 in 4x5

[Tim Meisburger]

If they still have it in Japan I can ask someone from my office there to pick it up. But everything there seems expensive. China, on the other hand, is cheap for sheet film if you buy it in the country, but as far as I know they don't make color film, or at least color sheet film.

[StoneNYC]

If they still have it in Japan I can ask someone from my office there to pick it up. But everything there seems expensive. China, on the other hand, is cheap for sheet film if you buy it in the country, but as far as I know they don't make color film, or at least color sheet film.

Japan still makes Velvia50 but only for the Japanese market. So yes! Ask them!

[Weihan]

Many thanks for this prompt reply. This information does come as a very welcome relief because I've been a devoted Velvia user for many years now. The entire large format photography community lives in tacit fear that one day there will be no film medium left for us to use, necessitating the transition into digital. Film has a magic and mystique of its own, which simply cannot be duplicated by even the most sophisticated processors. If Fuji does decide in the future to rid itself of the "money pit" film production, let us hope that there is a devoted and able Chinese buyer who will keep the tradition going. Thanks again!

Hi Weihan,

I'm the Midwest Territory Sales Manager for FujiFilm and I'd like to clear up the current confusion about Velvia 100.
Unfortunately some of Fuji's customers including Jeff at Badger Graphics, that Velvia 100, in particular 4x5 & 8x10 were discontinued. I am not sure why Fuji CS would tell a customer that an item was discontinued rather than replaced. However we have had customers ordering using the old material #. Fuji Pro film has been transitioning through a packaging change since late last year. Its possible that customer service has been telling customers that the old material # has been discontinued without telling them there was a replacement in the system. Fuji Supply Chain & Customer Service have been notified of the issue and are looking into the disconnect in our ordering system.

Please note the new material #'s for these products.

Old Mat # New Mat #
Velvia 100 4x5 (20) 16010382 16326157
Velvia 100 8x10 (20) 16010394 16326169

I hope this clears up your concerns about the availability of Velvia 100 for now.

Thanks for supporting FujiFilm.

[gmed]

Wasn't Velvia 50 a better seller? Im trying to make sense why they decided to continue selling the 100, and stop selling 50 in the US?

[StoneNYC]

Wasn't Velvia 50 a better seller? Im trying to make sense why they decided to continue selling the 100, and stop selling 50 in the US?

No one can...

Best thought is that the Velvia100 has much better reciprocity characteristics and perhaps they thought in the end people would value it more, it's also possible the process was cheaper for V100, but it doesn't explain why they still sell it in Japan, unless it's just leftover stock.

Either way it's a frustrating choice between supporting V100 in the US or importing V50 from japan and risking not supporting the PERCIEVED US market...

[Deval]

I talked to Mike at AGX labs who has a good friend and contact at Fuji who is in charge of E-6. He unofficially quoted him that Fuji will commit to E-6 photography for at least two more years before making making any decisions to exit E-6. He also mentioned that one of the principal problems is major vendors such as B&H not wanting to carry film as they want to utilize space for digital. As E-6 is principally what Mike does as far as business, he is trying to convince Fuji to let him sell the film(possibly at cost). I certainly am one who would support him...

[Leigh]

Other problems for retailers are that film should be refrigerated, which is an added expense, and it expires unlike digital.

- Leigh

[StoneNYC]

I talked to Mike at AGX labs who has a good friend and contact at Fuji who is in charge of E-6. He unofficially quoted him that Fuji will commit to E-6 photography for at least two more years before making making any decisions to exit E-6. He also mentioned that one of the principal problems is major vendors such as B&H not wanting to carry film as they want to utilize space for digital. As E-6 is principally what Mike does as far as business, he is trying to convince Fuji to let him sell the film(possibly at cost). I certainly am one who would support him...

That's good news but surprising about B&H because they recently re-designed some of their site and put film first in a category before digital chips, and they always have stock, and the only time they ever didn't was when Fuji changed packaging and "discontinued" one package for another but made B&H and other retailers believe the film itself had been discontinued, when it was just a packaging change.

Maybe they aren't keeping as much stock because they keep upping the price so often the retailer is losing money on cheaper old stock?

And of course from film users who "stock up" but don't buy regularly, so many times orders are in bulk batches making it hard to know how much stock to keep.

But great to know at least there's 2 years left.

I think what really killed things was Velvia50 not being exported from japan anymore. I still can't get used to Velvia100 the same way I am with 50, it's frustrating... But I'm glad there is still Velvia at all, it's such a particular emulsion that I can see the day that only Provia100F is available... So I've got to get my images in now with Velvia while there's still time...

[Brian C. Miller]

I think what really killed things was Velvia50 not being exported from japan anymore.

What killed things for E6 was (is) basic popularity. E6 was less than 5% of Kodak's sales during the heyday of film. Once the pros (product photography, etc.) moved from E6 to digital, its popularity went down even further, to just the art photographers. At Glazer's Camera store the guys in the film section told me that E6 pretty much never moves.

Art photography is a very tiny fraction of the film market, and LF art photography is a tiny fraction of that. We are the gnat on the horns of the bull.

[Jim Becia]

I talked to Mike at AGX labs who has a good friend and contact at Fuji who is in charge of E-6. He unofficially quoted him that Fuji will commit to E-6 photography for at least two more years before making making any decisions to exit E-6. He also mentioned that one of the principal problems is major vendors such as B&H not wanting to carry film as they want to utilize space for digital. As E-6 is principally what Mike does as far as business, he is trying to convince Fuji to let him sell the film(possibly at cost). I certainly am one who would support him...

I would love to see Mike carry Fuji film. He currently processes nearly all my 8x10 and 4x10 film, and he does about 75% of my 5x7 film. He does great work and I try to send him as much business as I can. I am one who tends to stock up when I can, as I, like most of us, have no clue when the end of E-6 will come. In the past two months, I have ordered from both Badger and Adorama to the tune of 6 20 8x10 sheet boxes of Velvia 100. And like most people, really prefer the Velvia 50, but that is not going to happen, at least for now. I have noticed on eBay, that there is a particular Japanese seller that has over 100 boxes of 8x10 Velvia for sale. I have often thought of shooting him an email to see what kind of price break, if any, he would give on a 10, 20, or even 30 box order. The idea being to get the price down by getting (hopefully) some LF guys interested in a purchase. Of course, I realize that I am one of a small group of "silly" guys still shooting 8x10 transparency film, but I have to admit it is in my blood.

I have mentioned this in another post, but Adorama has 8x10 Velvia 100 at a very nice price right now - $225 a box of 20.