I Just Took the Plunge (Film Stockpile)

[Andre Noble]

So that's where the overnight price increase on 120 Fuji Reala at Adorama came from! Makes sense now.

[rbultman]

Maybe paying a little more to fewer vendors means that film will be around a little longer.

[Roger Cole]

Andre, you cannot say with certainty that Ilford will soon be the last of the professional B&W film producers. Fuji makes B&W film too. Mirko said that ADOX is going to come out with new films, starting with a 100 ASA film. And it is too early to say what will happen with Kodak.

Foma too.

Black and white will be ok, I think. I take great solace in this as it's my primary interest anyway.

Yes. It's time for self sufficiency.

Once Kodak E6 stocks are completely gone from dealer warehouses (a matter of days for some films), Fuji will jack up the price of their abbreviated E6 films, and then follow suit by discontinuing their E6 films altogether a la Kodak. This is not from any official announcement, but based on a long recent history of Agfa, Kodak, Fuji, etc.

As for the C-41 films, Kodak just signed a contract with the motion picture industry to manufacture color films for them to the year 2015 - but Kodak included a clause stating that Kodak can discontinue making film any time before then... Kodak Portra 160 is almost $40 for a 10 sheet box of 4x5. Fuji doesn't even make color negative sheet film anymore.

Right after I bought most of Adorama's stock of 120 format Fuji Reala 100, they raised the price overnight of their remaining stock by about 15%. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I checked my invoice. Yes it's true.

The writing is on the wall, and with a braille plaque beside it.

I don't think you can draw those conclusions. It may go that way, maybe not. The price of Fuji E6 has already increased rather dramatically.

And I'm pretty sure Fuji DOES make their color neg films in sheets, they just don't sell it in North America. It wasn't long ago folks were talking about buying all they wanted from Japan. When it was priced similarly to the excellent (superior in my view) and readily available Kodak color sheet film that didn't make a lot of sense to me. Now, however, it might.

And I hadn't priced color 4x5 in a while. Why on earth is Portra a dollar a sheet more than Ektar??

[wogster]

It is depressing, but it appears that saving color film is too hard for this world. Progress must march on.

The issue with all film, is that they tend to manufacture film in a master roll that is about 10' (3m) wide and a mile (1.6km) long. A 35mm 36 exposure roll is 35mm wide and 1.5m long, so you get a yield of about 900,000 rolls from one master. Film from the date of manufacture to expiry is about 3 years, meaning it's marketable for about 2 years, so you need to sell 450,000 rolls of each emulsion per year. 120 is about the same area, but has a different thickness and you can't use one for both types. You need to sell one crap load of film in order to make it viable. When you had billions of people using billions of rolls of film a year, this wasn't a big deal. Now that the users are down to a few thousand, the chances of selling that 450,000 rolls is getting difficult. So "specialty" and unusual films are not selling as much as they should, and they are getting discontinued. The issue really though is that eventually you need a smaller master roll, if you can economically make a master that is say 70cm wide and 160m long, then you can make a lot more different emulsions economically even with a smaller market. Either that or you need the ability to change emulsions on the fly, something they can't do right now.

[Andre Noble]

... Why on earth is Portra a dollar a sheet more than Ektar??

Because it's next to go.

[Roger Cole]

Because it's next to go.

Maybe, maybe not. That doesn't make a lot of sense, or even any sense, unless you WANT an excuse to cancel it. Make the price 50% more, then cancel it because it doesn't sell as well.

[georg16nik]

Make the price 50% more, then cancel it because it doesn't sell as well.

total Kodak sense and might be Fuji sense as well.

[Roger Cole]

I understand raising prices because of increased materials cost. But unless Portra uses significantly more silver than Ektar, or higher priced dyes or something, that doesn't hold. And raising prices to shore up profit on falling demand is a vicious circle, or at least it is when there's any competition at all. Sadly, that may be why Kodak can do it, but at what point does it get cheaper to import Fuji C41 sheet film yourself from Japan? Maybe it already is? (That's assuming it's still available - it was not too long ago.)

Most of the time when I shoot color in my 4x5 camera though it's 120 using a roll film back. The exception is that I have a box of Ektachrome 100SW I bought here that I've been shooting some of (not processed yet though) and if the scene demands a wider view than my 90mm gives on 6x7. I do have some Portra in the freezer. I have some Optima 100 too but I'd read it didnt' freeze well. I just shot a roll of frozen Optima 400 220 and the results were beautiful.

[Rick A]

The OP can use his credit card to buy me a stockpile of film!!!

[Ap507b]

Found the local Poundland selling Agfa Vista 200 135 36 exposures for £1. Dated May 2014 so I stocked up with 10 of them. Seemed a bargain at that price.