What happens after ISO 800 is gone?

[Ektagraphic]

High speed film, in both color and b&w are in danger and have been for at least a few years. Kodak P3200, for example, is rumored to be on the chopping block. I love that film.

I have a couple of rolls and I haven't shot any yet....Good film you say? I am excited to work with it because I have seen a couple of nice shots taken on it. I wish they offered it in 120. This appears to be the ultimate film. Kodak's data said that it can be push processed to ISO 25,000 :o :o :o That's a lot higer than digital can go I wonder what grain looks like there.

[hrst]

Because Fuji came very close to disconuing 800Z recently.

Well, FIRST; don't you know this is one of Fuji's marketing tactics? If they really would need to discontinue a film, they would just do it. I think this is just opposite; this case shows that there was so big of a demand for 800Z that Fuji didn't discontinue it.

SECONDLY; Fuji has three ISO800 or higher color neg films. If they some day have to discontinue one, there's two left and the sales of the one discontinued will approximately be divided to the remaining two, making them more viable to manufacture. As I said earlier, the selection gets smaller, but as it happens, we have the most universal, well-selling products remaining, and they are hard to discontinue from any viewpoint.

[B&Wpositive]

Well, FIRST; don't you know this is one of Fuji's marketing tactics? If they really would need to discontinue a film, they would just do it. I think this is just opposite; this case shows that there was so big of a demand for 800Z that Fuji didn't discontinue it.

SECOND; Fuji has three ISO800 or higher color neg films. If they some day have to discontinue one, there's two left and the sales of the one discontinued will approximately be divided to the remaining two, making them more viable to manufacture. As I said earlier, the selection gets smaller, but as it happens, we have the most universal, well-selling products remaining.

I disagree. That would be dishonest. Like what the oil people do to increase the going rate. I doubt Fuji is doing that. But even so, the days of oil use are limited. Supplies of oil going to run out, and the pollution problem is real. That is why you see so much emphasis on alternative technology. So why not have an alterative to high-speed film before they disappear?

[DannyW]

The majority of single-use cameras are loaded with 800 speed film, and I would imagine that Kodak and Fuji are both still selling tons of those things, so some type of 800 speed film will be around for quite awhile.

[B&Wpositive]

Well, FIRST; don't you know this is one of Fuji's marketing tactics? If they really would need to discontinue a film, they would just do it. I think this is just opposite; this case shows that there was so big of a demand for 800Z that Fuji didn't discontinue it.

SECONDLY; Fuji has three ISO800 or higher color neg films. If they some day have to discontinue one, there's two left and the sales of the one discontinued will approximately be divided to the remaining two, making them more viable to manufacture. As I said earlier, the selection gets smaller, but as it happens, we have the most universal, well-selling products remaining, and they are hard to discontinue from any viewpoint.

It could be a chain reaction: One goes, then all of them go. Like what happened to Kodak's slide films recently. Only a small percentage are left now. So 3 out of the 4 Fuji films ISO 800 or higher could easily go in a similar timeframe.

I'm just hoping that if the Fuji 800Z goes, there is still the Kodak Portra 800, or vice versa. I'd hate for both to go...but it could happen. We saw this sort of thing play out with the tungsten balanced films. All remaining ones went away within about 3 years of time. All that's left is ECN-II. Good luck finding a lab to process it if you want to shoot tungsten film.

[Ektagraphic]

I am yet to buy a roll of Gold 800 to shoot other than shooting it in a disposible....I wonder if one can get good results with it.

[DanielStone]

I have a couple of rolls and I haven't shot any yet....Good film you say? I am excited to work with it because I have seen a couple of nice shots taken on it. I wish they offered it in 120. This appears to be the ultimate film. Kodak's data said that it can be push processed to ISO 25,000 :o :o :o That's a lot higer than digital can go I wonder what grain looks like there.

funny thing, Nikon and Canon's newest cameras can top 100k iso ratings(hypothetical though)

still pretty remarkable though. so 25000 iso film might not be the fastest any more...

i shot a roll of TMZ a few years back(my 4th of 5th roll of film) at 6400 for a class project, my printing skills really sucked back then(still do kinda, no darkroom ) but the meager prints looked kinda cool, albeit pretty high contrast. I might have to try to find those negs again and try re-printing them again...

-Dan

[Christopher Walrath]

Actually I think that "really 400 film" thought, is an urban myth.

It can't be a push in a practical sense because the process at any normal mini-lab is standard.

To qualify as a push ya-gotta change the process time.

The 400 speed film is exposed at 800 and DX coded as such. So when they enter the 800 DX into the machine, the film exposed at 800 is processed at 800, not intentionally pushed. However, anyone can fool a stupid machine with a homemade black and silver checkerboard configured in just the right way.

[B&Wpositive]

The majority of single-use cameras are loaded with 800 speed film, and I would imagine that Kodak and Fuji are both still selling tons of those things, so some type of 800 speed film will be around for quite awhile.

That's not professional film. The products are totally different.

[B&Wpositive]

The 400 speed film is exposed at 800 and DX coded as such. So when they enter the 800 DX into the machine, the film exposed at 800 is processed at 800, not intentionally pushed. However, anyone can fool a stupid machine with a homemade black and silver checkerboard configured in just the right way.

Sorry, that's not how it works. All C-41 film gets processed the same, regardless of ISO.