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Old 31st March 2018, 06:08 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Default Fuji Acros Roll Film Some evidence of discontinuation Oct 2018

Just a "heads up" but there would appear to be some evidence from a Fuji announcement, only to its dealers as yet ( apparently translated from Japanese) that Acros roll film will stop being produced in Oct 2018.

Sheet film has already been discontinued but this is apparently a reference to Acros roll film. The official public announcement is not apparently due to be made until Apr 6th so no-one beyond the ranks of Fuji executives can yet say it is certain but if the announcement in Japanese is a genuine one to its dealers and it would look to be, assuming the translation is correct, then the last of Fuji trad B&W film will cease production from Oct this year

For those interested in Acros you might like to keep your eyes peeled after next Friday for any official public announcement.

I suspect that, if all I have said above is authentic and it looks to be, then we are still unlikely to see a rush for all remaining stock in the U.K. immediately afterwards but it would appear that certain U.S. users seem intent on buying the equivalent of 40ft refrigderated trailers to hold their next 10 years worth of stocks

Mike
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Old 31st March 2018, 06:56 PM
NJHrs NJHrs is offline
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Sooner than I had expected, perhaps.

Some have rumoured that Fuji had already stopped making film and is only working its way through the stock from the last coatings. Sad thing is that whilst its a theory unsupported by evidence there isn't really any evidence that Fuji is still making fresh film either.

I have mixed feelings about Acros, some great results but many so so. Personally I think I prefer FP4+ and I am happy to support a company (Ilford) that is actually committed to its customers.
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Old 31st March 2018, 07:30 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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It would seem from the translation of the announcement that while Fuji have been working its way through its sheet film existing stock which was, it seems, stopped very abruptly in 2017 and existing stock was expected to last until about Oct 2018 based on projected demand, Fuji Acros roll film will continue in production until Oct 2018 so the then existing stock should last a few months more.

A pity that for different reasons the date of Oct 2018 has been the same for both roll and sheet film, albeit the Oct 2018 date for sheet film is a projected date for depletion of existing stock, whereas the Oct 2018 date for roll film is a set date for end of production

It may all become clearer the week after next or it may not. Fuji's reputation for clarity on film matters would seem to be a little tarnished.

As you say amongst the big three, Ilford stands out. At a 2006 tour of the Ilford site a senior executive said that Ilford was determined to be the "last man standing in film"

There is every reason to believe this will be the case

Mike
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Old 31st March 2018, 09:28 PM
MarkH MarkH is offline
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Originally Posted by NJHrs View Post
Sooner than I had expected, perhaps.

Some have rumoured that Fuji had already stopped making film and is only working its way through the stock from the last coatings. Sad thing is that whilst its a theory unsupported by evidence there isn't really any evidence that Fuji is still making fresh film either.

I have mixed feelings about Acros, some great results but many so so. Personally I think I prefer FP4+ and I am happy to support a company (Ilford) that is actually committed to its customers.
I’ve got to say I agree with you. I’m FP4+ and HP5+ all the way, I particularly like FP4+ in Ilfosol 3. I do get a pack of Acros of my daughter every birthday but I don’t think I’ve started last years yet and it’s only 2 months to this years birthday. It seems strange the Fuji are reducing their lines but Kodak are increasing theirs. Is this because Fuji are making advances in the digital world?
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Old 31st March 2018, 09:35 PM
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Any reduction in choice of film is sad news, although good news for Ilford, Foma, Kodak, Maco etc. I really like Acros and use it quite a lot. It has a unique tonal range and excellent reciprocity characteristics with no adjustment needed up to 30 seconds exposure. I don't think any other film on the market can match that.
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Old 1st April 2018, 10:36 AM
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With the all the new film makes coming to the market and the increased use of film. I don't understand why Fuji would want to stop production of it's film stocks. Unless they have a mad man loose in the boardroom
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Old 1st April 2018, 12:10 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Originally Posted by photomi7ch View Post
With the all the new film makes coming to the market and the increased use of film. I don't understand why Fuji would want to stop production of it's film stocks. Unless they have a mad man loose in the boardroom
I suppose that it might come down to two things, one of which is more worrying than the other.
1. Fuji is not solely a film company and the benefit to cost ratio of Acros may not be as good as will be the case if it diverts its resources elsewhere
2. The more worrying thing is that the increased use of film is much smaller than some would lead us to believe and Fuji is, rightly or wrongly, much more pessimistic about its future.

Mike
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Old 2nd April 2018, 02:57 AM
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Fuji is a huge organization and presumably full of accountants. I assume that Acros would be easy for them to make while the colour films were being made, probably in much larger quantities. Maybe it is correct that they are getting out of film altogether. I don't use colour film, but it would be very unfortunate for those who do if Kodak is the last one making a range of good colour films.
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Old 2nd April 2018, 08:00 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Originally Posted by Stocky View Post
Fuji is a huge organization and presumably full of accountants. I assume that Acros would be easy for them to make while the colour films were being made, probably in much larger quantities. Maybe it is correct that they are getting out of film altogether. I don't use colour film, but it would be very unfortunate for those who do if Kodak is the last one making a range of good colour films.
Acros is quite different to the colour films Fuji make, it uses different gelatins so there's no link in it's production with their colour films.

This is quite different to say Ferrania who's recent B&W film is a precursor to new colour films if/when the funding is available, or to the Harman Direct Positive paper who's emulsion was the Black & White emulsion component of Cibachrome/Ilfochrome.

The issue with Acros and in fact the other Fuji B&W films was poor availability outside the Far East market, Kodak have a similar issue outside their traditional home markets.

My experience travelling abroad over the last 12 years has been that when you do find B&W film it's mostly Ilford and Foma with only the odd rolls of Kodak & Fuji, (that's in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, Chile, Peru etc). That came as a great surprise but seems to be because the Kodak and Fuji distributors concentrated on the Pro and Minilabs, although I think nearly all the Pro labs had closed in Santiage 10 years ago.

In the past Fuji had smaller volume films made by Ilford they supplied some of the components, their equivalents of Delta 3200 and XP2 were made in the UK. It's possible their Remrandt B&W paper is as well.

Ian
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Old 2nd April 2018, 11:26 AM
NJHrs NJHrs is offline
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Just to add that the point I made earlier about them potentially already stopped is related to the point that there is several years between a coating and the date on a confectioned film. I have some Ilford film here for example bought last year with another 3 years to go on it. The Acros I have is dated August this year and the freshest Fuji I have is Provia dated for next spring. Thus it is quite possible they have already coated their last film and are quietly cutting it up and distributing the stuff until it becomes clear its close to end of life, then we get an announcement. Why do I think this of Fuji? Look what happened to Neopan 400. The discontinuation notice came within a couple of months of the last dated film which means they had actually stopped making it (coating) years earlier but didn't tell anyone.
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