noimmunity
scratch my niche
Perhaps this has already been reported here, but a search didn't reveal it to me, so please forgive the repetition. I noticed that Fujifilm's japan site announces a price increase on B&W film products starting from April 1 this year. 10-15% on film, 10-20% on paper...
http://fic.fujifilm.co.jp/news/article/20080204/01/index.html
http://fic.fujifilm.co.jp/news/article/20080204/01/index.html
btgc
Veteran
Price rise applies also to food and energy. I guess that digital products also get expensive but this is not so noticeable because nobody buys same product twice and revenue is generated by discarding current and buying new. Well, maybe memory cards are special position.
srichmond
Established
Actually comsumer electronics are getting cheaper year-on-year in real terms. They've bucked the inflationary trend in other sectors.
btgc
Veteran
right, consumer electronics seem to get cheaper over time, but again, it's not built to last. Also life cycle of technologies change rapid enough. So changing and upgrading seemingly cheap stuff people constantly pay and pay.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Film and paper are not built to last either, they are consumables. I don't think it a surprise, though, that prices will increase steadily as film and paper uses declines. In fact, it seems like Fuji is increasing its prices about the same percentage as the fall in sales of their photographic film and paper.
Talk about a Catch 22 situation ... the less we use the more expensive it gets. I can only hope you're wrong!
btgc
Veteran
can only agree....niche products always cost more than those for everyone.
Film and paper are not built to last either, they are consumables. I don't think it a surprise, though, that prices will increase steadily as film and paper uses declines. In fact, it seems like Fuji is increasing its prices about the same percentage as the fall in sales of their photographic film and paper.
bmattock
Veteran
Film related, and Fuji related. Konica, who supplies 60" by 5000' master rolls of film for process cameras used to produce negatives to make plates for newspaper presses, sent out a letter to last month to presses that are not completely digital yet that, as of April 1, Fuji shut down production of process film. When existing supplies run out (they were the last company still producing this film), these presses will be pretty much useless. There appears to be maybe a year or so of the film left in the pipeline.
Since a new digital press starts at about $3 million, a lot of small newspapers will either have to have their papers printed by a larger newspaper, or close their doors.
But as everyone points out, 'demand' will force film to come roaring back again.
And I'm a Chinese jet fighter pilot.
btgc
Veteran
yeah, that would be just too nice if manufacturers, after period of declining sales would set up web page "hey, we are going to stop production of this or that because most of you don't buy it, we think so. If all of you state you will buy more, we continue".
One can register and declare "In next year I'll buy this or that for XYZ bucks, cheers". After month manufacturer decides, well, we can rely on certain income, so we change our mind and will continue production.
I'm afraid, it doesn't happens that way....
One can register and declare "In next year I'll buy this or that for XYZ bucks, cheers". After month manufacturer decides, well, we can rely on certain income, so we change our mind and will continue production.
I'm afraid, it doesn't happens that way....
steamer
Well-known
I worry just a little but about fuji, seems like they really don't want to be in the film business anymore.
noimmunity
scratch my niche
Actually, the ominous thing here to me is not so much that they stopped production of the film, but the way it was announced. They didn't send out letters in January saying "we are going to stop production on April 1", they sent out letters in mid-April saying they already had stopped production.
I can understand why they did it after the fact (didn't want to affect sales), but I suspect they will use the same approach should they stop producing the film we use.
the announcement was made public on the japanese site at the very beginning of february. i only noticed it just now. i did ask dirk rosler of megaperls if the price increase was already reflected in the current pricing and the answer is yes.
i always drag my feet too long and missed the last of the bulk rolls of neopan and super presto... and now this!:bang:
mrtoml
Mancunian
It's the price of silver that has gone up. Ilford are also increasing their prices. Not necessarily to do with falling demand.
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