Buying Fuji Natura 1600 film is expensive!

[ornate_wrasse]

My nephew is going back to Japan this weekend to visit his Japanese in-laws. He has offered to bring me something from Japan. I actually posted about this in an earlier thread.

I decided I wanted to get Fuji Natura 1600 ISO film. I really miss having a 1600 ISO film around for low light work.

I told him I wanted to buy 15 rolls of the film. He just emailed me and told me that it costs nearly $35 for a pack of 3 rolls and that it will cost about $170 for 15 rolls 😱 Now I'm used to paying dearly for Fuji Velvia (one of my favorite color films) but at $10.66 per roll, this is a bit much!

What would you all do? I realize how much I buy is entirely up to my budget and the size of his carryon, but I wanted to primarily gauge whether you all think that it costs too much per roll.

It's also possible to bring some film back for other RFF members if any of you are interested. This would of course be limited in quantity as he won't be putting any film in his checked baggage for obvious reasons.

So, what do you think of buying Fuji Natura 1600 film? Everything I've read about this film, BTW, indicates it's quite good for low light situations.

Ellen

 

[Tim Gray]

I'd buy some Portra 800 instead.

But that's just me.

 

[Paddy C]

I bought some ages ago and, of course, never used it. So it's still sitting in the fridge and probably not reliable anymore.

At any rate...I thought that sounded awfully expensive so I checked Japan Exposures shop and it's Y3,354 which is 43 USD at the current exchange rate.

This must have gone up in addition to the exchange rate because there's no way I paid that much for it.

For me, that's too much per roll. I would only spend that kind of money on Provia 400X.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

At any rate...I thought that sounded awfully expensive so I checked Japan Exposures shop and it's Y3,354 which is 43 USD at the current exchange rate.

It's a bit cheaper at Yodobashi, according to my nephew:

http://www.yodobashi.com/富士フイルム-FUJ...1600-フジカラー-36枚撮り-3本パック/pd/100000001001346015/

 

[gavinlg]

Consider getting some new portra 400 and just exposing/developing it at 1600. It's probably less grainy than nature 1600 anyway (seriously).

 

[thegman]

Superia 1600 is a bit cheaper on eBay, but I agree with fdigital I think Portra 400 is *the* fast film to use right now, it'll easily do 800 and probably 1600 too. Also I understand Provia 400X pushes to 1600 quite easily, but I've never done it.

Fujifilm 800Z surprised me too, it's quite a nice film.

 

[jvan01]

Do you shoot Portra 400 @ 1600 then push it 2 stops?

 

[raid]

My nephew is going back to Japan this weekend to visit his Japanese in-laws. He has offered to bring me something from Japan. I actually posted about this in an earlier thread.

I decided I wanted to get Fuji Natura 1600 ISO film. I really miss having a 1600 ISO film around for low light work.

I told him I wanted to buy 15 rolls of the film. He just emailed me and told me that it costs nearly $35 for a pack of 3 rolls and that it will cost about $170 for 15 rolls 😱 Now I'm used to paying dearly for Fuji Velvia (one of my favorite color films) but at $10.66 per roll, this is a bit much!

What would you all do? I realize how much I buy is entirely up to my budget and the size of his carryon, but I wanted to primarily gauge whether you all think that it costs too much per roll.

It's also possible to bring some film back for other RFF members if any of you are interested. This would of course be limited in quantity as he won't be putting any film in his checked baggage for obvious reasons.

So, what do you think of buying Fuji Natura 1600 film? Everything I've read about this film, BTW, indicates it's quite good for low light situations.

Ellen

Sell the camera. This is what I did.

 

[Tin]

Reading the OP from Canada, I really don't know what you guys are complaining about. I just checked. At Vistek, 800Z is listed as $13.99, and $100F is $19.99. These prices, as I can remember, are higher than a few years ago, but certainly not way out of line with the normal prices of yesterday.

http://www.vistek.ca/search/-Fuji/fILM.aspx?n=1&r=31

Not that I am saying that these are not expensive, but these are not out of line with historic prices. I can still remember in the late 1960s when I was attending university in the USA, prices of Kodachrome and Dynachrome (re-badged Ferrania) were in the $3.30 range. Accounting for inflation, that is probably equivalent to at least $25-30 in today's dollars. (Likewise in those days, I remember a new VW Beetle was selling for about $2,000, and a mid-sized America car about $3,000. SO compared to today;a car prices, an 8 to 10 times price inflation should not be unexpected.) If nothing else, I can argue that the quoted price of $10.66 is a bargain.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

Reading the OP from Canada, I really don't know what you guys are complaining about. I just checked. At Vistek, 800Z is listed as $13.99, and $100F is $19.99. These prices, as I can remember, are higher than a few years ago, but certainly not way out of line with the normal prices of yesterday.

http://www.vistek.ca/search/-Fuji/fILM.aspx?n=1&r=31

Not that I am saying that these are not expensive, but these are not out of line with historic prices. I can still remember in the late 1960s when I was attending university in the USA, prices of Kodachrome and Dynachrome (re-badged Ferrania) were in the $3.30 range. Accounting for inflation, that is probably equivalent to at least $25-30 in today's dollars. (Likewise in those days, I remember a new VW Beetle was selling for about $2,000, and a mid-sized America car about $3,000. SO compared to today;a car prices, an 8 to 10 times price inflation should not be unexpected.) If nothing else, I can argue that the quoted price of $10.66 is a bargain.

This is what I'm comparing it to:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_search.php?q=film&rfnc=1102&mfg=38&catsel=all&

And, yes, I did purchase a VW Beetle for $2,000 🙂 But compared to the Freestyle prices of Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 ISO and 800 ISO in the link above, a four pack (of a roll of 24 exposure film) costs $13.99 and $14.99 respectively. This is why I think the Fuji Natura film is expensive.

 

[Tim Gray]

I know shooting Portra 400 at 800 or 1600 and pushing is all the rage online nowadays, but I'd still rather shoot Portra 800 at 800 if I needed the speed. It's a great film.

 

[Tin]

All I can say that you are lucky to have Freestyle, the Vistek link that I quoted earlier shows a 3-pack Superia 400 for $24.99.

 

[Ranchu]

I'm under the impression that Natura 1600 and Superia 1600 are the same film, but the Natura has some code on the cassette to manipulate the Natura camera's program. 2 extra stops below some point... If you're not using a Natura camera, I don't think there's any difference. I could be mistaken, but that's my understanding.

 

[Paddy C]

Reading the OP from Canada, I really don't know what you guys are complaining about. I just checked. At Vistek, 800Z is listed as $13.99, and $100F is $19.99. These prices, as I can remember, are higher than a few years ago, but certainly not way out of line with the normal prices of yesterday.

http://www.vistek.ca/search/-Fuji/fILM.aspx?n=1&r=31

Please do not be too offended, but if you buy film in Canada you are nuts. NUTS. Vistek and Henrys are complete rip-offs and I will only buy from them in-store, in an absolute emergency. Otherwise, I buy from B&H and order enough to offset the shipping (which doesn't take much).

I went to Henrys today because I wanted a bit of colour for my upcoming trip. Portra 400NC/VC was $10.50 a roll. B & H has it for $6.

 

[Ranchu]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize Superia 1600 was gone from Japan, too. Your yodobashi store link doesn't have it so I assume that's what that means. That said, I did like the superia 1600 that I shot, I liked it better than the rest of the superias. If you want 1600 it does a credible job, with decent indoor color. I'll miss it!

 

[Luna]

Since digital photography has come, did you think film photography was going to become cheaper?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Fuji discontinued their color 1600 films a while ago, which is why everyone is charging so much for it. Unfortunately, Kodak's fastest color film is just 800, so for high speed film, you'll have to go black and white with Tmax 3200 or Ilford Delta 3200

 

[Thardy]

Sell the camera. This is what I did.

You mean go digital for high ISO work? Makes sense to me.

 

[raid]

I had a Natura Black for one year. It was too automated with several quirks.
Using the Natura film was one of them.
Either use high ISO B&W film or go digital.

 

[mackigator]

I shot a few rolls side by side with Superia 1600 (Superia was fresh, Natura was Ebay from Hong Kong) and couldn't tell the difference. I believe they are the same film.