FP-100C discontinued

[wjlapier]

B&H had this in the order summary:

In red: more to come

Then:

Estimated Delivery:
Expedited Delivery : 3 Day Delivery


What does all of this imply? Is the film back-ordered or did I manage to sneak in an order that is being filled?

MORE COMING SOON
Ship Time: 7-14 business days
Free Expedited Shipping on Orders over $49

Looks like it might be up to two weeks before they get more stock in. Price went up too from yesterday. $10.99 to $12.99.

 

[raid]

WOW. We have reached this stage where people give up their Land cameras .....

Nice move though!

 

[raid]

It is still cheapest at Adorama and B&H

Looks like it might be up to two weeks before they get more stock in. Price went up too from yesterday. $10.99 to $12.99.

 

[Skorpiius]

Probably hopeless, but a petition. Over 5500 signatures in 24 hours

https://www.change.org/p/fujifilm-save-fujifilm-fp100c-instant-films

 

[Mackinaw]

.......What does all of this imply? Is the film back-ordered or did I manage to sneak in an order that is being filled?

Fuji may have several thousands packs stored in some warehouse. It may take several days for the film to make it from there to B&H.

Jim B.

 

[GarageBoy]

Now that I've calmed down... Gotta drop by adorama and try to get a few packs for my graflex xl back that I just got...

 

[Faintandfuzzy]

The folks at New55 say that this could never happen. It would cost tens of millions to take over the equipment and formulation, and even then you could not equal the quality of Fujifilm's product. The market does not exist to support this kind of investment.

Impossible Project is barely holding on, and that's with a well-known mass-market product and millions of cameras available for essentially free. It would kill them to take on another complicated product with a much smaller potential market.

Can you provide links to show how the Impossible Project is barely hanging on and where the New 55 say it would take 10's of millions to take over Fuji's product. I havent seen anything on this.

 

[Faintandfuzzy]

Probably hopeless, but a petition. Over 5500 signatures in 24 hours

https://www.change.org/p/fujifilm-save-fujifilm-fp100c-instant-films

And it gained another 1000 in three hours. Seriously....if everyone of those people boight a pack a month it amounts to 78,000 packs a year. I think they can sustain that.

 

[farlymac]

WOW. We have reached this stage where people give up their Land cameras .....

Nice move though!

I did it once before when the roll film ran out, Raid. I missed that stuff, but I can't say I'll miss the pack film cameras. My 110B was the neatest Polaroid I ever owned.

PF

 

[nhchen]

Rats! And I only just figured out to attach an electronic flash to my 350 camera to use the FP-100c in low light instead of the FP-3000b.

nathan

 

[Harry Caul]

Sad day 🙁

I just bought 50 packs through multiple outlets -- all are backordered though. Fingers crossed they ship. I already have a chest freezer converted to fridge to hold my remaining ~50 packs of FP3000b. Such a shame it's come to this...

Once my instant film runs out completely, the retirement plans for my 195 & 180 are to use one for wet plate and if possible mod the other to shoot 120 film at roughly 6x9.5.

 

[mani]

Bellamy at JapanCameraHunter thinks the discontinuation has nothing to do with actual current demand for the film:

http://www.japancamerahunter.com/2016/03/film-news-fujifilm-discontinues-peel-apart-instant-film/

 

[joe bosak]

Luckily (for me) I just sold my only camera capable of using this film a few weeks ago. Though the few times I used FP-100C I hated the hassle and the mess, I can understand others not feeling the same way.

Always a pity to see older technology being discontinued. There's not necessarily a right or wrong, or a clear "makes business sense" either way. Companies have their strategies and plans and intentions, this clearly wasn't one of Fuji's. I'd guess they want to concentrate on more innovative and preferably higher value/margin products that can sustain the kind and size of firm they are longer term. This kind of thing is better left to small specialists like those already mentioned.

The hassle and mess with this stuff is presumably what divides it from Instax, and explains why Instax is popular and pack film is now a niche product with niche producers.

 

[Kent]

Prices are already rising!

The shop where I bought my last pack (some weeks ago) for €15,- now offers a pack for €22,-!!

 

[FPjohn]

How come no market for an Instax 3x4 graphic back? Lomo had an instax back for one of their 120 cameras at one time.

yours
FPJ

 

[giulio stucchi]

FP-100C was my last choice of film when I was shooting instant (ca 2007-2012) as i much preferred the Polaroid type film (all formats).
I sold all my film stock and cameras in the last couple of year and use the money to move fully on 35mm except for a couple of SX-70 I still use from time to time.
Sad news in any case.

Giulio

 

[RichC]

I wonder if there's a way I could cobble an Instax back onto my Polaroid 250?

 

[HHPhoto]

Bellamy at JapanCameraHunter thinks the discontinuation has nothing to do with actual current demand for the film:

http://www.japancamerahunter.com/2016/03/film-news-fujifilm-discontinues-peel-apart-instant-film/

As so often, he is contradicting himself:
He says that due to his source the real production of this film was already stopped in 2011 oer 2012.
We now have 2016, and there is still stock of this film.
It took about four whole years to sell the last batch.
That clearly indicates how small the demand was.
I well remember when other film types were discontinued. In between weeks to max. 1 year and all the film was gone from the shops and sold.

With all respect to Mr. Hunt: He makes a good job in hunting for used cameras on the Japanese market.
But he has absolutely no knowledge about film production.
In former articles from him about that topic so often it was completely wrong what he wrote.

And he hates Fuji. Always Fuji bashing from him.
No word from him about the fact that Kodak was just about a minute before stopping film production completely in fall 2014 (that is official from Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke).
No word from him about all the price increases at Kodak (the latest by 15% in february).
No word from him about the discontinuation of Kodak films in the last years.
No word from him about the aggressive fight of Ilford against Adox and Foma.

He should do much better in the future.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Waus]

I almost bought an Polaroid 180 last week, but bidding went to high for me (over €250,-). I'm curioius what prices on these Polaroid camera's would do & to see if Impossible would jump into this market...

 

[VTHokiEE]

I wonder if there's a way I could cobble an Instax back onto my Polaroid 250?

I've been searching all over to figure out a way to get something like this. So far everything appears to be more expensive than I'm ready to pay for and I'm not convinced I could DIY. 🙁 I wish I could find a reasonably priced graflok back for my speed graphic and shoot it on that.