Robert,
you still have not got the picture:
Jan,
I am personally a big fan of slide film. I have a lot of them even in superslide in twin projectors with 250 watt bulbs. But the main stream is going digital in color
Saying that is just repeating the marketing (or should I say "propaganda"
😉) of the digital imaging industry.
That is completely counterproductive for film.
There is no "law" that colour film will disappear (colour professional film even already has a slight increase).
Look at instant film:
In 2007 / 2008 all the "experts" has told us that instant film will be the first film type disappearing.
And now?
We have indeed a real revival of instant film with growth rates of 20-30% p.a.
Fuji have problems to produce enough and satisfy the demand because of this boom.
And by the way, the negative film base for instant film is coated on the same machines as normal film.
Therefore the film production at Fuji will be continued.
so that left E-6 market is already very small and concerning the E-6 film sales in Europe it is slowly going to a dead end if nothing changes.
What you are saying is: Let's commit suicide because we have fear of death.
I think that is not a senseful strategy for film
😉.
The situation can be changed! Look at instant film. First is to
encourage people to use this unique medium.
Stop this stupid bashing and spreading misinformation about reversal film.
That is what you
- can do
- should do
- can do immediately
- cost you nothing.
Show responsibility and do your part.
Stop the bashing and the negativity.
Others do their part as well.
In Germany e.g. there are already running some projects with success. You could join in for the Netherlands and Flandern (and could profit by higher shop sales, too). You can contact me and I can give you the contact adresses for these projects.
We have even some new labs for E6 worldwide, and some start to do marketing as well.
Film Ferrania is developing a marketing strategy, too.
So there is definitely something positive going on currently.
New interest in the medium also because of the Film Ferrania project.
Let's use this momentum.
There is a real chance for a reversal film revival.
We
can do it, together!
Look here or at apug or aphog: Recently more photographers ask about reversal film and start enjoying it.
That has to be supported!
I knew the Fuji factory in Tiburg (NL) precisely and when this factory closed the Fuji film sales were already dramatically low.
Well, this factory did not close. Fuji is now producing silver-halide RA-4 photo paper there.
By the way: All the "experts" also say that RA-4 will be replaced by inkjet.
And what has happened instead? Now RA-4 sales are increasing again, and inkjet has
not replaced it.
They made a mistake to take out the Neopan films because the market share in B&W for Fuji was already not that big. And now Fuji has only the Acros 100 left which is in technology in fact the best B&W iso 100 film ever made.
Well, Acros 100 is an excellent film, but I disagree that it is the best ISO 100/21° BW film ever made.
But their marketing for this is crap.
That is absolutely right. The marketing from Fujifilm concerning their normal films is really total crap.
But their marketing for Fuji Instax is very good and succesful.
They even make TV commercials in Asia.
What is now needed is that Fuji "gets a kick in the ass"
😉 from all of us to wake up and start marketing for normal film again.
I fear the time when Fuji decides to stop Acros 100 because it is my main film together with pro 400H and Provia 100F. I had already a bad feeling about the discontinued Reala 100. Comparing colors of Reala 100 with e.g. Ektar 100, well Alaris/Kodak will have some things todo then.
I agree concerning Reala. Very nice film, much better compared to Ektar.
You also have to be realistic so film in the future will be the world for smaller companies like Foma, Adox, Ilford, Ferrania and for multinationals like Kodak/Alaris, Fuji probably no place which means in fact not enough profit for the share holders.
Fuji has a much better chance to keep film production alive compared to Kodak.
Because the film production line at Fuji is smaller and more flexible (that is the reason that they can still produce niche films like FP100c, Superia 1600, the slide films; Kodak had to stop all niche films).
And the Fuji film production has a very big support by the instant film boom.
If you look at IP, they never made any profit so what would they expect for the longer future?
They are profitable now. They benefit from the instant film boom. Because they are producing the negative film base for the Impossible films. And Impossible has just announced that they have surpassed the 1 million film pack production p.a..
They will now further increase to 3 mio. film packs each year.
Furthermore IC is producing papers and films for at least three other companies.
For example the Lomo Purple and Tourquiose films are made by them. So they are able to make extremely small production runs.
The Lomo purple batches are only 10,000 films per batch.
Ilford and Foma are not able to produce in such tiny batches.
Cheers, Jan