Fujifilm is to restart production of some colour negative films in China, according to reports from Chinese media.
It will start producing “C200” and “C400” colour negative films at a production line in the city of Nanning, in Guangxi province, according to reports on the Xiaohongshu social network which were published on the Reddit subreddit r/AnalogCommunity.
The film will be produced by Yes!Star, which produces medical films such as x-ray films and dental films.
A story on Xiaohongshu said: “On 21 June Fujifilm held a colour film launch conference in Nanning, Guangxi with the theme of “Inheriting the Classics, Reigniting the Passion”. At the conference, Fujifilm happily announced the resumption of production of two colour negative films, Fujifilm C200 and C400, to meet the growing demand for film photography.
“They will be produced by Guangxi Giant Star Medical Equipment Co Ltd, which previously produced medical films for Fujifilm and had experience in OEM of Fujifilm’s civilian high-gloss materials. This time, the film production line was reactivated.”
Another post which has been shared on r/AnalogCommunity shows a tour of the film factory, showing film loaded into the clear plastic canisters Fujifilm traditional used.
It is unclear whether the two films will be Fujifilm’s own emulsions or Eastman Kodak’s Gold 200 and UltraMax 400, which have been packaged as Fujifilm 200 and 400 in recent years. The images shown on various Chinese social media posts show the same packaging which has been used for the Kodak-made Fujicolor films.
The announcement comes amid growing concerns from photographers that Fujifilm – which until recently was the last major producer of colour film competing with Eastman Kodak – has largely discontinued still film production apart from Instax instant film.
The news also comes amid further colour film production in China.
Earlier this year, Shanghai – which already has brought back some black-and-white films – released Shenguang 400 film, which may be a repacked Original Wolfen film.
And a few weeks ago, Lucky Film, which was once the largest colour film producer in China, said it was preparing to bring back colour negative film production by the end of 2024.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
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I’m waiting patiently (and hopefully) for Provia to return to production. Won’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen though.