Japanese film giant Fujifilm is considering reversing one of their most unpopular decisions – the axing of most of their black-and-white film line-up.
According to Japanese media, the company is considering bringing back some discontinued emulsions after popular demand.
The possible volte-face was reported on Yahoo News Japan (from ITMedia News) and became a hot topic amongst Japanese film photographers.
The ITMedia News story quoted a report from Fujifilm saying they had received many requests from film shooters to bring back their black-and-white films and had started examining whether it was possible to bring the emulsions back.
Fujifilm had “not yet solved the problem of raw material procurement difficulties at this stage”, the ITMedia News read, as they had “just started the examination”.
The news comes just months after the apparent axing of Acros 100, the last in the company’s range of professional black-and-white films.
There are no details about which of their films Fujifilm was considering bringing back.
Their black-and-white range also included Neopan, which was available in both 400 and 1600-ISO emulsions. Neopan 1600 was axed in 2010 and 400 two years later.
It comes amid the gradual pruning back of Fujifilm’s film range as the company moves further into digital imaging and cosmetics.
Other recent casualties have included Superia 200, a colour negative film popular with film photographers on a budget.
Meanwhile, rival film giant Kodak announced it would be bringing back Ektachrome slide film in 2017 (the film has yet to hit the shelves, however). A year later it also brought back its P3200 black-and-white film, which has already started shipping to retailers.
- Many thanks to @tokyocamerastyle for help with this article
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).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
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