Instant film shooters will be disappointed to hear that Fujifilm has discontinued its most popular instant film. Stock is still available for some time, but you'll have to hurry if you want to grab a pack before it's gone forever.
Film enthusiasts are especially fond of Fujifilm FP-100C instant film. The stock is quite popular for Polaroid-style cameras and medium format instant backs, known for its typical Fuji colors that mimic the classic Fujicolor PRO 400H film, giving a slightly cool tone with spectacular blues and greens. It's also highly regarded for its exposure accuracy and because it provides a usable negative that can be removed with a bit of elbow grease.
Recently, Fujifilm discontinued both the 4x5 in. and the black and white versions of the film, leaving the 3.25x4.25 in. color version as the only remaining option. Fujifilm Japan recently announced that production will cease this spring, leaving stock available for a few months after that, but essentially putting an end to the usability of Type 100 cameras, sadly. I personally shoot Instax cameras and love instant film both for the nostalgia of holding a tangible capture of a moment and the joy it gives clients. While this route still exists, the loss of an instant film known for its high quality is certainly disappointing.
Do you shoot instant film? What are your thoughts?
There are already rumors floating around that Fuji is going to keep making it due to the feedback this week. I'm skeptical, though, because there was even bigger reaction to FP-3000b's discontinuation and they didn't do anything. IF the rumor is true, my only thought is there is another factor keeping them onboard for now.
FP-3000b is still the bigger loss between the two films.
I haven't heard these rumors yet but I hope they're true.
I have seen film dated to expire 8-2018. Fujifilm sets the expiration date 26 months from date of manufacture. That means the film I have seen was made in June of 2016... pretty recent and they did announce it would cease in Spring of 2016.
Fuji's most popular instant film is Instax, probably by orders of magnitude.
My thoughts exactly. Instax sales are probably hundreds of times greater than peel apart prior to the announcement. It'd be awesome if Fuji shifted their attention to Instax and offered different types of film (a 1600 speed B/W would be killer) and some better hardware. Glad I didn't pull the trigger on a 180 last year.
True, but with this film, people could shoot on Medium Format and get a great look with these instant shots. If only someone could make a mount to use the instax wide to be used on medium format cameras :(
"If only someone could make a mount to use the instax wide to be used on medium format cameras " They do. Nate Weis had done several... link to pics https://www.flickr.com/photos/option8/sets/72157602173090062/
I really wanted to pull the trigger and buy a Polaroid 185 or 190 Land camera a few years back b/c I love instant prints. But I thought to myself, do I really want to spend $500-900 on a camera that will most likely become an expensive paper weight in a few years? Deep down inside I unfortunately knew that all instant film would be discontinued when they got rid of FP-3000b.
From an emotional level and as a photographer, I'm really sad. But in today's world, from a business perspective where company's have to meet quarterly earnings & everyone's pushing smaller mirror-less & DSLR cameras that have great quality, I can see why. The numbers never lie, if it was a money maker, they would not cease production. I also think Kodak's new video film camera will be an epic fail. No one is going to pay $500-800 for a video film camera and then pay 30-60 bucks and have to wait a week or 2 to have it developed and digitized when everyone is filming with their phones.
Buy a Land Camera 250 on ebay for $50 and rewire it to take 3x AAA batteries. The quality jump and few extra stops of light between them isn't worth 10x the money. I shot this last week with my 250.
My ongoing joke using Instagram for these #nofilter Polaroids is coming to an end!
https://www.instagram.com/seanfenzl/
Still have ~150 Polaroids left, and I can't wait to make the most of them.
It is a shame, I used to use the 4x5 version and its fantastic stuff. Understandably theres been a lot of rage about this, and i've seen alot by a large amount by photographers who never used or bought it!! So part of me cant help but feeling that maybe 'we' are part of the problem-they are a business, if its not profitable to them... why should they carry on?'
Fujifilm puts an expiration date of 26 months out from date of mfg. I have seen and have photos of film that is dated 201-8 (August of 2018) and have a friend in Thailand that recently got film with that date. That would mean it was manufactured in June of 2016.
I was at my local camera shop today and they showed me something interesting on the latest shipment of FP100c. The new boxes had an expiration date of September 2018.
I hate to speculate too much but that does mean they made more? Does anyone think this could be the case?
ah, I just saw Vernon's post right before mine.