Update: Within hours of this announcement several online retailers and eBay sellers have increased their prices by up to 40% in anticipation of the April 1st change. Price gouging continues to thrive in 2019. Well done to everyone taking advantage of the situation and thank you all for supporting the community.


Effective April 1st 2019, every single film and photographic paper product sold by Fujifilm will see a “double digit percentage” increase in price according to a new press release.

Fuji color negative Film, color reversal film, Quick Snap cameras and control strips will increase by 30%, and covers:

The exact price increase has not yet been confirmed by the Japanese photography giant, although with wording like, “The minimum increase is expected to 30%“, it is this photographer’s opinion that we can expect it to be much more. Given a current price of $11.99 for a roll of 35mm Provia 100F at B&H, this means a potential post-April 1st price of $15.50 – approximately 20% more than a roll of EKTACHROME E100 at the same store.

Interestingly, INSTAX film was not explicitly mentioned in the official press release, which goes on to state:

Over the past several years, Fujifilm has faced the rising cost of raw materials and logistics. In the past Fujifilm has absorbed some of the costs by undertaking intensive structural reforms and communalization of production facilities, but as a responsible manufacturing company and to provide the high-quality products our customers expect, the company will institute a price increase.

Fuji’s last across-the-board professional/consumer price increase came in 2016, which saw a ~10% increase in price on all “consumer and professional photographic films, including black and white, color negative, color reversal films, as well as One-Time-Use cameras.

Interestingly, Fuji’s Simple Ace single-use cameras saw a standalone price increase in 2018 by up to 30% in some markets (alongside a brand new packaging design).

Fuji remains one of the most commercially prudent film manufacturers today and at the very least, this latest price increase should mean the film business is able to cover its cost as an ongoing concern.

Who knows, if consumers absorb these costs (as they have already done at least four times since 2000), there may one day be an appetite at Fuji Japan to keep it going, perhaps even growing it. Regardless of your personal opinions about the company, this slightly unlikely possibility is a good thing. You can read the official press release here.

Your comments below, please.

~ EM

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38 responses to “No joke: 30%+ price increase on Fujifilm photographic film and paper from April 1st 2019”

  1. However, Fuji has recently re-introduced Neopan 100, which is a good sign.

  2. Let’s just start a movement against buying any Fujifilm digital product – only when our stance of wanting fujifilm to be fujiFILM is clear enough, would those corporate dummies hiding behind numbers would have any real sense of what the market is like.

  3. I am shocked and also I cannot avoid wondering how Fuji chooses the dates for their negative announce… https://t.co/pomYA8vRye

  4. My sense is many don’t know the Fujifilm story, how big they are, and to what degree they had to reth… https://t.co/JNg8crnOfG

  5. At this point, what would be the best thing to do as a consumer? Grab hold of a decent amount of stock, or put that money towards brands like Kodak and Ilford who are still actively breathing life into the community? On the one hand it would be a shame to have no access to Fuji film in the future, or only at cutthroat prices, but on the other hand I feel like maybe it’s better to support those companies that deserve it.

  6. Press release’s wording seems to indicate that Fuji has tried to adapt production infrastructure to d… https://t.co/pL4RDGum1i

  7. If increasing prices is what they have to do to keep film alive within the corporation.. I’d rather t… https://t.co/LKjloV62IT

  8. Acords was s great film (I still have some 120 rolls buyed in Japan last summer) but I think we can g… https://t.co/z7nE0gykRS

  9. Stop buying their digital cameras

  10. Good thing I shoot Kodak film for all my color work. I used to be a die-hard Fuji slide film user bac… https://t.co/3YFKSQ4XEJ

  11. Good thing I shoot Kodak film for all my color work. I used to be a die-hard Fuji slide film user bac… https://t.co/3YFKSQ4XEJ

  12. There was a theory that Fujifilm was mostly just sitting on a giant inventory of stock and had largel… https://t.co/GTv34jdzqf

  13. Figures. Fuji Pro 400H had become my go-to color film for my medium formats. And Acros used to be my… https://t.co/XwxqMXd8Ig

  14. Better to charge more for the product and continue offering it to those who will buy than to cut it altogether. Fuji’s price increase ought to incentivize new competitors to enter the makrket and incumbents to increase their offerings.

  15. Next. I have 200 rolls of Acros 120. Once they’re gone I’m done with 120.

  16. Fuji films are not always the cheapest for what you get. My main concern is whether this price increa… https://t.co/Ob9b7GOj0S

  17. Everyone knows my feelings about this. But what is messed up for me is that if I increase the price o… https://t.co/U4q9bFXwqt

  18. They keep tap, tap, tapping those nails into the coffin….

  19. Brexit is coming and I’m stockpiling Velvia… I imagine Ektachrome in 120 will be similarly priced.

    1. This is nothing to do with Brexit. The increase is global.

  20. Hard to swallow given some of their prices have already more than quadrupled over the last decade (th… https://t.co/I9iCBRCAau

  21. That’s a shame. I really love a few Fuji films. I will keep buying them while I can. Better buy some… https://t.co/NMeIx8nVWH

  22. I guess I’m not too surprised. Fujifilm consumer film was priced pretty low. That why I use it almost… https://t.co/ZGy6lEKZkB

  23. If they are going to charge to keep analog going per demand, bring back discontinued but desired stoc… https://t.co/J3qHTYSdIv

  24. They could charge an arm and a leg, but they simply wouldn’t let PackFilm live on. They seem to be addicted to suicidal commercial strategies – diving into the saturated digital market and ignoring their own strength in traditional products. I made myself a pledge that I would not endorse this and hence I would never get anything in their X-series.

    There’s definitely a resurgence of interest in film, as evidenced by the advent of a large number of new film brandnames, and it’s sad to see how the butt-headed management in the Japanese conglomerate being so determined driving people off film products.

  25. Menwhile, silver prices have gone up by 2.61% in the last year: https://t.co/ep7X22cyOh We can smell… https://t.co/Q9wooewahy

  26. To be fair, rising prices were expected, but this big of a jump is a bit of a shock to consumers.

  27. If Fuji is going to do anywhere near a 30% hike on their slide film I’m out. It might make sense as a business to produce in lower volume at higher margins but I don’t intend to be suckered in to such a place. Provia 100F is something I can just about afford in 120 currently. A 30% hike would ruin that.

  28. It seems like they want people to stop buying their film products

  29. Used Acros for the first time recently and was considering making it my go to B&W. Not anymore!

  30. Future Fujifilm press release – “Due to the falling demand for Fuji film products, the company can no longer support film manufacturing and has, reluctantly, decided to withdraw film production as of (insert date).

  31. Is it just my device, or does this article just stop mid-sentence?

    1. Hmmmm…. That shouldn’t be happening. Try refreshing?

  32. This is only to be expected really, it’ll be interesting to see if Kodak, Ilford etc follow suit or whether this will be a Fuji only thing.

    I like EMs comments about this potentially demonstrating to Fuji the continued demand for film stocks etc, thats uplifting if a little too optimistic for me.

    At least they haven’t discontinued yet another film stock (yet) 🙂

 

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