It’s a sad day folks. As I have waded back into film photography over the past year, there is one film that I’ve really grown attached to: Fujifilm’s FP-100C.
Today, however, Fujifilm announced the end of production for FP-100C. It is the last peel-apart film on the market. As such, it was the only film available for many Polaroid Land Cameras and medium format backs since Polaroid has long ago stopped making peel apart film.
The Google-translated statement from Fujifilm Japan’s announcement is as follows:
Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. (President: Nakajima Naruhaku) is, the instant color film “FP-100C”, will be sold lasts our stock.
Fujifilm, in order to continue to provide instant color film “FP-100C”, so far have had continued corporate efforts, sales volume has declined significantly from year to year, more is a situation that can not be produced . For this reason, we will be forced to sell the end as described below.
This instant color sales of film “FP-100C” is will end, Fujifilm will continue to developing systems that offers access to the photographic film to continue while the review and production efficiency also product line up future .
We will continue our continued support to the Fujifilm product, you look forward to your patronage, thank you.
After many lamented the discontinuation of Fujifilm FP-3000B black and white film, FP-100C became the only peel-apart film left. Film shooters have hoped and prayed that FP-3000B or something similar would come to market again. Obviously, we are well past that point now. Some FP-3000B is still available but prices are surging over $30 per pack for expired film and no shot at replenishing the dwindling stocks.
FP-100C has been back-ordered at B&H and Adorama for awhile now. Amazon has several third-party sellers with stock available; however, prices have already surged over the standard $10.99 retail we are used to and are pushing toward $15 per pack. The best deal on Amazon offers a 5-pack for $61. I already ordered some of these for myself and if you plan on shooting FP-100C in the future, I’d recommend jumping on some of these more reasonable prices before availability and demand pushes prices to the $30/pack range.
I reached out to Fujifilm’s US representatives about it this morning and was told that they have no information for the US market regarding FP-100C at the moment. If and when they update me with more details, I’ll pass it along.
No bones about it though, this simply sucks for peel-apart film shooters.
Update (March 1, 2016): I received an official statement from Fujifilm USA today. It’s not much more than the corporate-speak that you might expect:
As you may have heard, Fujifilm has finalized its production of FP-100C Color Instant Film. While this was a difficult decision, it was necessary in order to remain sustainable in today’s market. Going forward, the supply of FP-100C will be available until the inventory is exhausted.
We’re still sad.
When Dr Land introduced practical instant photography, * he said (in his characteristically hyperbolic manner) that it represented an altogether new human experience.
I can’t tell you how much pleasure pealing apart a great (or even good) photo has been for me, and the people being photographed. The only experience even vaguely related is printing out a digital image with a lunch-bucket printer. That’s fine — but it’s not “magic”.
I was kinda hopin’ FP-100C would be around forever. It’s not to be. (Great stuff, by the way.)
* The Daguerreotype is a form of instant photography.
Hey Eric, you’ve been talking about some Kickstarter film maker lately, perhaps you can talk with them, or……..introduce your own Kickstarter. See how much Fuji wants for the patent and the gear they are mothballing.
This could be big!
That’s CineStill that’s been running an Indiegogo campaign for new 120 roll film and large format film. Really excited about what they’re doing but this is well outside of their niche.
I think Impossible Project would be the one to take a stab at it if anyone can. Based on what I’ve read, the tooling needed to manufacture Polaroid 667 was damaged or destroyed prior to Impossible Project’s acquisition of Polaroid film manufacturing assets. There shouldn’t be patent issues because those would be well expired, so we would be talking about tooling, process and appropriate chemicals.
The other option where I see potential is to convert Instax cameras into medium format backs but that’s a one-off kind of project that is too niche to be economically viable as a business model. There are some very cool custom frankencameras out there that are hand-converted with similar concepts. Those are passion projects though.
I’m hoping someone steps up and doesn’t let Land cameras die completely though. I was just about to pull the trigger on a Land camera to go along with my RB67. But now, I don’t think I will…
“I think Impossible Project would be the one to take a stab at it if anyone can.”
Trouble is, it can’t. For whatever reason, IP simply could not duplicate the integral materials. The results were horrifyingly bad.
If I could have more than one peel-apart material, I like to see ProVivid revived. Super-sharp, with knock-out-your eyes color.
Pro Vivid was FP100C, and was made by Fujifilm for Polaroid.
ProVivid might very well have been made by Fujifilm, but it was not FP-100C. It did not have the extended development time, and more to the point, it had highly saturated colors. FP-100C does not.
There’s an online petition called “Save Fuji peel-apart film” on change.org. If you’re interested, please sign the sign the petition.
Once the demand drops to the point that a product cannot be in continuous production, the cost to set up a production line for it can become prohibitively expensive. Fuji’s decision is probably a practical one based on lack of demand. All the petitioning in the world is not likely to change that.