Fuji Super 8

[roxics]

Can someone clairify to me why fuji and agfa and ilford don't make film for the super 8 format? Velvia would be nice to have.

[pcg]

Economics. economics, economics.

When the Super 8 phenomena sputtered & fell to its knees in the advent of video, the big film manufacturers slowly bailed out, one by one. Kodak remained.

That's why we walk a razor thin line when we criticize Kodak for their lack of product. If they bail out (which remains unlikely because they apparently sell a ton of S8 film worldwide), we're left w/ Pro8mm in the US & a few oddball third country makers...

But it wouldn't hurt to email Fuji to complain! Having Velvia in S8 would be incredible. Talk about saturation!

/Pat

[Konton]

Well Fuji still makes it's Single-8 film. It's just too bad it stopped making the sound single-8 film back in 1999.

[chas_ucla]

I would be curious, numbers-wise to see how Fuji Single-8 sells compared with K-40. If K-40 is supposedly selling so well these days you'd think Fuji or some other company that is known for color-saturated film would want to jump on the bandwagon...

I guess it still boils down to not being economically feasible...

[roxics]

Did super8sound once make velvia? I can remember having a priceless a couple years ago that I thought listed velvia on it for a price tag of $45.

I see the economical downsides. I would be nice but guess it won't happen.

[pcg]

I agree with Nigel. I switched a long time ago to Fuji & shoot a lot of 2 1/4 film. With the exception of Tri-X, the Kodak film essentially sucks. Fuji has cut into Kodak's sales for the last decade & it is due to two basic factors: price & quality.

The Fuji film is an absolute delight to shoot. But I think we're daydreaming that we'll ever see it in S8. Fuji isn't about to make Super 8 stock, & as was noted in the last post, Kodak isn't about to use Fuji film in their cartridges...

/Pat

[Nigel]

I think it is a bit more complicated than that. I don't think Kodak would really like a film from another company in their cartridges. If it were so simple I am sure it would be done. Since in my opinion Fuji is a much nicer film overall. I really hate Kodak stocks. It really sucks that I have to shoot them at all.

[roxics]

So Kodak owns the cartridges? I thought that it was just a community standard like 35mm film canisters or the 16mm film format in general.

Well I would still think the could make a deal though I also wouldn't expect anything. After all Velvia is't even available in 16mm. I wish it was, but oh well. I'm just glad to see kodak release vision 200.

[chas_ucla]

Yeah, I don't get this. What is to prevent Fuji from just making their own S-8 cartridges and putting their film in it? If other companies like AGFA did this in the past?

[pcg]

Same old problem: cost.

Economics dictate that there has to be sufficient return to invest in the machinery. The S8 market is growing, but whether it is really large enough for another mega corporation to compete w/ Kodak is unknown.

And Kodak isn't about to share its proprietary sales info w/ Fuji or anyone else...

/Pat