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Heads Up: Film Photography is About to Get More Expensive

Chris Gampat
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10/04/2022
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm Acros NEOPAN 100 II review product images 2.81-100s400 4

Last Updated on 10/04/2022 by Mark Beckenbach

Film photographers often have more than enough to panic about. But one thing we all complain about is the price. That’s why many of us use film alongside digital. With the latest news from Fujifilm, prices might be going up again. What’s worse: it’s going to affect all of film photography.

In a recent statement to the press, Fujifilm announced that chemicals and paper would be facing a price increase. If you don’t read their announcement carefully, you’d think it’s just the paper. And if it were just the paper, then you just wouldn’t order prints. But the news pertains to chemicals too. That’s bound to annoy a lot of us and, combined with the lack of regulation in pricing within the film photography world, it gets even more frustrating.

Here’s the official statement from Fujifilm:

To accommodate the increased global costs of raw materials, energy, and the rise in transportation and logistics expenses, FUJIFILM North America Corporation will implement a moderate price increase on consumables products. Effective October 15, we will increase prices 15% for all Fujicolor Crystal Archive color paper types (excluding control strips and display materials), C-41 and E-6 film and RA-4 paper chemicals, cartridge chemical start up kits and other starters, as well as acetic acids, hydroxides, and all other additive chemicals.

At Fujifilm we recognize the extreme importance that photography has in our society. As a longstanding innovator of photography products, we are proud to continue to provide high-quality products and services at a reasonable cost and that also contributes to a robust and healthy photo ecosystem.

The film photography community has seen some major and drastic changes for a few years now. Back in 2019, prices weren’t changing much, but when 2020 came around a whole lot evolved. Brands began saying that film was becoming profitable, although still only slightly. Other brands say it was just a lot of hype, even today.

It seems, according to the brands, that the prices are going to have to continue to increase to make it sustainable for them. In case you didn’t know, Fujifilm makes pretty much all the chemicals for development on the market. There are some by Kodak and other brands, but most of what’s developing your film are Fujifilm chemicals.

We reached out to a few companies to comment on how this might affect them. Only Blue Moon Camera responded. According to Jake Shivery, Owner of the store, it’s something that they’re monitoring closely.

“This is certainly on our radar, and we’re approaching it like we typically do – back-stocking as much as possible to delay the price increases as long as we can,” says Jake. Indeed, this means that brands will be hoarding as much of it as possible.

Jake continued:

“I don’t have a firm answer on when, but we generally look at lab pricing at the end of each year, and consider increases in material, increases in labor, turn-around time and volume all at the same time.  Ultimately, the short answer is “yes.”  What I can’t tell you right now is “when.”  

Let’s just hope that the price of silver doesn’t make things with film photography even more complicated. How do you feel about all this?

blue moon c-41 Cameras chemicals Development e-6 film film photography fujifilm jake paper
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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