Time for Fuji to drop "film" from its name

[philipus]

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I was at Photokina yesterday and visited the Fuji section. They had one little bit about film, see below. Interestingly they showed several dead films.

 

As a film photographer this pisses me off. Fuji is "on mission to preserve the culture of photography"? Really? It seems to me they are doing everything they can, and quite a fine job too of, killing film photography. And they are basically handing Kodak a free monopoly. 

 

In the middle of the resurgence of film I am wondering if they are not making a similar mistake as Kodak did when they overlooked the digital train which eventually ran them over. 

 

It's about time Fuji dropped "film" from it name.

 

Philip

 

[Photon42]

They could successfully call themselves "Fujifilmsimulation"     

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[earleygallery]

Would you rather that they dropped film products altogether?

 

They still make film - don't forget Instax and motion picture products as well by the way.

 

At the end of the day it's up to them what they decide to call themselves. I mean look at Starbucks? They call themselves a coffee shop!

Edited September 29, 2018 by earleygallery

[dkCambridgeshire]

The 'pissed off' film user fails to see the broader picture regarding the Fujifilm brand name. 

 

Fujifilm Holdings' 'Fujifilm' brand is very well established and covers many different products and services … please check out all the Fujifilm Holdings companies. 

 

Just because some 'pissed off' film user doesn't approve of the brandname, they ain't gonna change their established 'handle'.

 

Furthermore, corporate name changes cost $$millions.

 

Fujifilm is here to stay … and it will go on … and on .. and on … regardless of 'pissed off's' disapproval of same. 

 

dunk 

[otto.f]

Perhaps Fuji is waiting for the competition to see what films they drop to decide which film Fuji will bring back again themself. I may be a bit suspicious but that possible strategy crossed my mind when Kodak brought back the Ektachrome last month.

[250swb]

Mr Rolls and Mr Royce are both dead, time to drop the name.

[frame-it]

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"Fujifilm is examining possibilities of bringing back its black and white films."

 

 

They probably have to think of a way to make it more environment friendly

 

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Edited September 29, 2018 by frame-it

[willeica]

Mr Rolls and Mr Royce are both dead, time to drop the name.

 

So is Mr Leitz. The problem about the digital train is that it is also running over the people who started it, including the camera manufacturers.  The instant picture capabilities of digital initially gave the industry a boost but now, as it develops, it is threatening to eat up the industry. Everyone is in survival model and diversification is the order of the day and that should include film. Film cameras are likely to survive longer than the latest and greatest digi-wonders. The best way of ensuring the future of film is buy plenty of it. Fujifilm made more than enough film to be 'entitled' to their name.

 

William

[adan]

"Film" covers a lot of products beyond "stuff photographers can put in their Leicas." If Fuji dropped every one of their consumer-photography films, they would still make a lot of "film," and thus deserve the name Fujifilm.

 

At the extreme, of course, "film" just means a thin coating or layer of material, and if one has the technological experience in making those precisely, there are lots of films one can make, from plastic wrappings to thin-layer reinforcing materials.

 

But even closer to home, there are "industrial" graphics-arts and radiographic (x-ray) films, and microfilm for document archiving. Which at their peak, were a very large proportion of the "photo film" business, both in volume and income. A single newspaper's backshop ran through more square meters of graphics-arts film (Kodalith, for example) in one edition than many photographers shoot in a year.

 

And, of course, "photography" has been done on glass and even metal plates (tintypes, daguerrotypes), so while the graphics-arts films have given way to "direct-to-plate" imaging onto printing plates, that is still a photographic process - a laser-sensitive emulsion (a film itself) coated directly onto the final plate.

 

Equally, photographic paper is a "film" product that uses (and requires) the same knowledge and expertise in chemical imaging as Provia or 400H or ACROS. Just with paper behind it, instead of transparent plastic.

 

Just a few of Fuji's "film imaging" products (that one can't see at photokina, or buy in a camera store):

 

https://www.makeanoriginal.com/products/photo-papers/

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/graphic_arts_printing/offset-printing/plates/index.html

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/measurement-films/uvscale/film/

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/measurement-films/thermoscale/film/

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/measurement-films/prescale/film/

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/microfilm/duplicating_films/index.html

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/motion_picture_archive_film/index.html

[250swb]

Fujifilm made more than enough film to be 'entitled' to their name.

 

William

Maybe irony doesn't translate, but Fujifilm is indeed a great name to call a company.

[philipus]

Well it's only like your opinions. I disagree. I think I am not alone in associating Fujifilm with camera films, rather than industrial products (but thank you Andy for pointing me to those other "film" products they make).

 

The photokina display was dishonest at best I think. I really like Fuji. In fact it's been my most-used film brand since I started with photography, in particular their slide films. So what I am getting at is not so much the name as such but their lack of commitment to film photography.

 

I agree though that brand names are major investments and something one wouldn't want to easily give up. Just look at how cigarette and tobacco manufacturers have to see their hard-earned brands vanish among pictures of various diseases on the packaging.

[M9reno]

I do rather resent that two years ago Fuji killed off Polaroid packfilm, a technology that Polaroid invented but agreed many years ago to share with Fuji.

 

Florián Kaps was unable to persuade them not to destroy their machines, and to sell them on to him or others who would put them to use.

 

A case of selfish vandalism, it seems to me, since keeping packfilm alive in other hands appears unlikely to have affected Fuji or competed against their Instax line.

 

At best it allowed Fuji a tax write-off, at the cost of driving a venerable and beautiful film technology extinct.