Fujifilm increases prices of film products by 20%

After last week’s similar notice, aimed at the Japanese market, the manufacturer announced that it will increase U.S. film prices by 20%, citing high manufacturing costs. The good news: it’s effective as of July 2013, so there is still time to stock film at regular prices.

Fujifilm has officially confirmed that it will increase film prices for the second year in a row. Around this same time last year, the film company increased prices with the same percent. Just like in 2012, this announcement has been met with criticism, but the manufacturer is going on with it and there is no way to stop this. It will all happen as of July 2013, meaning that film photographers still have some time at their disposal purchase the goods at regular prices.

Tokyo Kenzai’s report chart about Fujifilm business evolution: Red signifies plunging film sales in the course of 10 years (2000-2010). Source: Tokyo Kenzai.

The last decade has been terrible for film format

Film enthusiasts get a fair share of bad news these days, but being a dedicated bunch, they have got accustomed to the barrage of inconveniences that their passion implies. At least they can rest assured that their beloved medium will indefinitely continue to be produced.

Nevertheless, there are only a couple of large film manufacturers left, and even Kodak is in mid-negotiations for selling its film business, planning to focus on inkjet printing.

Increased use of DSLRs and smartphones has contributed to the decline of film, creating almost exclusively digital photo collections, for people worldwide. Let’s just hope electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons will never be developed on a global scale, and fry precious memories-filled hard-disks everywhere, to say the “least”.

Fujifilm increases prices due to high manufacturing costs

In a recent study ran by Tokyo Kenzai, Fujifilm’s case is visually put into perspective, with the use of a pie chart, seen above. The year 2000, although a peak in the first digital boom, still saw the company devote 19% of its business to film. Ten years later, in 2010, the film department was reduced to 1.5%.

Fujifilm’s press release states that escalating raw material prices, including silver and petro-chemicals, and high manufacturing costs have, once again, made film production unsustainable.

The 20% price increase will affect all amateur and professional photographic film, including black and white, color negatives and color reversal films, and also the popular disposable cameras (also known as one-time-use cameras).

For a short-term solution, buy in bulk and stock up by July 1 because this is the date when Fuji’s film gets 20% more expensive than it currently is.