Tag: discontinued

Last chance to order Fujichrome Velvia 50

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Fujifilm press release:

Fujifilm Professional has announced that the final shipment of Fujichrome Velvia 50 has now been received.

This means that once the stock held in the company’s warehouse has been sold there will be no more of the film available.

Fujifilm has been forced into ceasing production of Velvia 50 due to vital raw materials used in the production of the emulsion becoming unavailable.

Despite the withdrawal of Velvia 50, Fujifilm Professional remains committed to the continued production and promotion of professional film. This commitment is illustrated by the launch of three new professional films last year (Fujicolor Pro 160S, Pro 160C and Fujichrome Velvia 100) and there are already plans to launch a further two new professional films in 2006.

While Velvia 50 has traditionally been the favoured film for many photographers there has always been the demand for a film that offers high colour saturation but with higher speed and finer grain – Velvia 100 provides this.

Polaroid to discontinue 85 pos/neg film, 55 unaffected

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The 85 product info page at Polaroid says:

"Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing 85 film within the first 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.

"The discontinuation of 85 does not impact the supply or manufacture of 55 film, an alternative to 85. For information on 55 film and the equipment needed to use it, please click here."

(85 and 55 are unique peel-apart instant films in that you can get either a positive or a negative whereas other instant films only give you positives. 85 is a medium format version, perfect for use in the Holgaroid Polaroid film back for Holgas; 55 is 4×5.)

Unconfirmed rumor: Hasselblad discontinue XPan II panoramic rangefinder

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

According to this post on photo.net, Hasselblad have discontinued the XPan II and have limited stock on hand. I will call Hasselblad on Monday, 16 January 2006 and attempt to confirm with them directly.

While I think it’s a damn shame, I’m not surprised, either. While I haven’t used the XPan II, I have and love the original. It’s built like a brick shithouse, the controls are perfectly laid out for me (except the panoramic/normal 24×36 selecter, which is a pain, but it should be considering what it does), has modern film loading, winds the entire roll out when it loads and rewinds exposed film into the cartridge (why the hell doesn’t every camera do this? If the back opens, I’d much rather lose blank film rather than frames I’ve already shot!), and has the best in-camera meter I’ve ever used.

But! The lenses, the lenses! Only three, slow, expensive lenses (the 30mm weighs in at a hefty US $3000). (30mm f/5.6 (slower with the required center filter), 45mm f/4, and 90mm f/4.) By Leica (yes, I’m going there) standards, the 45 and 90 are reasonably priced at $594 and $730, respectively (pricing from B&H). It seems that Hasselblad missed an opportunity to take a bite out of Leica’s ass with this system. I’m its perfect target market: I shoot film, dig manual focus rangefinders, want aperture priority AE, and belive that if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I should get post stone-age film loading and a shutter with accuracy of greater than 1/3 stop and would have happily bought faster lenses were they available. I think there are more of us out there.

And while I’m perfectly willing to push film to 128000, f/4 is still slow. Even putting aside the obscene price of the 30mm, the required center filter brings it down to almost f/11. I don’t think Hasselblad considered the possibility that anyone would want to use the camera indoors, which is a shame. Until I got into the Contax G2 system (which I love but wouldn’t have done had I had faster lenses to choose from!), it was my take-everywhere, joined-at-the-hip, disappeared-in-my-hands camera, and I loved it. Except the low light thing. (Well then why the hell did I get into the system in the first place? I inherited it.)

Anyway, I’m sad to see it go. It’s a great camera. Almost everyone I know who’s actually spent some time with one loves it. Bye bye, XPan!

Nikon discontinue manufacture of most film equipment

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According to this press release from Nikon UK, Nikon are discontinuing production of most film equipment, including their range of large format lenses.

The flagship pro SLR F6 and the manual SLR FM10 stay, as well as the following manual lenses:

Nikkor 20mm f/2.8
Nikkor 24mm f/2.8
Nikkor 28mm f/2.8
Nikkor 35mm f/1.4
Nikkor 50mm f/1.2
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4
Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8
Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8
PC Micro-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D

Everything else is gone in favor of digital.

I wonder if Zeiss knew about this as they appear to be launching a range of Nikon F-mount lenses (see previous post). I suppose the implications could go either way for Zeiss… there are an awful lot of Nikon bodies out there.

Read the press release at Nikon UK