Its my fav film, and the only film I used to shoot in medium format (tried kodak ektachrome as a replacement, no bueno). Been out of the market for a while, and wanting to shooting film again, lo and behold, cant find it anywhere!
Any of you folks have any tips to get the film at a reasonable price. Thanks.
Amazon Japan has five-packs for ~$100 USD. Sold by Amazon and ships from Amazon to the US. I've never purchased through Amazon Japan, but that sounds like a workable solution.
It seems to show up in film stores randomly. My lab here in Montréal got a supply of Provia 100, Velvia 100, and Velvia 50 in 120 earlier this year and rationed it out: no more than 2 rolls per customer per week. It all sold out pretty quickly; I managed to snag a roll of Provia and a couple of Velvia.
I've seen other recommendations for using Amazon Japan so that's probably your best bet.
While nothing beats slide film, Ektar in 120 can get you kind of close under the right conditions (avoid full sun).
I'm confused about what exactly Fuji is doing with Provia and Velvia at this point.
I thought the reasoning behind discontinuing Astia and the others was that sales were not sufficient relative to the combination of (a) how much has to be produced at once to make it economical but then (b) its shelf life.
But now they can't keep stuff in stock, so insufficient demand doesn't seem to be the problem.
I heard somewhere that new production has stopped, and at this point they are just periodically taking small batches out of their stock pile from the freezer.
theHUN wrote:
I heard somewhere that new production has stopped, and at this point they are just periodically taking small batches out of their stock pile from the freezer.
It is just a rumor I read on the internet, but the constant lack of inventory seems to support this. Once I am done with my stock pile of Astia and Velvia 50 I will probably move over to Ektar.
theHUN wrote:
It is just a rumor I read on the internet, but the constant lack of inventory seems to support this. Once I am done with my stock pile of Astia and Velvia 50 I will probably move over to Ektar.
Ektar is a nice film with a little bit of magic of its own, but it's not the magic of Velvia 50, at least IMO.
A Denmark-based company always stocks fresh Provia 100F 120 film, priced around $89 per pack. I managed to get 7 packs and even received a 10% discount!
