Ladies and gentlemen this is a pretty sad start to this year in terms of the film photography community if you guys didn’t already know you can tell by the title already that fuji film has discontinued its pro 400h film stock due to kova 19 kind of uh ruining its uh process for supply chain so they did release an official statement this isn’t like my own words and i didn’t like find this in a rumor mill but uh what they said was fujifilm pro 400h is a unique product that is coated with a fourth layer uh requiring specialized raw materials and chemicals as it has become increasingly difficult to procure the raw materials needed to produce pro 400h we regret to inform you that after careful consideration fujifilm has made the difficult business decision to discontinue pro 400h now this is a huge bummer to um me uh personally because like that is my favorite portrait stock to use a lot of people use porsche 400 portrait 800 sometimes and uh pro 400h was kind of like my selection.
When i started out doing film photography for youtube i guess or like taking my film portraits more seriously i just want to be a little bit more different because portrait partner was a little bit like overhyped it’s great it’s a great film stock that’s why everybody likes it though i’m not talking smack about it at all and it really sucks that it comes at a time too when kodak is raising all of its prices on film stock so with this like holy film boom like i feel like this is the maybe the fifth or sixth year of like the booming or like the third year of like the extreme spike it used to be a lot cheaper alternative from digital uh photography but now not so sure you could pick up a pretty solid camera 600 or less you could even find like old fujifilm xt2s for around like less than 600 maybe and those cameras are very nice you could find a sony a73 for maybe a thousand.
Now so kind of like investing into those systems is not that bad anymore and you wouldn’t have to of course have a reoccurring expense of like uh film stocks and also like scanning developing like those like are also like increasing too as film labs are trying to catch up with inflation catch with rent for the buildings that they are you know using so phil photography is getting a lot more expensive it’s obviously for most consumers like it’s getting a little bit out of hand in terms of pricing but on the flip side of it because there’s always two sides of the coin on the flip side of it uh there are people who are seeing the demand the high high demand for film photography and people are innovating stuff like people are making their own 4×5 cameras people are making their own uh film stocks we could even see the return of like other film stocks like maybe fuji natura 1600 or uh koda chrome but there are like reasons why some of them won’t come back not because of like budget or because of uh low sales.
But because it’s harmful for the environment and we’re trying to you know not destroy this earth because like we are already on a one-track direction of like screwing everything up permanently so maybe some of those film stocks from like back into haiti will never come back because of those consequences but going back to the discontinuation of pro 400h it’s super sad because a lot of things are just getting knocked out a lot of good things are getting knocked out from kovid not only like film stocks but family businesses uh a lot of like landmarks too here in the bay area are getting knocked out there’s two things that i’m thinking about for photographers number one is that it is the best time to jump into film photography right now yes it is expensive but you’re also going to be innovating with like a lot of people that are experimenting and learning the craft the same as you are the same as i am when we all work together the community only grows larger and it only gets better and we get more things.
Because there’s demand for these companies to provide for their consumers for their customer base number two is that because things are changing so much more so in the negative way it’s super important for us to document our own neighborhoods our own cities and film photography can be that medium for you digital is also a great option as well i don’t want to demonize digital photography but here in the bay area especially san francisco there have been a lot of like mom and pop shops a lot of my favorite places that are starting to go under if not already disappeared there’s this restaurant out in north beach area called the house the house is a asian american fusion place i believe my mom and i used to celebrate our birthdays there almost every single year when i was a high school or maybe early college and they’re they’re gone now they don’t exist and they’re not going to be coming back like when kovit is over they’re not going to be there anymore there’s this favorite diner.
That i have out in the sunset district called new terra vale cafe and they’re not doing that great right now the latest news in san francisco like businesses being knocked out is uh the cliff house i don’t know if any bay area natives are watching this video but the cliff house is like one of those like incredible landmarks that are that is sitting on a cliff overlooking uh the beach it’s right above ocean beach if you’re familiar with the area that place has been there for like so many generations and it has been like overlooking the city quite literally for so long and because of like some complications with the national park services and the owners of the restaurant the disagreements have led to like a cancellation of the lease and now it doesn’t exist that place has been like a beautiful spot for hanging out uh for dining if you have the money for it it’s a really it’s a really expensive spot but when the national park services announced that the cliffhouse would no longer be existing.
It only took them two days to rip down the iconic sign i have a picture of where the cliff house sign used to be and it’s so eerie to see just an empty frame where those letters used to be glowing every single night and standing every single morning now is the time of course like following covered protocols and staying safe now is the perfect time to start documenting your neighborhood documenting your life and maybe just like the environment around you because i don’t know if you guys noticed even though the year like kind of turned uh 2021 um things have been like dramatically improved the vaccines are rolling out which is like pretty encouraging and all this other stuff and the longer we do this like the longer that these like places that we used to celebrate with our friends the places that we have made memories and maybe like made a special memory like they’re not going to be there there’s a high chance of that happening and some of these beloved film stocks some of these beloved like pieces of equipment and companies.
That have assisted photographers and have given us tools to create beautiful things they might not be around for that much longer either so with this film stock right here you’re going to be seeing this be sold as expired film in like i don’t know four to five years and it’s gonna be crazy because most of us grew up with knowing what this was if you watched my videos from like earlier last year you know what this was and now they’re not going to be manufacturing it a lot of retailers still have it in stock and i’m sure they’re going to have a some some supply like refresh because like fujifilm probably still has like a lot of like inventory they just can’t make any more so i highly suggest that if you want to get into film photography jump into right now like wait no further you can get like a small cheap little camera cheap is not so cheap anymore but you get the point i feel like now’s the time now’s the time for all of us to start documenting our lives.
Because these are going to be like the relics these are going to be like literal snapshots of history as the world starts to like spin faster and faster and faster and things just like change before our eyes so i really highly suggest that you go out there maybe grab yourself a roll of pro 400h live the glory days with um yourself because we can’t be living in with each other like in close proximity and start recording history because i don’t know when we’re gonna return back to normalcy this video is not really like about like film photography uh as my regular tuesday uploads are but this is an important thing that we should all be doing because we’re all artists each and every one of you that are watching this and i really appreciate you guys watching this but do me a favor go out there and start documenting life because it’s going to be really important before we know it so that’s all i have for you guys today kind of a more serious message i would say but um make sure you subscribe like this video comment down below what you think about the discontinuation of fuji pro 400h what kind of film stock you want to try out before the possibility of it never existing again or i don’t know let me know down below and i will see you guys the next post peace.
