(news & commentary)
Kodak film prices will be going up on June 1st, at least in Japan. It’s unclear whether this is a global price increase or just a delayed response to the yen’s slide against other major currencies.
The price increases are variable, ranging from 30% to 80% in the T-Max 35mm line. 4x5 users will find T-Max 400 increases 120% for 50 sheets.
The high percentages of the increases would tend to indicate to me that we’ll see global increases, as they’re more than the yen slide would demand. Indeed, “lower global demand and high raw materials prices” were quoted as reasons for the increases.
If you do a lot of film shooting, it probably pays to be keeping a reasonable stock in your refrigerator until ideal storage conditions. We’ve had a steady increase in prices and removal of less popular stocks for several years now, and there’s no end to that in sight.
