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Just when you thought everything was going digital, not so fast: high-saturation and vivid color are back, but in 35mm. Due to popular demand from photographers, Fujifilm today announced the re-introduction of its Fujichrome Velvia 50 professional film under the tentative name Velvia II.
Fujichrome Velvia (RVP 50) was the first high color saturation, high contrast transparency E-6 compatible film on the market. It was a big hit with pros when it was introduced in 1990 and remained popular until it was discontinued in 2005. Its discontinuation was due to difficulties in procuring some of the raw materials used to produce the emulsion.
"Since we announced the discontinuation of Velvia 50, we have been inundated with requests from photographers worldwide to continue production," said Christian Fridholm, Director of Marketing, Picture Taking, Imaging Division, Fujifilm USA. "They had used Velvia for many years and consider it unmatched in terms of quality and character…so we took those requests very seriously."
As a result, Fujifilm research and development teams have developed substitute raw materials and new manufacturing technologies that enable the company to restart production. The new film is expected to be available in late spring 2007. The characteristics of the new emulsion supposedly mirror that of the previous product.
Stay tuned for further developments.
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