Fujifilm Says Superia Premium Is Still in Production Despite Its Unavailability

Fujifilm Superia Premium is so difficult to find that many have, for some time, believed it to be discontinued. Evidence of that stacked up this year when Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera, and other Japanese camera stores listed it as discontinued, but Fujifilm says that label is inaccurate.

This conversation all started earlier this year when PetaPixel reader Phil Knall, who is based in Japan, noticed that multiple camera stores there had cleared the shelf space that had once been reserved for Superia Premium 400.

“It started when I went to buy some film at Bic Camera, and noticed they had completely removed the shelf space for Superia Premium. I asked the clerk, and she said that it was out of production,” Knall tells PetaPixel.

Knall says that both Bic Camera and Yodobashi’s websites also list Superia Premium as “販売完了,” which directly translates to “sales completed” and is most often read as “discontinued.”

“I talked to some friends about it but none of us could find an actual source — it’s not on Fuji’s website or anywhere else. So I asked [Fujifilm directly] and, against all odds, got a reply.”

Knall’s email to Fujifilm was sent in Japanese, which very likely helped him get a real response. He shared the email with PetaPixel, which verified its authenticity:

Thank you for your continued patronage of Fujifilm products.

We are writing to you regarding your inquiry about the availability of “SUPERIA PREMIUM 400.”

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused to our valued customers due to the current unavailability of “SUPERIA PREMIUM 400.”

“SUPERIA PREMIUM 400” is still in production. Due to various factors, including raw material procurement, production volume remains limited, but there are currently no plans to discontinue production.

As PetaPixel has reported, stores like Bic Camera or Yodobashi Camera will label a camera product as discontinued or “sales completed” when they are no longer able to obtain the product in what they determine to be a reasonable timeline. The “sales completed” more refers to the store’s ability to sell it, not the company’s decision to make it.

For example, Japanese retailers listed the Pentax K-3 III as discontinued last January, but the camera remains available and in stock in the United States still today. The same can be said of the Canon 6D Mark II DSLR, which was labeled as discontinued way back in February 2024, but that camera also remains available and in stock today. Most recently, last year Yodobashi Camera and Map Camera labeled the original Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, released in 2019, as discontinued or having completed its production run, but Nikon confirmed to PetaPixel that the lens would remain an active part of the company’s optical lineup.

Film, especially Fujifilm film, is a different beast, however. Fujifilm’s communication around film availability is inconsistent and disjointed. For example, Superia Premium isn’t even listed on Fujifilm’s main website or official film website, despite the fact that Fujifilm just this week directly confirmed it’s still in the manufacturing pipeline.

According to camera store owners in Japan and in the United States, Fujifilm is still accepting orders for many of its films — slide film like Provia and Velvia included — but the company cannot give any store lead time on when it would be delivered. It is still being delivered, though: last week, Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland received an order of 35mm Velvia. That said, it was just a scant five rolls. Last year, Fujifilm delivered an order of Provia to Blue Moon but it too was a similarly low volume.

The going theory from those store owners — and this is just speculation since Fujifilm has not commented on it — is that the company only makes film when it has enough orders pooled. How many orders that is and if that means completely new, fresh film or if Fujifilm just thaws and cuts film from a frozen master roll, is unclear.

At least in the case of Superia Premium, it sounds like Fujifilm is still planning to actively manufacture new, fresh film, given the email above citing issues with procuring raw materials. The jury is still out on if that applies to Fujifilm’s slide film, though, which many speculate has not been in active production since before the COVID 19 pandemic and everything out there right now is being cut from frozen stock.

Image credits: Elements of header photo licensed via Depositphotos.