Fujifilm to launch its new digital minilab in Jan '05

Fujifilm will be launching in India its new Frontier 570 digital minilab in January 2005. According to Shammi Gupta, director of Jindal Photo Limited "� the marketers of Fujifilm in India, the minilab will be launched at the Photo Fair to be held in Delhi and will cost around Rs 70 lakh.

Frontier 570 digital minilabs help in reducing the printing time of films or digital media to minutes. They also deliver the highest image quality, besides advanced image enhancement and better print resolution.

Speaking to Business Standard, on the sidelines of 'Fujifilm Super-Six' photography exhibition held here, Gupta said that the company is planning to increase the number of digital minilabs to 500 by March 2005.

Currently, the company has 300 minilabs across the country. "Andhra Pradesh has 10 minilabs at present and we plan to double the number by March next year," he pointed out.

The market share of Fujifilm in India is around 35 per cent. "We are targeting a growth of five per cent this year," Gupta said. He added that Andhra Pradesh contributes to around six to seven per cent of their total market share in India.

"In January 2005, we also plan to organise display contests for our dealers," Gupta said. The contests will be held in 10 hill stations across the country and in the south the focus would be on Kodaikanal and Ooty, he added.

"The digital market has still not developed in India. People tend to buy products from the grey market because of the high cost of digital products. The government should reduce the customs duty so that digital cameras that are priced at about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 now, cost less. The conventional cameras are not yet threatened by digital cameras in India," Gupta said.

Ashok Dilwali, renowned landscape photographer and one of the six brand endorsers of Fujifilm, said that digital cameras are used by him only for studio work as these are very delicate and get damaged by dust. "Since most of my work is outside the studio, I prefer conventional cameras," he added.

Besides photographs by Ashok Dilwali, the exhibition also displayed the works of photographers like Avinash Pasricha, Prabuddha Das Gupta, Prakash Dubey, Rajesh Bedi and Pradeep Mandhani.

Amber Paintal, head of advertising and public relations for Jindal Photo Limited, said that the photo exhibition was being held for the first time in Hyderabad and was earlier held in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi.

He added that Fujifilm was the only brand in the photo film industry in India to be named as Superbrand for 2003-04.