My discontinued film stash

Which colour negative film should I shoot next?

Like a lot of photographers, I tend to hoard cameras, camera accessories, and film.

The Mrs / Canon Sure Shot 105 + Fujifilm C200

This year I’ve decided to shoot my stash of discontinued film.

So here are the contenders in this first “which film should I shoot next?” post. I’ve kept it to 4 Fujifilm colour negative films.

Fujifilm C200

This ‘Made in Japan’ stock was the cheapest colour negative film in Australia circa 2020. Costing around $5 USD a roll at the time, I wasted many a roll testing cameras, thinking it would be around forever.

Although it’s a consumer stock, it gives fantastic results, with vibrant colours and natural skin tones. You can hear more about why this is such a much-missed film in this YouTube short from my buddy Lucy.

Fujifilm Pro 400H

A favourite of wedding and portrait photographers, Pro 400H has a fine grain and wide dynamic range. It was very popular to overexpose this stock, resulting in soft pastely tones.

I only have one roll of Pro 400H in 35mm, but I have a couple of pro packs of this stock in 120.

Spring blossoms, Southern Queensland / Fujifilm Klasse S + Fujifilm Pro 400H

Natura 1600 / Superia 1600

This excellent low-light performer was sold as Superia 1600 in North America. In Japan it was renamed Natura to match the name of a line of cameras with the same name.

The film has a soft natural colour palette and relatively fine grain for high speed colour film. Generally, higher speed colour film doesn’t age well, so this is ripe for shooting.

Izakaya, Nihonbashi / Fujifilm Natura Black f1.9 + Natura 1600

Fujicolor 100 (aka Fuji Industrial)

I’d long heard other photographers talk about the wonderful and cheap Fuji Industrial films, but I’d never tried it. Marketed as industrial film and sold in bulk packs, it was functionally similar to consumer-grade emulsions.

Under the influence of wine, I managed to bag a few rolls from Japan in a late night eBay purchase. I’ve shot one roll of it and loved the results.

Gold Coast vine / Contax G1 + Fuji Industrial 100

You can see more photos from this roll in this post below.

Well done to everyone who got most or all of my ‘film or digital’ questions right in my last post. See you next time!

Cheers

Matt