Fujicolor C200 – one of only two colour negative films to have survived the company’s rounds of discontinuations – is now known as Fujicolor 200 in the US (or Fujifilm 200 on the datasheet).

It’s not like a JCH Street Pan 400, or a CineStill 800T, or a Kodak Ektachrome E100; all of which genuinely are special in their own ways, and are often used to shoot their own specialised kind of photography. Street, neon signs, and colourful inanimate objects respectively. Finally, C200’s image qualities lend themselves to street photography pretty well too. Those more-subdued-than-Kodak hues mean your scenes and skin tones remain realistic, and the low grain and sharpness help keep them clean. That ISO 200 rating is good too, freeing you up to shoot in slightly worse light than you could with the Industrial 100, or any ISO 100 film for that matter. A film that delivers high-quality colour renditions and moderate grain, Fujifilm C200 is forgiving with highlights and known for providing reliable results across different lighting situations.Could professional-grade film have made even better results? It’s hard to say. On a technical level, probably. Some of the skin tones in my C200 photos are just a tiny bit off and the less-than sharpness leaves something to be desired. But then again, color accuracy and biting sharpness isn’t the point of consumer film. The point was to have fun shooting, to capture moments on film, and hopefully get inspired to create even more great images. Technically imperfect though it was, Fuji C200 did a perfect job, and I’d recommend it to any shooter, especially those on a budget. Fuji C200 also performs really well with a flash. In indoor settings or as soon as the sun starts to set, it’s imperative to use a flash with it because of its low sensitivity ( that’s what that 200 ISO means).

Some of the things that make Fujicolor C200 an average film are the very same things that make it a good choice for your street photography. Fujicolor C200 is not like those. As a budget, ISO 200 colour negative film that gives you those more muted Fuji results, and with that dated-looking box design, it’s easy to write it off as the very definition of average.

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Instead of degrading it for not being a special colour negative film like a Kodak Ektar 100 or a Portra 400, I like to recognise it for what it is. A reliable general use film that gives you exactly what you expect, with whatever working camera you have, in almost all good light situations, and at low cost. It also means, if you have experience developing other colour negative films, you’ll be able to do this one yourself too. You can find the datasheet right here. I could leave the article there, but stopping now wouldn’t explain exactly why it felt so important to shoot Fuji C200. I’d be ignoring the alarming situation at hand. There’s nothing special about C200 that makes it especially suited for a trip like the one I’d planned. It’s an entirely nondescript, unglamorous film that simply does the job it’s required to do – render images on film. I could extend that description to most other consumer-grade films; Kodak Gold 200 and Ultramax 400, Superia in all of its forms, and whatever rebranded film masquerades as Lomo films. All of these films are just as unglamorous as Fuji C200, possibly even more so. When compared to other popular, better looking, and widely available professional-grade color negative films like Kodak Portra and Ektar, these films seem like an unnecessary step down. So why trust them with anything important? The answer’s just a little more complicated than one might guess. Forget the iPhone’s Portrait mode, Fujifilm C200 is what you need to capture amazing portraits 😅 Specification Format:

So, what is Fujicolor C200? Well, first up, it’s Fujicolor 200. Second, it’s probably not a film for producing fine art with. But, in my opinion, it’s a pretty good budget film for when you’re just out there preserving memories. As I continue to shoot film and build up experience, I’m finding the more freely I shoot, the more likely it is I’ll have something in the results that I really like. My biggest annoyance is with the pink / magenta color cast. Still not sure whether it's normal or not. Fujicolor C200 (or 200, as it’s now known in the US) is a fine-grained consumer colour negative film which has been in production since 1990. In 2017, the film’s chemistry was revamped boasting “super fine grain technology”. At the same time the more modern Superia 200 colour film was discontinued. After waffling for a few minutes, I made up my mind. I’d bring C200, and only C200, as my film of choice for the trip. The decision made, I was still uneasy.The datasheet for the new Fujicolor 200 film in the US has strong similarities to that of a Kodak colour negative film. The first thing that I noticed after developing the first roll was the pink / magenta cast on most of the film. Unexpected. From what I've read about C200 and what I've seen from other Fuji films - it's green shadows. Not a magenta cast. The cast is not super strong in all pictures but you can definitely feel it. For whatever reason, it is good to see them advancing into the adventure at the same time Fuji is retreating. This review is based on two rolls of C200 - shot and developed. First was shot on a Pentax MZ-5 where I used the camera to do the light metering. About 50% was shot at ISO200 and the other 50% were shot at ISO100. The other roll was shot on Leica M3 with me being the light meter. I did use a light meter from the phone from time to time as well.

I didn't recommend landscape photography for Kodak Gold 200. C200 can handle them better. It won't beat slide film or more professional grade film but together with a good lens - detailed shots are possible. C200 is a C-41 color negative film. Fuji says that it's designed for "flexibility and ease of use". And that part is true. Consumer market films are more forgiving so you can over and under expose a decent amount and still get usable results. On the other hand - the colors might not be as nice and grain can be more noticeable.But some film photographers on Reddit have discovered elements of the film’s datasheet are the same as that of Gold 200 from Kodak, Fujifilm’s historic rival in the realm of colour negative film.