Fujifilm 400 Color Negative Film Review

Fujifilm 400 Speed Color Negative Film is a new offering by a Japanese manufacturer — made in the USA. This is one of the most affordable film stocks you can find today, yet it’s versatile, colour-accurate, and fine-grained.

This film is a replacement for Fujifilm’s earlier made-in-Japan Fujicolor Superia X-Tra, which, at some point, used a fourth cyan-sensitive colour layer to produce better tonality in mixed lighting — a technology famously used in their legendary Fijicolor Pro 400H emulsion.

I’ll cover the origins of this new film in the first two chapters of this review, but feel free to skip to technical specifications, samples, exposure tips, places to buy, and how much you should expect to pay for this film — below.

In this review: An unexpected alliance? A brief history of rival giants becoming partners. Is Fujifilm 400 the same as Kodak Ultramax? Fujifilm 400 colours. Grain, resolution, sharpness. Dynamic range and exposure tips. How much does Fujifilm 400 cost, and where to buy it. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

An unexpected alliance? A brief history of rival giants becoming partners.

Fujifilm and Kodak have competed directly since 1984.

Fujifilm, founded in 1934, has been manufacturing photographic film for over ninety years. Their distribution initially circulated in the domestic markets, but at the 1984 Olympics, they splashed their ads in front of an enormous international audience in a bid to compete with Kodak.

Kodak was founded in 1892, 133 years ago (as of 2025) or 42 years before Fujifilm. The company was a massive player in the photochemical business throughout its existence. In the early 2010s, when most consumers ditched their film cameras in favour of digital, Kodak filed for bankruptcy and emerged as Eastman Kodak Company.

Despite the bankruptcy, Kodak remains the dominant film manufacturer. They supply all major motion picture films and sell the largest selection of colour film for still cameras — more than Fujifilm. But that’s just a fraction of what the company used to make before the “digital revolution.” They sell more film than Fujifilm because Fujifilm has been continuously downsizing its film production, having pivoted to pharmaceuticals and digital photography.

Fujicolor Superia X-Tra, an ISO 400 colour-negative film made in Japan, was the company’s latest discontinuation last year.

The market forces that drove Fujifilm to cull its massive collection of unique, high-quality films to just a few offerings have reversed during the past few years. Film photography is a viable business again — though not to the same degree as it once was.

Today, Fujifilm’s involvement in film production is non-zero: its Instax line is its most popular imaging product; Fujifilm-branded, made-in-Japan Velvia and Provia films are in production. But the black-and-white Fujifilm Acros II is now made in the UK (presumably by Ilford, the UK’s only known large-scale black-and-white film manufacturer), and this film, Fujifilm 400 is made in the USA — presumably by the Eastman Kodak company, the US’ only known large-scale colour-negative film manufacturer.

How the former (and current) rivals came to collaboration isn’t publically discussed or acknowledged by either company. But it seems reasonable to assume that a) Kodak wants to grow its profits by making more film, and b) Fujifilm wants to remain relevant for film photography but isn’t willing to manufacture domestically. This idea is further supported by the recent news of Fujifilm outsourcing film development to China.

Is Fujifilm 400 the same as Kodak Ultramax?

Neither Fujifilm nor Kodak indicated who makes Fujifilm in the US. However, given how complicated colour-negative manufacturing is and the scale of the facilities required to make it, it must be Kodak’s only multi-billion-dollar plant in Rochester, NY.

Fujifilm runs a colour paper and QuickSnap camera factory in Greenwood, South Carolina, which may be part of the process — but the plant isn’t tooled for film production.

The rumours of Fujifilm simply repackaging Kodak Ultramax 400, Kodak’s budget ISO 400 film, spread fast over the internet when Fujifilm 400 launched in 2023. Some tried to compare the film characteristics curves between the two films, which look similar but not identical: Ultramax seems to have more contrast in the shadows.

The direct comparisons between those two films showed superficial differences — but it was never clear whether they were artifacts of scanning software doing processing behind the scenes. Having published a meticulously controlled experiment comparing the colour ISO 800 film stocks (which included several scanning setups and methodical manual inversions), my experience with the process suggests that the changes between certain film lines may be so slight that seeing them does not help understand the degree to which they are different.

That said, Fujifilm 400 and Kodak Ultramax are not the same thing. Their spec sheets show some difference (which isn’t the whole story, of course), and the one-to-one comparisons show Fujifilm 400 as a slightly more sensitive film when it comes to shadow detail.

Fujifilm 400 colours.

The product website for Fujifilm 400 claims vibrant colours, natural skin tones, and excellent gray balance.

Having shot a few rolls and examined the results, I love how this film renders foliage and performs in low-light conditions. Fujifilm 400 renders warm yellow-dominant palettes; the shadows preserve the details well without significant noise, and the highlights never clip.

Fujifilm 400 isn’t a perfect colour-negative film, of course. Compared to the more expensive Kodak Portra 400, the Fujifilm-branded emulsion may give you some trouble when fine-tuning skin tones in complex lighting conditions. For example, the portrait to the left (or above, depending on how you read this article) took a lot of effort to colour correct. Even after all that work, Betty’s dark blue jacket appears to have unnatural purple highlights, which can’t be fixed without affecting her skin tones and the black point. Her features also appear to lack some variation.

But in general, flattering portraits on Fujifilm 400 should be easy to get with the right conditions (i.e., in direct sunlight). The above example shows a challenging situation with cold, diffused illumination and colour casts under semi-transparent blackberry canopies.

Grain, resolution, sharpness.

Fujifilm 400 boasts fine, sharp grain that can produce impressive resolution with good-quality scans. As with most films, the granules appear smaller in the bright areas and larger in the shadows. The low-light sensitivity of this film is also very impressive.

I’m particularly happy with how well this film handled mixed artificial lighting. My apartment is dimly lit throughout most of the day, which often creates a lot of green casts on colour films unless I deploy the studio lights. The photo above shows no colour abnormalities and excellent resolution in less-than-ideal conditions.

Dynamic range and exposure tips.

According to the spec sheet, the Fujifilm 400 has about three lux-seconds of usable dynamic range. This converts to roughly ten stops of dynamic range.

The graphs show the exposure range for densities under the DMax value of 3.0, which means that most film scanners should be able to take advantage of it.

Some scanning hardware (like the PrimeFilm XAs) can peer into the denser film ranges of up to DMax 4.2, which may extend this film’s ability to preserve highlights even further.

The ten stops of dynamic range for Fujifilm 400 are comparable to other films in its category. This is enough to shoot high-contrast scenes and even forgive slight exposure mistakes. While the common advice for colour-negative film is to err on the side of overexposure, I think you’ll be able to get great images by metering normally (i.e., no overexposures).

Fujifilm 400 thrives in warm sunlight, and it can produce decent results under artificial and subdued light. You may get good results with it on overcast days, too, but in my experience, that caused some colour shifts you may want to be aware of.

How much does Fujifilm 400 cost, and where to buy it.

As of January 2025, triple packs of Fujifilm 400 sell for an average of $30. Single rolls can cost between $9 and $12. This is one of the cheapest fresh colour films on the market. You can find it at all the places listed under the links below and may even see it at your local brick-and-mortar store. My local drugmart chain stocks it regularly.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Fujifilm 400 Speed Film purchase using this link so that this website may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!