Film · Updated
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400
The film, its look, and Classic Negative.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 (sold as Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400) is Fujifilm’s ISO 400 consumer color negative film, made to be printed on Fujifilm’s own papers. Beside Kodak Portra 400 it prints harder and richer, and its three color layers do not run parallel, so its shadows lean cyan-green and its highlights warm. That print is what Fujifilm modeled its Classic Negative film simulation on (X-Pro3, 2019): “a photograph taken with SUPERIA film and its print”, in Fujifilm’s words, though it does not say which Superia. The simulation is a digital design, less saturated than the film.
Below: Fujifilm’s data in a table, what the film looks like and why, Classic Negative against the film, over- and underexposing and pushing it, Superia against Portra 400 and Gold 200, recipes, and Minilab 400 (based on Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400), the Clack film modeled on it.
01 · The film
Superia X-TRA 400 by Fujifilm’s datasheet
| Type | Fujicolor color negative film, a consumer film, process C-41 |
|---|---|
| Speed | ISO 400 |
| Grain | RMS granularity 4 (a 48 µm aperture, at a density of 1.0 over the film’s base) |
| Gray | “Excellent Gray”: the sheet promises “precisely maintained gray” |
| Layers | Three color layers on the 2006 sheet, the red one sensitive to about 675 nm; the 2003 sheet shows a fourth, cyan-sensitive layer |
| Push and pull | None in the sheet |
| Printing | Made “to achieve high image quality when printed on FUJICOLOR papers” |
From Fujifilm’s data sheets AF3-0217E (2006) and AF3-151E (2003). Fujifilm says its RMS granularity cannot be compared with a slide film’s, and Kodak says it cannot be compared with Kodak’s Print Grain Index.
02 · The look
What Superia X-TRA 400 looks like, and why
Most of the look comes from the negative’s three curves, the paper, and dyes.
- A harder print. In Clack’s model, three stops of scene print over 5.4 stops of the paper’s range, against Portra 400’s 4.2: deeper shadows, brighter lights.
- Cyan-green shadows, warm highlights. The film’s layers rise at different rates (the curves below). Printed so that mid gray comes out gray, as a lab does, the tones below it fall cyan-green and the ones above it a touch magenta, then warm. This is a crossover: a lab’s color balance moves every tone at once, so it cannot take it out.
- Richer color. On a ColorChecker chart, Clack’s model prints a mean chroma of 54 against Portra 400’s 50 and the chart’s own 45. Reds go towards orange, foliage darker and towards yellow, blues dark. Light skin sits where Portra’s does, a little lighter.
- Fine grain for 400. RMS granularity 4 by Fujifilm’s sheet. More in what is film grain.
03 · Classic Negative
Classic Negative and Superia: what Fujifilm says
Classic Negative (Classic Neg. in the menus) is a Fujifilm film simulation, first on the X-Pro3 in 2019: a setting that makes the camera’s JPEG look like a film. Fujifilm’s X-Pro3 story says it “is modeled on SUPERIA film … Our model is a photograph taken with SUPERIA film and its print”, so the print is part of the target, not only the negative. Fujifilm’s Shinya Fujiwara has said it was first named “Superia”.
In Fujifilm’s words it is “designed for slightly higher contrast in order to add depth to scenes with flat lighting”; it “lacks saturation, offering less than the standard PROVIA”; its tones are “customized by brightness for each color”; and “the key to SUPERIA-like color reproduction can be found by examining its greens, blues, and skin-tones”. Fujifilm says it “achieves maximum expression when slightly over-exposed”. Its product page calls the look “unbalanced and lo-fi”, with “hard contrast and color contrast”.
Which Superia
Fujifilm does not say: Superia came as X-TRA 400, 200 and 100. Fuji X Weekly guesses Superia 200; that is its own guess. In Clack’s engine, the profiles of X-TRA 400 and of C200 (which presumably carries Superia 200’s emulsion) print almost alike on the same paper (our measurement), so the choice matters less than it seems.
The film against the simulation
| Superia X-TRA 400, the film | Classic Negative, the simulation | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A film, developed and printed | A setting in Fujifilm cameras since the X-Pro3 (2019): the camera’s JPEG made to look like the film |
| Contrast | Hard: three stops of scene print over 5.4 stops, against Portra 400’s 4.2 | “Slightly higher contrast in order to add depth to scenes with flat lighting” (Fujifilm); “moderately high contrast” (DPReview) |
| Saturation | Rich: mean chroma 54, against Portra 400’s 50 and the chart’s 45 | “Lacks saturation, offering less than the standard PROVIA” (Fujifilm); “middling saturation” (DPReview) |
| Shadows and highlights | Cyan-green shadows, highlights a touch magenta, then warm: the crossover of fresh film printed balanced on gray | Fujifilm’s page: consumer negatives “were biased toward cyan-green in the shadows and magenta in the highlights”, from film “left in the cameras for long periods of time” |
| Greens | Towards yellow and olive, and darker | Towards blue (J.M. Peltier); subdued (Fuji X Weekly) |
| Color by brightness | Only through the dye’s density and the layers’ curves | Tones “customized by brightness for each color” (Fujifilm): a digital design with no single step in film behind it |
The film’s column is Clack’s model of Superia X-TRA 400’s data, printed on Crystal Archive, fresh film; no one has published a measurement of Classic Negative with a chart that we found, so its column is Fujifilm’s words and reviewers’.
The cast people love in Classic Negative is, by Fujifilm’s own account, the cast of film kept too long in a camera; fresh Superia printed well shows less of it. And where the film is rich, the simulation is muted. Thomas Schwab, matching a real Superia X-TRA 400 roll on an X100V, needed Color +4, Shadow −1, DR400 and a warmer white balance: a scan more saturated, warmer and softer in the shadows than Classic Negative as it comes (his lab and scanner are not known).
04 · Exposure
Overexposing, underexposing and pushing Superia X-TRA 400
A negative is printed, and the lab sets the printer light for each frame, so a stop or two over prints close to normal. Superia’s straight line runs long above mid gray, so rating it at 200 or 100 costs only speed: the print gains little but finer grain. Underexposure is where it shows: in Clack’s model, two stops under, its blacks lift into a blue-cyan gray.
Fujifilm’s sheet gives no push or pull. Labs will push it, and a push of a color negative mostly adds contrast and grain: Kodak puts the speed gained from a one-stop push of its own color negatives at “less than a 1/3 of a stop”.
05 · Against
Superia X-TRA 400 vs Portra 400 and Gold 200
- Superia vs Portra 400. Portra is Kodak’s professional film for skin: soft, with three parallel layers, so its grays stay gray. Superia is a consumer film: harder, richer, and colored in the shadows and highlights.
- Superia vs Gold 200. The same kind of film from Kodak, a stop slower. In Clack’s models Gold is softer, keeps its grays neutral where Superia’s turn cyan-green and warm, and pushes yellows and skin further towards gold; the two are equally rich.
| Clack film | Three stops of scene print over | Color (mean chroma) | Light skin, hue | Grays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minilab 400 (based on Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400) | 5.4 stops | 54 | 57° | Cyan-green shadows, warm highlights |
| Portrait 400 (based on Kodak Portra 400) | 4.2 stops | 50 | 58° | Neutral |
| Golden 200 (based on Kodak Gold 200) | 4.8 stops | 54 | 64° | Neutral |
Our measurements of Clack’s film models on a ColorChecker chart and a gray scale, each film on its own paper (Crystal Archive, Portra Endura, Kodak Edge). The chart itself has a mean chroma of 45; a lower skin hue is pinker, a higher one more yellow.
06 · Recipes
Superia and Classic Negative recipes
A “Superia recipe” for a Fujifilm camera is usually Classic Negative with settings tuned by eye until its JPEGs resemble Superia prints or scans: Thomas Schwab’s, above, is one matched against a real roll. Some are close in feel; none comes from the film’s data, since a Fujifilm camera does not run film curves. More in Fujifilm recipes.
In Lightroom or any editor the levers are the ones above: one curve a little harder than a portrait film’s, the shadows pulled slightly cyan-green and the highlights slightly warm (color grading, not white balance, since it is a cast by tone), reds towards orange, greens darker, and a fine grain. How to make photos look like film has the steps.
07 · Clack
Superia X-TRA 400 on an Android phone: Minilab 400
Clack is a film camera app for Android. One of its six films is Minilab 400 (based on Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400): Superia X-TRA 400’s curves, sensitivities and dyes (spektrafilm’s profile, used whole) printed on Fujifilm’s Crystal Archive paper, with its own grain and a faint halation drawn before the curve. The look is in the finder as you frame and baked into the JPEG.
| Control | Steps | On Minilab 400 |
|---|---|---|
| White balance | Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Custom | Auto corrects the light’s color; Daylight keeps lamplight amber and shade blue, as daylight film does; Custom is measured off something white |
| Shift | Warmer or cooler, greener or pinker | Color filters at the printer, 2 CC a step |
| Polarizer | Off, Half, Full | Blue sky and water up to a stop deeper, done by color, not by the angle to the sun |
| Bloom | Off, Faint, Soft, Strong | Lights bloom, as through mist ⅛, ¼ and ½ filters |
| Lens | Glass, Plastic | Plastic is a disposable camera’s one plastic lens, 32 mm at f/10: soft, dark corners and a veil in bright light |
| Contrast | Soft, Normal, Hard, Harder | Pulled one stop to pushed two, from Portra 800’s push data (an estimate: Fujifilm gives none for Superia) |
| Color | Soft, Standard, Vivid | Crystal Archive is its one paper, so Soft and Vivid turn the print’s color down or up at the same contrast |
| Grain | Fine, Normal, Coarse | The film’s own at Normal, coarser as the light falls |
| Halation | Normal, Strong | The anti-halation layer in place, or removed |
Clack comes with four recipes on it:
| Recipe | For | On Minilab 400 |
|---|---|---|
| Snapshot 400 | Every day, any light | The film as it comes |
| Havana | Sun and color | Daylight · Polarizer half · Bloom soft · Color vivid |
| Side Light | Low sun, skin | Shift A2 M1 · Polarizer full · Grain coarse |
| Disposable | Days out, sun or flash | Daylight · Plastic lens · Contrast hard · Grain coarse |
- The film base
- On Android phones whose camera offers a contrast curve, Clack takes the frame flat, with the phone’s local tone mapping and color enhancement off, before the film. On other phones the films run on the phone’s own frame.
- Not aged
- The cast is the crossover of fresh film printed balanced on gray. Nothing in Clack ages the film, so the stronger cyan and magenta of Classic Negative are not here as they come; Shift moves the whole print.
- Free
- Minilab 400 and its recipes stay in Clack’s free tier, with Press 400, after seven days of shooting with everything open.
A model of the film’s data on a phone’s photo, not film. Tested mostly on the CMF Phone 2 Pro.
AndroidGet free access to the closed beta. More about Clack
Questions
- Is Classic Negative based on Superia?
- Yes, by Fujifilm’s own account. Its X-Pro3 story says Classic Neg. “is modeled on SUPERIA film … Our model is a photograph taken with SUPERIA film and its print”, and Fujifilm’s Shinya Fujiwara has said the simulation was first named “Superia”. Fujifilm does not say which Superia: X-TRA 400, 200 or 100.
- Does Classic Negative look like Superia X-TRA 400?
- In feel, more than any other Fujifilm simulation, but it is a digital design, not the film. Fujifilm says Classic Negative “lacks saturation”, where the film prints rich; reviewers see its greens lean blue, where the film’s lean yellow; and its cyan-green shadows and magenta highlights are, in Fujifilm’s words, those of film left in the camera too long. Thomas Schwab, matching a real Superia X-TRA 400 roll, needed Color +4, Shadow −1, DR400 and a warmer white balance.
- Why does Superia have green shadows?
- Its three color layers do not rise at the same rate: the blue-sensitive layer is steeper than the red one, and the red one reaches its toe first. Printed so that mid gray comes out gray, the darker tones fall cyan-green and the brighter ones a touch magenta, then warm. A lab’s color balance moves every tone at once, so it cannot take that out.
- Is Superia X-TRA 400 fine grain?
- For a 400 film, yes: Fujifilm gives an RMS granularity of 4. That number cannot be compared with Kodak’s Print Grain Index (Portra 400 is 37), Kodak says, so the two films’ grain is best compared by eye. More in what is film grain.
- Can you push Superia X-TRA 400?
- Labs will push it, but Fujifilm’s sheet gives no push or pull. A push of a color negative mostly adds contrast and grain; Kodak puts the speed gained from a one-stop push of its own color negatives at under a third of a stop.
- Is Clack’s Minilab 400 the same as Superia X-TRA 400?
- No. It is a model of Superia X-TRA 400’s published data (its curves, dyes and grain) printed on Fujifilm’s Crystal Archive paper, run on the phone’s photo, so the lens and sensor are the phone’s. Clack is not affiliated with Fujifilm.
Sources
- Fujifilm, Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 data sheet AF3-0217E (2006)
- Fujifilm, Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 data sheet AF3-151E (2003)
- Fujifilm, Crystal Archive Type CA paper (dyes and sensitivities)
- Fujifilm, X-Pro3 Stories #2, “Learning from Film” (2019)
- Fujifilm, Classic Neg. film simulation
- DC Watch, interview with Kosuke Irie and Shinya Fujiwara (2020, Japanese)
- DPReview, Fujifilm X-Pro3 review
- J.M. Peltier, Classic Chrome vs Classic Neg
- Fuji X Weekly, Thomas Schwab’s Superia X-TRA 400 recipe, from a real roll
- Kodak, push and pull processing of color negative film
- spektrafilm: digitized curves and dyes of Superia X-TRA 400 and Crystal Archive Type II (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fujifilm, Fujicolor, Superia, Crystal Archive, Classic Negative and Provia are Fujifilm’s; Kodak, Portra, Gold and Endura are Kodak’s. Clack is not affiliated with either.