Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C Films Unveiled

Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C colour films. “Fujicolor Pro 160S and 160C are films for the digital age and are representative of Fujifilm’s continued commitment to professional photographers, whether they prefer to shoot in the digital or film mediums,” said Steve Herstatt, Marketing Director.

Fujifilm Press Release

FUJIFILM HIGHLIGHTS NEW GENERATION OF PROFESSIONAL COLOR NEGATIVE FILM

FUJICOLOR PRO 160S and PRO 160C Seamlessly Integrate with Professionals’ Digital Workflow

Valhalla, NY, February 8, 2005 - Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of digital imaging products and services, is featuring two medium-speed color negative films for professional use - Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C - at the 2005 Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Trade Show. With smooth skin tone rendition, unprecedented neutral gray balance, exceptionally fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, these two new films represent the leading edge of Fujifilm’s color negative film technology. They were designed to be optimized for digital scanning and printing systems, resulting in a smooth hybrid film/digital workflow.

Fujicolor Pro 160S, combining smooth, gentle tones with superb natural color reproduction, is ideal for wedding, portrait, and fashion photography. Fujicolor Pro 160C offers high contrast and vivid color, perfect for a wide range of applications from portraiture and architecture to commercial work. The new films will be available in summer 2005. They will replace the current Fujicolor Portrait Film NPS 160 and NPC 160.

“Fujicolor Pro 160S and 160C are films for the digital age and are representative of Fujifilm’s continued commitment to professional photographers, whether they prefer to shoot in the digital or film mediums,” said Steve Herstatt, Marketing Director, Professional Film, Imaging Group, Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. “These products deliver the best of both worlds—the granularity, color balance and overall picture quality of negative film along with the convenience of post-scanning digital workflow - without compromise. Only a company like Fujifilm, with such a rich history of photographic technology innovation, could produce such a product.”

With the launch of Fujifilm’s “Fujicolor Pro” film line, Fujifilm has renamed its high-speed color negative films. The current NPH 400 will become Fujicolor Pro 400H, while NPZ 800 will be renamed Fujicolor Pro 800Z. Fujifilm’s entire color negative line is designed to maximize the benefits and quality of film, while boasting seamless integration with digital workflow - from capture, to scanning and printing.

Features of the new Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C films:

* Smooth, natural reproduction of skin tones.
New color coupler technology delivers exceptionally well-nuanced skin tones and ensures that all hues are consistent from highlight to shadow, regardless of density. Pro 160S offers a gentler tonal curve, while Pro 160C features high contrast and saturated color.
* Unsurpassed gray balance.
Gray tones are reproduced with unparalleled neutrality and accuracy, even within a wide range of exposures.
* Significantly finer grain structure.
The two new films boast even finer grain than their predecessors, with an RMS granularity of 3 (vs. 4 for the current NPS 160 and NPC 160)*. The result is notably smoother, richer-looking prints, especially at larger sizes.
* Single-channel printing.
All four films in the new Fujicolor Pro line, despite their differences in speed and contrast, can now be printed in a single print channel**. This simplifies the adjustment of print density and color balance, making it easier and more efficient for labs to provide photographers with quality prints.
* Optimized for digital scanning and printing.
These films bring the information-carrying capacity of color negative film into an easy and efficient digital workflow. By combining excellent tonal qualities in a wide exposure range (-1 to +3 EV) and exceptionally fine grain, the scanning characteristics of Pro 160S and Pro 160C in digital printing systems, such as Fujifilm’s Frontier digital lab system, dramatically improve. As a result, superior scanning consistency makes post-scanning color correction and retouching easier than ever before.
* Generous exposure latitude.
The Fujicolor Pro films’ characteristics of wide exposure latitude (-1 to +3 EV) produce excellent gray balance, skin tone rendition, and overall color balance, delivering competitive results with normal basic exposures.
* 4th Color Layer Technology to simulate human color perception.
All of the Fujicolor Pro films incorporate Fujifilm’s proprietary 4th Color Layer Technology. The addition of a fourth cyan-sensitive layer to the typical RGB sensitive layers helps simulate accurate color as the human eye perceives it. Fujicolor Pro films reproduce delicate skin colors, neutral colors and deliver exceptionally consistent color balance regardless of light source - daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, or mixed lighting.

The New Fujicolor Pro Product Line

* New Fujicolor Pro 160S - Smooth, creamy reproduction of skin tones and neutral gray balance makes Pro 160S ideal for a wide range of applications from wedding photography to portraiture, fashion, and commercial work. It’s extremely fine grain structure and outstanding sharpness assure beautiful prints even with display size enlargements.
* New Fujicolor Pro 160C - Maintaining natural skin tones and clean, neutral grays, Pro 160C adds higher contrast and greater color saturation, making it a perfect choice for assignments from portraits and fashion to architecture and interiors. Like Pro 160S, its ultra-fine grain and superior sharpness guarantee superb enlargements.
* Fujicolor Pro 400H (currently NPH 400) - Pro 400H brings smooth, natural skin tones and neutral gray balance to the ISO 400- speed range. It is ideal for portrait work, as well as indoor or outdoor location photography, particularly in limited light.
* Fujicolor Pro 800Z (currently NPZ 800) - Combining the highest speed of the Fujicolor Pro films with high color saturation, Pro 800Z delivers outstanding contrast and vivid color under a variety of light sources.

The new technologies behind Fujicolor Pro 160S and Pro 160C:

* Super Nano-structured Sigma Grain Technology.
The new Fujifilm technology known as Super Nano-Structured Sigma Grain, produce improvements in grain for the Pro 160S and 160C. These extremely small, precisely controlled grains are designed to capture photons with high efficiency, boosting effective film speed while allowing a reduction in RMS granularity from 4 to 3***. This finer grain structure is particularly notable in large print sizes, reducing visible grain for smoother reproduction of skin texture.
* Super Efficient Coupler Technology.
The new yellow coupler employed in the Pro 160S and 160C is approximately 1.3 times more efficient at color formation than its predecessors. This allows a thinner emulsion layer, which in turn reduces unwanted reflection and diffraction of light. The result is less halation and color blurring, while increasing sharpness.
* Super Efficient DIR Coupler Technology.
These new highly efficient DIR couplers further enhance what is known as edge effect - dramatically improving sharpness and three-dimensionality in prints, even at large sizes. The effect can be seen in the sharp, bright pupils of the eyes, and in the detail of clothing.
* DIR Coupler - 4th Color Layer Technology Interaction.
The combination of the super-efficient DIR couplers and Fujifilm’s unique 4th Color Layer Technology has given the designers of these films new freedom in controlling interlayer effects. This allows the film to maintain its extremely delicate skin tones while improving overall color reproduction.

About Fujifilm
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. is a subsidiary of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. and delivers technology solutions to meet the imaging and information needs of retailers, consumers, professionals and business customers. As a global leader in digital imaging, Fujifilm pioneered the development of digital medical systems, and today is the leader in digital minilab systems. The company was ranked in the top ten for U.S. patents granted during the last decade, employs 73,000 people worldwide and in the year ending March 31, 2004, had global revenues of more than $24 billion.

In the U.S., Fujifilm is a leader in delivering high quality, easy-to-use imaging and information solutions in the following categories: Digital Imaging Systems, Recording/Storage Media, Film and Imaging Systems, Motion Picture Film, Graphic Arts and Printing Systems and Medical Imaging and Diagnostics Systems. Fujifilm is an environmentally friendly, humane enterprise and an exemplary corporate citizen.

For more information on Fujifilm products, consumers can call 800-800-FUJI or access the Fujifilm USA Web site at http://www.fujifilm.com.

Published: Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Reader Comments

1. With these new films out, how will they compare in terms of sharpness and grain size, against Kodak's old Ektar/ Royal Gold 25? Will these new films be a good match for that old discontinued film? Will these new films enlarge as well as that old stuff? Also what is the lines of resolution of the new films?

   Scott at 01:19am on Monday, February 21, 2005

2. I hope it is really as good as NPS/NPC, espcially for pictorial work.
   
   All I want is the ideal film. Wide Lattitude (5+ stops), Low Grain, High Sharpness and Resolution, and Great Color Rendition. Cheap and Widely Available would be good too. Is this too much to ask?
   

   Bill at 01:08am on Wednesday, March 16, 2005

3. NPS is an excellent film, but colors tend to become oversaturated with scanning the negs. If the new 160S is optimized for scanning, then I believe it will be the perfect film for a hybrid photographer.

   Bob at 01:50am on Monday, January 02, 2006