It seems that so many photographers have wanted it, and Fujifilm listened! Today, Fujifilm is announcing the return of Fujifilm PRO 400H. Back in January 2021, Fujifilm discontinued the film. This broke the hearts of tons of photographers. Folks immediately bought up all the supplies and hoarded what they could. Fujifilm cited that they had supply issues during the pandemic. Now, Fujifilm seems to be taking a page out of Kodak’s book. The word on the street is that the new Fujifilm PRO 400H film is rebranded Kodak Portra 400.
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Considering that the world is still in shambles, we’re not clear if Fujifilm is doing anything special or unique to the rebranded Kodak Portra 400 film. But our Fujifilm reps told us it’s going to be available in 35mm right now, 120 format this fall, and large format in your dreams.
The original Fujifilm PRO400H had a specific look to it. It was also very popular for its pastel effect when overexposed. We’ve featured several photographers who’ve shot this film, like Lester Cannon, Amy O’Boyle, Christoph Zoubek, and Valerie Rizvan. All of them loved the film. You can check out our old review of the film to see more.
This new Fujifilm PRO 400H though is seemingly rebranded Portra 400. That means it’s very well designed for scans. It also means you’re not going to be shooting it at 75 ISO and developing normally. Indeed, that beautiful pastel effect is now a thing of the past. Instead, from our tests, the new Fujifilm PRO 400H is best shot at ISO 200 and developed at 320. And over the years, we’ve interviewed a slew of photographers who’ve shot Kodak Portra 400. There are folks like Katy Maclachlan, Ajda Schmidt, Cameron McClarty, Jacob Howard, and Lena Pogrebnaya. You can see their wonderful work at those hyperlinks.
Fujifilm PRO400H Gets New Life as Film Simulation
Further, Fujifilm announced a new firmware update for all Fujifilm cameras going back as far as the original Fujifilm X100. It’ll add a new film simulation called CLASSIC PRO400H. Fujifilm says this stands apart from both Classic Negative and Nostalgic Negative by adding more of a pastel tonality to the scene. We’ve yet to test it, but we’re very curious to see what happens when we meter our scenes at ISO 400 and then shoot at ISO 75. My gut is telling me that even Capture One 22 won’t be able to retain all those details. But considering the Dynamic Range expansion settings with my X Pro 1, I’ve got hope. I’ll also be loading this onto my X Pro 1 while being pretty giddy that it’s going to get new life.
Editor’s Note: This is an April Fool’s Joke. Chill. Relax. It’s not that serious.