These photos of stone sculptures were shot on Fuji F-64D. Introduced in 1999 as part of Fuji’s Super F Series, this daylight-balanced motion picture film featured enhanced color reproduction with natural rendering of blue, green and yellow hues. A long, smooth tonal scale along with better performance in high-contrast outdoor lighting helped to increase its exposure latitude.

Two key technologies played a part in creating F-64D’s incredible image quality: Fuji’s SUFG and DIR technologies. SUFG (Super Uniform Fine Grain) technology lived up to its name and gave F-64D an RMS granularity value of 2.5 (this is an ultra fine-grained film), while Super DIR (Developer Inhibitor Releasing) Couplers kept the color dyes from bleeding into one another creating a line where they meet resulting in a clean sharp image.^[1]For more details, Fuji’s brochure describes the technologies that are incorporated in F-64D.

Movies that were at least partly shot on Fuji F-64D include Slumdog Millionaire,^[2]See Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Technical Specifications » ShotOnWhat? Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,^[3]See Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) Technical Specifications » ShotOnWhat? and The King’s Speech.^[4]See The King’s Speech (2010) Technical Specifications » ShotOnWhat?

In 2004, when Fuji introduced their Eterna line of motion picture films, all of the Super F Series emulsions were discontinued with the exception of F-64D. Fuji kept this film in production until it ceased all motion picture manufacturing on March 31, 2013.^[5]Fuji’s discontinuation announcement can be viewed here.

I purchased this roll of Fuji F-64D from the UK where it was hand-rolled by Nik & Trick. Given that this is expired film, I bracketed my shots and was happy that all my photos turned out. It really does have good exposure latitude. While I enjoyed shooting this film, I’m on the fence as to whether or not I would ever purchase another roll (I found some more online at Mr. Negative, but it’s pricy).

The trouble I had with F-64D was in development and scanning. This film had the toughest remjet layer I’ve encountered so far. To the naked eye, it appeared that all the remjet had been removed in processing, but then my image scans would be covered in little white spots. It wasn’t until I viewed the negatives through a 10x magnifying loupe that I discovered there was more remjet to remove. I had to really scrub the negatives with a damp sponge to get the remjet off. The whole time I was nervous that I would end up scratching the emulsion on the other side. Even with the extra effort involved, I’m still glad I had the chance to shoot Fuji F-64D along with a few other Fuji motion picture films.