AgfaVista 400

Agfa Vista 400 was an ISO 400 consumer color negative film for C-41 processing, made by Agfa-Gevaert and listed in the company’s May 2003 brochure in 135-12, 135-24+3 and 135-36 cartridges [1]. The name outlived Agfa’s own film: after AgfaPhoto GmbH failed in 2005, Lupus Imaging & Media sold AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400, which is widely believed to have been made by Fujifilm. That stock was reported discontinued in March 2018 [2]. Most reviews describe the later stock, not the 2003 film.

Look and color

The datasheet and most reviews cover different products, so read this section with that in mind. Agfa’s only color claim is technical: its “EYE VISION” sensitization matches the film’s response more closely to the eye [1]. That is a marketing argument, not a measurement.

• Saturated but muted. Casual Photophile describes a neo-vintage look that is “both pastel and saturated”: “Greens and blues are rich and deep, while reds and yellows tend to be bright without being overbearing” [3]. Jim Grey, shooting an expired roll of the original Agfacolor Vista 400, found “true” colors that looked “slightly oversaturated”, a palette “different from the Kodak and Fuji stocks” [4].
• Warmer than most films. Casual Photophile reports an overall warm cast [3].
• Skin tones are a weak point. The same review says skin comes out inaccurate because the film is more sensitive to red light than portrait films, and that overexposure softens the effect [3].
• The stock matters. Jim Grey’s roll was expired and stored frozen, and he calls any Agfacolor Vista 400 today expired [4]. No review separates the film from its age, batch or scan.

Tonality

• Contrast. Casual Photophile calls the images “somewhat muted”, with an aged look from the moment they leave the camera [3]. Jim Grey found neutrals and blacks rendered well in some frames [4]. The brochure plots density curves for the three layers, but we have not read numbers from them.
• Latitude. Agfa gives −1 to +4 f-stops, half a stop more on the overexposure side than the Vista 200 [1].
• Underexposure. Jim Grey shot at box speed and got frames “from slightly to very underexposed”, and planned to rate the last roll at ISO 200. The film was expired, so this says more about age than about the 2003 latitude [4].

Grain and sharpness

Agfa rates grain with RMS granularity (×1000), a measured value, and does not use Kodak’s Print Grain Index; the two scales cannot be compared [1].

• Resolving power is 130 lines/mm at contrast 1000:1 and 45 lines/mm at 1.6:1 [1], against 50 lines/mm at 1.6:1 for the Vista 200 [1].
• Reviews disagree about the later stock. Casual Photophile calls it not a sharp film and says the “heavy grain of 400 speed film remains a very real issue” for enlargements [3]. A Lomography user review reportedly calls the grain “surprisingly fine”; we saw only a search-result extract, not the page. Jim Grey noticed grain in some frames of the expired roll [4].

Spectral sensitivity

The blue-sensitive layer holds a plateau near 2.0 log from about 415 to 470 nm and peaks at 471 nm, the green layer peaks near 550 nm and the red layer near 616 nm with a shoulder around 648 nm [1]. Blue and green cross near 496 nm and green and red near 580 nm. The Grain Archive style is tuned from the datasheet and the reviews; it is not computed from these curves.

Names, status and history

• Agfa-Gevaert era. The 2003 brochure lists Vista 100, 200, 400 and 800. Vista 400 came in 135 cartridges of 12, 24+3 and 36 frames [1].
• AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 400. Since 2005, Lupus Imaging & Media distributed the Vista films, and DPReview writes that Fujifilm is widely believed to have made them [2]. Casual Photophile’s 2016 profile is of this stock, which it says was sold in British Poundland stores for £1 and is commonly thought to be repackaged Superia [3].
• Fuji Superia X-tra 400: reported, not confirmed. Jim Grey writes that the newer Vista 400 was a rebranded Superia X-tra 400 and that the original Agfa emulsion carries Agfacolor branding [4]. We found no statement from Fujifilm or Lupus. Casual Photophile, discussing the Vista line in 2018, writes that Vista was, “nearest we can tell”, Fuji C200 [5]: sources point to different Fuji films.
• Discontinuation (2018). DPReview reported on March 12, 2018 that Vista was no longer made, with ISO 200 and 400 still on sale from specialist retailers but expected to run out [2].
• Availability now. We found no current listing. Any roll you find is old stock.

Also sold as

• Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 (reported source of the later stock; not confirmed by Fujifilm or Lupus) (reported) [4]