FujifilmAstia 100F

Fujifilm Astia 100F (Fujichrome Astia 100F Professional, code RAP100F) was an ISO 100 daylight color slide film for E-6 processing, made for fashion and portraits: Fujifilm sold it on the “softest tones and subdued colors” of its Fujichrome range [1]. It was launched in 2003 and its production ended in March 2012, the last film to carry the Astia name [3].

Look and color

• What Fujifilm promised. “One of the world’s highest levels of color fidelity”, smooth and natural skin “from the highlights to the shadows”, and faithful rendering of costumes and accessories [1]. Fujifilm’s 2006 chart rates it “Real color”, with “Standard” saturation, where Provia 100F is “High” [2].
• Warmer than Provia. Shooting the same scenes on both, Oleg Novikov found that “Astia boasts much warmer colour reproduction; compared with it, Provia has a very noticeable green–and–blue tint”. The review praises its “lush” yellows and reds, finds its greens “somewhat muddy”, dislikes its skies, and judges Provia closer to reality [4].
• Saturation follows the light. In muted indoor light, colors become “soft, almost pastel”; in bright light, saturation rises, with “amazing oranges and reds” in autumn leaves [5]. “Vibrant and accurate” for Vividlight [6], but a “dull cast with very neutral color rendering” for a Velvia user [7].
• Skin is the film’s purpose: “perfect skin tones” [6], “accurate skin tones” [7]. One user switched to Astia because Provia 100F made skin “a bit blueish or reddish” [7].
• The cast varies with the source. A yellow cast, possibly from exposure [7]; a lean “a bit into the cyan” when scanning manually, easy to fix [5]; “a bit of purple cast” on expired film [8].
• UV. Deep red or purple flowers that reflect ultraviolet can take “a tinge of magenta” [7].

Tonality

• Fujifilm’s chart rates Astia’s contrast “Soft”, Provia 100F’s “Standard” and Velvia 100’s “High” [2].
• The datasheet curve tells a more precise story [1] [10] (our reading of both graphs):
  • D-min is about 0.12 and D-max 3.3 to 3.5.
  • In the upper highlights, the slope is about 1.05, against 1.25 for Provia 100F over the same range, and the toe is longer: highlights reach white more slowly.
  • The midtones (about 1.8) and shadows (about 2.0) are close to Provia’s; a gradual shoulder follows, with no “wall”.
  • About 6 stops separate densities 0.3 and 3.0, against 5.8 for Provia 100F. The softness is mostly in the highlights, not everywhere.
• Reviews confirm the highlights. In harsh 11 a.m. light, Astia held detail both in a model’s white shirt and in a dark blue skirt [6]; another user saw it hold “both the shadows and highlights with a superbly smooth tonal gradation” [7].
• Contrast against Provia: the sources disagree. Alex Luyckx finds “a bit more contrast and saturation in colour than Provia but far less than Velvia” [5], the opposite of Fujifilm’s chart. Novikov saw no meaningful difference in dynamic range between the two [4].
• Latitude. Luyckx found “a bit more forgiveness in exposure latitude than Velvia (100 and 50)” [5]. Processing can push or pull it from −1/2 to +2 stops [1].
• Long exposures: no correction up to 1 minute; from 2 minutes, a 5B filter and 1/3 to 2/3 stop more [1].

Grain and sharpness

• Vividlight notes the drop from an RMS of 10 on the previous Astia to 7, which it called the finest-grained slide film yet produced [6]. Fujifilm credits a grain technology derived from Provia 100F’s [1].
• Measurement conditions differ slightly: gross density 1.0 for Astia and E100, 1.0 above D-min for Provia and Velvia [1] [10] [12].
• Reviews: “little to no visible grain” even in 35 mm [5].

Spectral sensitivity

The three peaks are of similar height: blue near 445 nm, green near 550 nm and red near 645 nm. Blue and green cross near 503 nm, green and red near 590 nm, both closer to the peaks than on Velvia 50: the layers overlap more [1] [11] (our reading). Fujifilm also describes a fourth layer that reproduces the “negative spectral sensitivity” of the human eye and a fifth, red-correcting layer; neither is plotted [1].

Names, status and history

• Before 2003. The previous Astia had an RMS granularity of 10 [6].
• 2003: Astia 100F. Fujifilm updated Astia with new couplers, color-correction layers and finer grain [1] [3] [6].
• 2006. Fujifilm’s chart places Astia 100F at the soft, low-saturation corner of its slide range [2].
• March 2012: end of production, which brought all Astia-branded films to an end [3]. We found no Fujifilm notice to confirm the date.
• Afterlife. Fujifilm’s digital cameras carry an ASTIA film simulation that, in Fujifilm’s words, “preserves this beloved film stock in digital form” [9].