LomographyColor Negative 400

Lomography Color Negative 400 is an ISO 400 color negative film for C-41 processing, sold by Lomography in 35 mm and 120 [1]. Lomography does not say who makes the emulsion, and reviewers who have tried to work it out disagree [2]. Photographers mostly use it as an inexpensive everyday film [3] [4].

Look and color

• The reviews disagree on saturation. Analogue Wonderland calls the colors “vivid and contrasting” and says it handles blue and green tones well, but that summary leans on customer reviews from a retailer [4]. Parallax writes “true to life but ever so slightly muted” [3]. Emulsive found “muted colours with a slight sort of brownish hue” and a “1980’s palette” on a 120 roll [2].
• Cool results in some conditions. PhotoBite found that weather strongly affected the hue and that images could shift “from blue to purple quite easily”, producing cool-looking woodland scans [5].
• Scanning matters. Each of these reviews used a different lab or scanner and different cameras, so part of the gap between “vivid” and “muted” may come from processing rather than the film. We cannot separate the two from what was published.

Tonality

• Even contrast. Parallax describes “nice, even contrast” with “loads of detail in the shadows, as well as the highlights” in both bright sun and overcast light [3]. Emulsive says the film “handled contrast surprisingly well” in high-contrast cathedral interiors [2].
• Latitude. Analogue Wonderland reports that it copes with overexposure and with being pushed one stop, citing customer reviews [4]. We found no measured latitude test and no characteristic curve.

Grain and sharpness

Lomography publishes no granularity figure and we found no datasheet, so there is no Print Grain Index or RMS value to compare with other films. Reviewers describe it in words:

• Analogue Wonderland: “some visible grain” that gives a classic look; customers call it relatively low [4].
• Emulsive: coarser than modern film, “only obvious on prints over 12” in size” [2].

For a datasheet reference among ISO 400 consumer films, Kodak rates UltraMax 400 at a Print Grain Index of 46 for a 4×6 print from 35 mm [6]. Different maker, different film: it is not a measurement of this one.

Names, status and history

• Status. On September 30, 2026, Parallax listed the 120 roll in stock, with the 35 mm version and multipacks also sold [1].
• Names. Retailers and reviewers write “Colour Negative 400” [4] or “Lomo 400” [3].
• Emulsion origin: unconfirmed. Emulsive reports forum speculation that the film comes from Kodak Alaris and may be Kodacolor VR 400, a film sold from 1982 to 1986 [2]. A commenter on the same review suggested Ferrania Solaris FG Plus 400 instead [2]. Lomography’s own pages returned an access error when we tried to read them, so we could not check the maker’s wording. Treat the origin as rumor, and assume it may have changed between lots and years.
• No datasheet. For the same reason, we found no manufacturer datasheet or spectral sensitivity curve, and this page has no spectral chart.

Also sold as

• Lomography Colour Negative 400 (confirmed) [4]
• Lomo 400 (reported) [3]