On February 3, 2021, Fujifilm shared the very first Nostalgic Neg. Film Simulation Recipe. As part of their promotion for the GFX100S, which was the first camera to have the new Nostalgic Neg. film sim, Fujifilm Japan shared a YouTube video, and hidden within was a recipe put together by the creators of Nostalgic Neg. “Nostalgic Negative is tuned for the best allrounder settings, but if you want to tweak it to get that classic American New Color look from the ’70’s, there are some adjustments you should make.” Fujifilm recommended, when using the Nostalgic Neg. film simulation, to set everything to 0, Off, or Auto, except for three things: shift Auto White Balance to +2 Red & -3 Blue, adjust Shadow to -2, and reduce Color to -2. Additional to that, I recommend using -4 High ISO NR.
I’m not a huge fan of Nostalgic Neg. set to factory defaults. It’s not bad, but it’s not what it purports to be, which is a vintage 1970’s aesthetic inspired by Eggleston, Shore, Sternfeld, and Misrach. I think Fujifilm should have had the courage to make their recipe the default, and not worry so much that it wasn’t the “best allrounder” film simulation. Fujifilm’s suggested adjustments do improve Nostalgic Neg. and bring it closer to a ’70’s vibe, but I felt I could improve it just a little more. Of course, that’s all subjective, and you might prefer factory default Nostalgic Neg., or Fujifilm’s recommended recipe, or something different altogether—in other words, when I say that this is “improved” it’s perfectly alright to disagree with that assessment, but hopefully many of you will agree that this is indeed better—at least a little, as my adjustments to Fujifilm’s recipe are pretty subtle. This particular recipe seems to be especially versatile, and can be used for many different genres of photography and in various light conditions—it looks good most anytime of the day or night.
This Timeless Negative Film Simulation Recipe is only compatible with (as of this writing) the Fujifilm X-T5, X-H2, and X-H2S. I assume that the GFX100S and GFX50S II can also use this recipe, but that it will render slightly different—I don’t have either of those cameras to test it to know for certain. Unless Fujifilm gives X-Trans IV cameras the Nostalgic Neg. film simulation, which I doubt they will do, this recipe is only for X-Trans V cameras, and maybe the latest GFX, too; however, Nostalgic Neg. isn’t too dissimilar from Eterna, so perhaps consider the Arizona Analog, SantaColor, Eterna V2, and Polaroid recipes as potential alternatives for those with X-Trans IV models.
Film Simulation: Nostalgic Neg.
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue: Off
White Balance: Auto, +2 Red & -3 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: +2
Shadow: -2
Color: -3
Sharpness: 0
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: -2
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: -2/3 to +1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Timeless Negative” Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X-T5:
Comparison
This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.
Fujifilm X-T5 in black: Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X-T5 in silver: Amazon B&H
Find this Film Simulation Recipe and over 250 more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
Help Fuji X Weekly
Nobody pays me to write the content found on fujixweekly.com. There’s a real cost to operating and maintaining this site, not to mention all the time that I pour into it. If you appreciated this article, please consider making a one-time gift contribution. Thank you!
$2.00
Unsubscribe me.
Thank you.
Cordialement, Gaétan Hamel
I can’t unsubscribe you from the email notifications (which I assume is what you mean), but you can, and it’s simple. There are two ways: 1) click “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of the email sent to you when a post is published, or 2) click this link ( https://wordpress.com/following/manage ), find Fuji X Weekly in the list, and click where it says “Following”.
For me your Pacific Blue recipe has the best ‘nostalgic’ atmosphere in the comparison shots. When I get the X-T5 I look forward to trying it.
Thanks! For the X-T5, just set Color Chrome FX Blue to Weak.
Have you thought about starting a facebook group where we can all post sample shots from your recipes?
I have, and it sounds like a nightmare 🤣
Being a moderator takes up a lot of time… I did that briefly for a film sim FB group (that I didn’t start)… there were other moderators, too. But it was still 30 minutes or more each day just doing moderator duties, which maybe doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up.
The other problem is that I’m a “subject matter expert” and if I’m even in a FB group, when people have a discussion about something, it hinders discussions among those in the group because someone will say, “Well, let’s just ask Ritchie….” So there’s less discussion …and now I’m spending an hour or more each day answering questions and providing feedback and inputs. I’m already doing that on IG (I get about 50 DMs each day on there!), and it literally takes an hour each day just to “keep up” with it. Doubling that with a FB group is just too much.
But, the good news is that there are several film sim FB groups out there, including one by Fujirumors. I would take a look at those.
I appreciate the feedback and suggestion!
I forget just how popular Fuji is! I kind of imagined there would be maybe a couple of hundred interested. When I checked your suggestions there are 64k members in one of the Fbk groups! Not surprised you might find that a bit much! I never did get on with Instagram for some reason, just don’t like it.
Instagram is overrated, and not what it once was, so you’re not really missing out—but there are a lot of photographers on there.
Niiiiice. This is a banger and even better then the first V sim NN. I’m replacing the NN with this one and can’t wait to use it today as my 16-55 arrive today too! Thank you.
So glad that you like it! 😀
Just noticed you posted an updated Pacific Blues recipe, this is will be the 3rd V recipe taking over my camera. I now have Timeless Negative, K64, and Pacific Blues updated 5 recipes on my presets. The others are Ultramax 400, Portra 160, Portra 400v2, Dramatic Monochrome.
It will take some time to get them all updated on this website and app, but basically EBB, Eterna, Classic Negative, and Classic Chrome recipes need CCEB to be reduced, from Strong to Weak, or Weak to Off, and they’ll work on X-Trans V.
The “Dark Coffee” is a “gulp” photograph for me. Gulp in the sense that it is very hard to catch that type of serene light and dark but not inky shadows and usually I would think it would require a lot of work in the editing side, likewise with “Night Train.” Thank you, Ritchie : )
It’s amazing, isn’t it?!? Really shocking that it’s straight out of camera.
Would you be able to do a comparison between the other simulations and Nostalgic Negative using default options for those of us without an X-T5 please? Just to give us an idea of what it looks like compared to the others. Thanks!
This might not be what you’re looking for, but maybe it helps?
https://fujixweekly.com/2022/12/01/nostalgic-neg-is-basically-eterna-sort-of/
Think Eterna with a little more contrast and a lot more color saturation, plus a little warmer.
I seen this post this morning after I posted. Thank you. Perfect.
Oh, ok. Yeah, I’ve been way behind on a lot of stuff, including the blog comments. Good timing I suppose! 😀
Hi, Ritchie. Huge fan here. Though I am wondering did you ever consider developing recipes for video shooting? Thanks!
You can use the recipes for video, but… Color Chrome Effect (and FX Blue), Clarity, and Grain are not available in video mode. I find that X-Trans III recipes work best for video.
Here are a couple of examples:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR4QsXtq/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR4QWpAj/
I tried some of the recipes, Arizona analog works best for me on my X-T30 II. The vibe it brings is really close to photos.
Awesome! Thanks for the report!
Where does Fujifilm recommend settings for the original nostalgic negative simulation. I can’t find it
https://youtu.be/8r66iCMWGa0
Everything set to defaults (0, Off, or Auto) except for:
WB Shift +2 Red & -3 Blue
Shadow -2
Color -2