Ultra 100 was a short lived color negative film made by Agfa from 2003 to 2005. After its discontinuation it gained a cult-like following; unsurprisingly, I’ve been asked many times to replicate the aesthetic for Fujifilm cameras. The supply of this emulsion has been getting smaller and smaller, and before long it will likely be completely gone. Nowadays, a digital approximation will be your best bet to achieve an Agfa Ultra 100 look.
Two years ago I published an Agfa Ultra 100 Film Simulation Recipe, using Classic Negative as the base. I said of it, “I’m actually not fully satisfied with this Recipe. I think sometimes it’s pretty spot-on, and I think other times it is significantly off.” Two years later, having just re-reviewed a lot of Agfa Ultra 100 photographs in preparation for this article, I completely agree with that assessment: some of the pictures captured with my Agfa Ultra 100 Recipe look extremely similar to some pictures I found captured with the film stock, while others don’t look especially alike. That shouldn’t be too surprising because one film can produce many different looks based on a host of factors, including how shot, developed, printed and/or scanned.
I recently received an email from a film photographer who has been shooting with Agfa Ultra 100 for many years. He purchased a large supply of the film back in 2007, and has kept it in his freezer ever since. With his supply now running low, he began to look for alternatives, and in the process stumbled upon Fuji X Weekly. Unfortunately, my Agfa Ultra 100 Film Simulation Recipe wasn’t a good match for his pictures, so he reached out to me to see if it would be possible to better replicate his photographs. He sent me some samples, and I noticed right away that it was dissimilar from my Recipe. His pictures had a distinct Nostalgic Neg. vibe, so I thought I could probably recreate the aesthetic using that film simulation.
His Agfa Ultra 100 pictures were captured with Pantax MZ-S 35mm SLR, overexposed slightly to compensate for the film being expired, developed by MPix, and scanned on a Noritsu. No post-processing was done, other than whatever corrections the lab may have made while scanning. The resulting pictures looked different than my Recipe, and also different from most of the photographs captured with the film that I found online. In particular, his photographs were significantly warmer and a tad more vibrant than my original Recipe. After a few days of tweaking, I feel like I got really close to the specific aesthetic of his pictures. He only sent me a handful of images to examine, so it’s based on a small sampling; however, this new Recipe seems like a pretty good match overall.
My new Agfa Ultra 100 v2 Film Simulation Recipe is compatible with fifth-generation X-Trans cameras, which (as of this writing) are the X-H2s, X-H2, X-T5, X-S20, and X100VI cameras. Those with newer GFX cameras that have the Nostalgic Neg. film simulation can use it, too; however, it will render slightly different (try it anyway). While this Recipe is intended for sunny daylight situations, it does surprisingly well in a variety of light scenarios.
Film Simulation: Nostalgic Neg.
Dynamic Range: DR400
Grain Effect: Weak, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Weak
Color Chrome FX Blue: Weak
White Balance: 5800K, -3 Red & -3 Blue
Highlight:+1.5
Shadow: +1
Color: +3
Sharpness: -2
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: -2
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using this Agfa Ultra 100 v2 Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X-T5:
Comparison:
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For my taste the new one is a little too warm, maybe I’m use to the cooler tones of the old one. I will try the new one out this weekend. This is why I love the fuji weekly website & the Fuji system, so many choices on how the final image can look. thanks 🙂
Definitely this Recipe isn’t for everyone. I was surprised by the warm results from the film scans, as I’ve not seen very many examples of that from this emulsion. Like you said, there are lots of Recipes to choose from, so hopefully there is something for everyone, no matter one’s preferences.
Hi Ritchie, I like the look of this one, will give it a go if we ever get any sunshine here in the UK again! One question – I’m interested that the recipe slightly increases chrome blue yet reduces blue in the white balance. Can you explain what I’m missing?! Cheers, Ryan
Color Chrome FX Blue deepens the blues in the image (makes them darker). The WB + Shift more determine the color of the blue (from purple through teal, I suppose) and not necessarily the deepness (but, to a small extent, also the deepness). The two work together, but have different purposes. I hope that makes sense.
Perfect sense, thank you.
Just FYI
The Agfa Ultra 100 is a color negative film. The film, which was only available for 35 mm cameras, has not been available for a long time. It replaced the Ultra 50 at that time.
What distinguished this film back then were its colors. Not for nothing was it advertised by Agfa as the most color-intensive film in the world. The consumer film was characterized by its high color saturation with simultaneous color fidelity.
Agfa’s Eye Vision Technology was responsible for this. Even with low contrasts, such as shots taken in fog, the award-winning, EISA Award 2003/2004 for the best color negative film in Europe, Agfa Ultra 100 should run vibrant colors. EISA stands for “European Imaging and Sound Association.”
With its sensitivity, it was of course not necessarily suitable for low-light shooting. Agfa Ultra 100 is a C-41 film, so it has to be processed in the C-41 process.
There is no direct replacement for the Agfa Ultra 100. As an alternative, one could perhaps reach for the Kodak Ektar 100*.
https://filmphotography.eu/en/agfa-ultra-100/
Thanks! It can indeed be very vibrant, especially the greens and reds, particularly when overexposed. Most examples of the emulsion that I have seen have deep and rich blues, and a slight cool cast overall. The film scans that I was shown were pronounced warm, despite being (for the most part) not golden hour. I wonder if the lab used the wrong profile when scanning, or if the lens has a warm cast (some vintage Pentax lenses do). I’m not sure why these were so much different than most of the others that I found; however, I think the look is interesting nonetheless.
To make room on my list of 7 recipes based on Nostalgic Negative (not published yet), i think I will put “Kodak Vericolor Warm” aside and include this one! I’ll use “Maricopa Trail” as cover.
If I want colder tones, I simply switch to Vision3…
Awesome! This is a good one for a warm rendering.
Thanks for this recipe!
Have you asked your friend about the lens he used to shoot this film? I came across a similar color change on the Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f2.8 (TLR), it has a sand coating. And my favorite Ektar in the photos was very different from what we were used to.
I did not, but I suppose I should. I have several Pentax Takumar lenses that produce a yellow cast from the coating, so I assume that’s the story, but I don’t know for certain.
Looks like a winner, will try soon
Awesome! Glad that you like it!