My Fuji X70: Kodacolor (XTrans2 recipe)
Above/featured: After Girard: Vancouver-Strathcona, 14 Oct 2021.
The Fujifilm X70 mirrorless fixed-lens prime camera has been a real boon to my approach to photography for personal projects both domestically and internationally. To satisfy my curiosity, I’ve provided examples of X70 images made with two Fujifilm analog-film simulation (film-sim) recipes:
• Ektachrome 100SW (saturated warm), simulating images with the Kodak colour transparency or slide films produced between 1996 to 2002;
• Kodachrome 64, simulating images with the Kodak colour film produced between the mid-1970s and 2009.
In this post, I examine the Kodacolor film-simulation, a reproduction of which Fuji X Weekly’s Ritchie Roesch describes as “producing a classic Kodak analog aesthetic.” According to Roesch, the digital film-simulation is closest to Kodacolor VR analog color film from the early-1980s, whose ISO200 version is still available for purchase as “ColorPlus 200” (Kodacolor 200).
The following film-simulation recipe creates images similar to the look of “Kodacolor VR 200 (film) that’s been overexposed.” My X70 settings are:
- ‘Classic Chrome’ built-in film-sim
- Dynamic Range: DR400
- Highlight: +1 (Medium-High)
- Shadow: +1 (Medium-High)
- Color: -2 (Low)
- Sharpness: 0 (Medium)
- Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)
- White Balance: 6300K; -3 Red, -2 Blue
- ISO: Auto, up to 6400 for “grainy” appearance (or fixed to 1000)
The recipe above is for the X-Trans II sensor; the corresponding recipe for an updated or more recent sensor is found here. All other recipes sorted by specific sensor are found here.
The following images were made at locations throughout metropolitan Vancouver. Minor adjustments to brightness level, rotation, and geometric distortion have been applied from straight-out-of-the-camera (SOOC) to posting.
KodaCo images, SOOC
T&T Chinatown, 19 Aug 2021.
Keefer Street. Vancouver-Strathcona, 19 Aug 2021.
Vancouver-Strathcona, 23 Aug 2021.
“u cant c me” – 24 Aug 2021.
Summer street scene: Steveston (Richmond), 28 Aug 2021.
Demolition: New Westminster, 2 Sep 2021.
East Pender Street, 12 Sep 2021.
Full moon over Burnaby Mountain, 19 Sep 2021.
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation: Robson Square – 30 Sep 2021.
Sun Tower, refurbishment complete – 6 Oct 2021.
Autumn afternoon on Granville Island – 19 Oct 2021.
I made all photos above with the “Kodacolor” film simulation on a Fujifilm X70 between mid-August and mid-October 2021. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-loi.
Fotoeins Fotografie 
10 Responses to “My Fuji X70: Kodacolor (XTrans2 recipe)”
Your title image is mind blowing. I am not sure if I understand the Kodak film simulation.
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Hi, Cornelia. I’m glad you enjoyed the title image 😊 For this post, the images in the “Kodacolor” simulation I made with the Fuji X70 digital camera approximate the look of images made with “Kodacolor VR 200” film on analog cameras. There are many settings which can be set and modified on Fuji cameras to produce different “film simulation” looks, and that’s why camera settings are provided to produce those “analog looks.” The varying factor is the evolution of camera sensors, and that’s also why settings are different among specific sensors in Fuji digital cameras. Thanks for your comment and for stopping by!
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Henry, thank you so much for getting back to me and filling me in about film simulation. Now I have a better understanding about these settings, that sounds really appealing to me. Can’t wait for more images like that of yours. Have a great and inspiring week.
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Nice work! Those images bring back memories. Before this article, I hadn’t considered specific processing settings tweaked manually. I’d only considered those templates or “looks” where someone else did the fiddling and I just loaded the templates. 🙂
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Hi, John, and thanks. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do much with analog film, although I remember Dad doing a decent job figuring out what was what. Like you, I was unfamiliar with how camera settings could be used. In some ways, these are in fact templates, because someone has dutifully figured out what specific camera settings can be used with specific sensors to produce the appropriate film-simulation look. No surprise, then, that newer sensors have the most film-simulation templates. I still have glass in the Canon system, but a large slate of film-simulation templates may be another factor to switch over fully to Fuji. Some day. 😅
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Indeed, the art of emulating the look of films long gone is an interesting side hobby for many photographers.
I do like the reminder of those days gone by, but I’m not sure I’m ready to do much experimentation in this venue. 🙂
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[…] Outside Stadium-Chinatown station – 24 August 2021. […]
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The color of the picture is nice. What is the exposure value of these pictures?
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Thanks. I don’t remember what the exposure values are. Typically in daytime, I begin with f/10, 1/1000-sec, ISO-1000; and work my way around these values to maintain an “evenly distributed” histogram so that the images are neither under- nor overexposed.
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[…] simulating images with the Kodak colour film produced between the mid-1970s and 2009; • Kodacolor, “producing classic Kodak analog aesthetic closest to early-1980s Kodacolor VR200 colour film […]
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