Review: Fujifilm Pro 400H with samples

Welp, it was only a matter of time before the short-lived Fujifilm Pro 400H met its end.

In January 2021, Fujifilm announced that it is discontinuing the production of its professional Pro 400H films in 35mm and 120mm formats.

We can add Pro 400H to a growing list of precious film stocks that Fuji has stopped producing in the past few years. Cue the “In Memoriam” montage! High speed films like Superia Venus 800 and Superia 1600 (also known as Natura 1600) are no more. Acros 100 is gone. Fuji FP-100C is kaput.

Now, Fujifilm’s answer to Kodak’s Portra is done for as well.

So, what happened?

Why did Fujifilm discontinue Fuji Pro 400H?

In a word: revenue.

Look, we all had an inkling that 35mm and 120mm film doesn’t exactly pay the bills. Looking at the actual numbers, it’s pretty shocking how small the imaging solutions segment really is to Fuji.

As a publicly-traded company. FUJIFILM Holdings Corp shares their quarterly and annual revenue numbers on their website. Looking through the past few annual reports, their consumer films aren’t even mentioned. What we do see are descriptions of how their digital camera division is performing along with their uber-popular Instax instant camera film line. We can glean interesting nuggets of information from these reports: Fuji Instax’s marketing campaign with Taylor Swift was deemed successful, Instax does well in the US and Europe, and their production was hard hit by Covid when factories in China were temporarily shuttered.

In Fuji’s fiscal year ending in March 2019, their imaging solutions segment was worth 20.8% of their operating income, or roughly half a billion US dollars. The following year, after a full quarter to feel the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, their imaging solutions segment was worth about half that, at 11.3%.

Chump change relative to FUJIFILM Holding Corp’s other priorities… things like their healthcare and document solutions business units. Those bring in the big bucks.

It’s no wonder that their consumer films don’t stand a chance. The focus for Fuji is strictly on Instax and their digital cameras when it comes to anything photographic. Of course, their common 200 and 400 35mm film stocks are still available, along with color reversal films like Provia and Velvia. That and their professional 160 speed film, only available in Japan.

But for how much longer?

We can speculate wildly that Fuji wants to either cut its losses on consumer films and redirect resources towards Instax. Or, maybe, they’re ready to get out of the photo film business altogether.

This is in direct contrast to their main competitor, Kodak, which has not discontinued their professional Portra line of films, but actually brought back the immensely popular Ektachrome slide film, with a new emulsion. At this rate, we’ll see the death of Superia X-tra 400 and the rebirth of Kodak Kodachrome.

Who shoots Fuji Pro 400H?

Anyone can (and did) shoot Fuji Pro 400H.

However, the film’s mercifully wide latitude, excellent skin tone reproduction, and price point made it popular with fashion and wedding photographers. It was films like Pro 400H and their Kodak competitors (Portra 160 through 800) that influenced digital photographers’ obsession with digital presets with “that film look.”

I couldn’t really afford emulsions in the pro category when I started shooting film, but when I managed to get a roll or two, I knew that a lot would be forgiven. Up to a point, of course, judging by the many blurry photos I ended up with. I put a lot of faith in the film.

There are some great articles on how to shoot Fuji Pro 400H, including this one from Shoot It With Film’s Samantha Stortecky.

Samples of Photos on Fuji Pro 400H

I have a full blog post when I shared 8 frames of Fuji Pro 400H 120mm that I shot on a Yashica D SLR. You can skip the words and check out the photos; it was my first time shooting this film in medium format.

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