Fuji Reala 500D

Let’s have a few f/stops around Fuji Reala 500D negative film. 2 years ago I got a well kept roll of it, but never went back to the pictures until recently when I was browsing some memories from 2015.

As obvious, Reala 500D was used as a motion picture film. Slumdog Millionaire, Walk the line, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, War of the worlds — all these were negativized on that emulsion. (source and more titles). I used it to capture some 2014/15 moments.

Fuji have a page for this film. As a summary:

This film has an E.I. 500 for daylight. If you put a Kodak 80A filter, you can expose it under tungsten light, with E.I. 125. Factor emulsion age, though.
There is a rem jet you’ll need to wash off before processing the film. If you hand it over to your local photo lab — do tell them about the rem jet. It will damage their chemicals and will be a real pain in the reels to the processing machine.

Had first few rolls exposed as E.I. 500. The results are below:

Fuji Reala 500D @ ISO 500 // C-41 process

The unexpected grain level led me to this discussion, which explains in a deep details why’s and how’s about the sandy look of the images.

The conclusion is that these rolls were underexposed and my Epson V600 automatically tried to compensate for my optimism. Next ones I went shooting at ISO 250, 200 and even 160. Much better results follow:

Fuji Reala 500D @ ISO 250 // C-41

Fuji Reala 500D @ ISO 200

Here is a leaflet from Fujifilm – reala500d.

You may still feel some noise here and there but I like the colors when exposure clicks correct.

In 2015 I decided to have a small project and shoot all summer pictures on this film. It took 10 – 12 rolls to learn how to use it.

I like the pastel colors of this film and its fine grain, when exposed properly. This film is easily developed in C-41, you should only remember to take care of the rem jet.