Ever found yourself unable to decide which type of color film to buy?  Do you need ISO 100 or 400?  Vibrant colors or a softer palette?  Portraiture or landscape photography?  Well, Fujicolor C200 is there to eliminate the need to make a decision for you.  This jack-of-all-trades film can serve as a stand-in for just about any situation you might find yourself in photographically.  When you don't know quite where you will be heading or what you will be doing, or expect a mix of a lot of things this film is a great go-to.  For example, it is a perfect film for that point-and-shoot you keep in your daypack, or for travel where you want something that will do ok with everything and anything.

From what we can tell, the Fujicolor C200 name started to come into widespread use in the late 2000s, but the film had existed before that simply as Fujicolor 200.  This film should not be confused with Fuji Superia by the way.  It is similar in look and feel to Fuji Superia, but that latter line of film enjoys certain technological advances in its emulsion that are not found in Fujicolor C200.  One of those is Fuji's 4th Color Layer technology that allows its films to perform better under artificial and mixed lighting conditions.  This 4th Color Layer really helped make Superia popular with those who frequently had to photograph indoors without flash.  Sadly, Fujicolor C200 is lacking this bit of technology.  But that just means its performance under mixed lighting is average... more or less in line with all the film's other characteristics.  In fact, when Fuji Superia 200 was eventually discontinued, it was C200 that was touted as its replacement albeit the use of older technology.  We suppose the silver lining here is that the film is less expensive to make and that is reflected in its lower price on the retail market.

Our experience with Fujicolor C200 have led us to describe it as having decently fine grain (as you would expect from an ISO 200 film), slightly punchy contrast (similar to Kodak Ultramax), reasonable skin tones (not as soft as Kodak Portra but certainly more complimentary than Kodak Ektar).  One area where Fujicolor C200 does break out of its shell of averageness and excel is in its exposure latitude.  This is a very forgiving film.  Want to throw this in a camera with a funky, or non-functional, light meter?  Go for it!  It is a great film for when you want to fly by the seat of your pants or purely off intuition when it comes to gauging and setting exposure.  Likewise, this film has surprisingly good reciprocity failure, needing no compensation out to 2 second exposures and only gradually growing to a full stop when you have reached 1 minute exposures.  Not too shabby!