Agfa Vista Plus 400

Vista Plus 400 was the faster sibling on the Poundland shelf. Same Agfa Photo licensing arrangement, same later switch from Ferrania-sourced to what users widely identified as rebranded Fujicolor Superia 400 by emulsion code and DX coding. Forum threads dating from 2015 and 2016 ran tests stripping the lead trailer markings and concluded the late Vista 400 rolls were Superia 400 with different branding. Whether Agfa Photo, Fujifilm, or the licensing party between them confirmed this on paper is another question. The result on the negative was Fujicolor character at Agfa pricing.

That assumption matters because it tells you what to expect. Greens lean cyan, blues hold their depth, skin tones come through cooler than Vista 200 and noticeably cooler than Kodak Ultramax 400 of the same period. The grain is finer than Ultramax and slightly looser than Portra 400, which is the Superia signature. If you shot a roll of Vista 400 and one of Superia 400 from 2016 in the same camera, distinguishing them in the print would be guesswork.

Latitude is the consumer-grade three stops over, one stop under, with cleaner shadows than the 200-speed version. Rate it at 320 indoors for slightly cleaner negatives, leave it at 400 outdoors and the latitude handles whatever the meter misses. Push to 800 with extended C-41 works but adds visible grain and a slight magenta shift.

The film was 35mm only. No 120, no other formats. Supply now is freezer stock, mostly from UK shooters who bought up the Poundland inventory before the line collapsed in 2018. A few sealed propacks still circulate at film fairs and online, prices climbing steadily.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 60 seconds at the negative. On aged stock the color cross past 10 seconds gets harder to correct in post; if you are shooting long exposures with old Vista 400, expect a magenta drift in the shadows and plan to either embrace it or scan flat and rebalance.