Fujifilm Acros II

Acros II arrived in 2019 to replace the original Acros 100 after Fujifilm discontinued it in 2018. Final coating is handled by Harman Technology in the UK, the company that operates the Ilford Photo brand, while Fujifilm still produces the emulsion at its Ashigara plant in Japan, which raised some eyebrows among longtime Acros users. Whether it is strictly identical to the original is a debate that fills forum threads without resolution. What matters is that it behaves like the original in the one property that made Acros famous: reciprocity failure is nearly absent.

The reciprocity exponent sits at 1.0, which is exceptional. Most films start failing noticeably somewhere past a second. With Acros II, a two-minute exposure in the viewfinder is very close to a two-minute exposure at the negative. Long-exposure workers shooting waterfalls, seascapes, or night cityscapes can meter a scene, confirm the reading passes one second, let Zone Light Meter apply its reciprocity correction, and trust the result. In practice the correction is so small it barely moves the shutter time. Some photographers skip it and come back with perfectly exposed negatives anyway. The math still matters, but this is the film where it matters least.

Grain structure is tabular, the same technology that put Acros in a different class from T-Max and Delta when it first appeared in 2000. At ISO 100 in 35mm the grain is tight enough that you can print or scan at large sizes without the texture becoming a character choice rather than a limitation. In medium format the grain disappears almost entirely.

Tone rendering is where the film earns its reputation. The midtone gradation is long and smooth, with just enough shoulder compression to handle difficult contrast ratios without the highlights blowing. For architectural and industrial work, where detail in both the shadow of an eave and a sun-bleached wall matters, Acros II handles more zones cleanly than most competitors at this speed.

Available in 35mm, 120, and 4x5 sheet film. The sheet sizes are in limited annual production runs. Buy when you see them.