Fujifilm · ISO 250 Cinema
Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553
Eterna 250T arrived in 2006 as Fujifilm's mid-speed tungsten cinema negative, balanced for 3200K and rated at ISO 250 under tungsten. Pop an 85 conversion filter on it for daylight and you lose two-thirds of a stop, putting it at ISO 160 in sun. Same Super Nano Structure grain tech as the rest of the late Eterna line. Same March 31, 2013 production death alongside everything else Fujifilm made for cinema.
Eterna 250T credits skew toward intimate features rather than blockbusters. Sean Bobbitt shot Steve McQueen's Hunger (2008) on a mix of Eterna stocks including 8553. Yorick Le Saux ran it on Luca Guadagnino's Io sono l'amore (2009). Phedon Papamichael loaded 250T alongside Eterna 500T for the whole of 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and Hoyte van Hoytema folded it into both Let the Right One In (2008) and The Fighter (2010) when he wanted the cooler Fuji palette in the mix.
Next to Kodak Vision3 250T, character is cooler and softer. Tungsten light through this stock looks more like sodium-vapor and incandescent reality and less like the warm-glow cinematic shorthand Vision3 leans into. Some shooters prefer the honesty; others find it clinical. Skin under tungsten reads natural rather than golden.
C-41 cross-processing after remjet removal pushes contrast and saturation hard, closer to bleach-bypass than to clean tungsten. ECN-2 keeps it accurate. Stick to ECN-2 if you want the original look.
Availability is all freezer stock and short-ends. No new manufacture since 2013.
Fujifilm's motion picture manual asks for 1.3 seconds when the meter reads one, and that is its last printed point. Nothing is added up to a tenth of a second; beyond one second Zone Light Meter extends the same trend rather than quoting Fujifilm. A metered 15-second exposure climbs to roughly 25 seconds at the negative. Easy to dial in for available-light tungsten interiors, where this film still earns its keep.
How the app handles this stock
- Box speed: ISO 250. Picker exposes pull/push chips so you can shoot it at any speed you want and the meter follows.
- Reciprocity: The app follows Fujifilm's published table for this film, which stops at a metered 1 s (1.3 s on film). Past that the app extends the same trend, so a metered 10 s becomes 16 s. Line it up against other stocks in the reciprocity chart.
- Expired film: if you load an old roll, set the expiry year and storage in the app and the ISO scales for you. Cinema decay rates are baked in.
Frequently asked questions
What ISO is Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553?
Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 is an ISO 250 cinema film from Fujifilm. You can rate it at box speed or push and pull it; set the speed you actually shot and the meter follows.
Is Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 still in production?
No. Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 is discontinued, so it is freezer stock and the secondhand market now. Expired rolls drift slower over time, so many shooters overexpose a stop.
Does Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 suffer from reciprocity failure?
Yes, on long exposures. The app follows Fujifilm's published table for this film, which stops at a metered 1 s (1.3 s on film). Past that the app extends the same trend, so a metered 10 s becomes 16 s. Zone Light Meter applies this automatically.
What formats does Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 come in?
Fujifilm Eterna 250T 8553 was available in motion-picture.