Fujifilm Neopan 400 (Presto)

Neopan 400 occupied a different register than Tri-X or HP5. The grain was tighter at box speed, the midtone separation crisper, and the shadow-to-highlight transition cleaner in ways that showed most clearly at 400 without a push. Photographers who shot Tri-X for its presence often found Neopan 400 clinical by comparison. Photographers who wanted accuracy over character found it the better tool.

Daido Moriyama has shot both Tri-X and Neopan over his career. The high-contrast, gritty Tokyo work that defined his reputation does not require one or the other, but the choice between them matters: Tri-X grain clusters and breathes; Neopan 400 grain disperses more uniformly, which reads differently at print size. Tokyo street photographers through the 1990s and 2000s had genuine opinions about which they preferred, and Neopan 400 had a loyal following among those who wanted the sharpness edge.

In Rodinal it performed as expected for a chromogenic-influenced grain structure: clean, somewhat small-grained, with strong acutance. In D-76 or equivalent it got softer but more printable for large enlargements. Most developers that worked for Tri-X worked for Neopan 400 with minor time adjustments.

Fujifilm sold it packaged as Neopan 400 and also as Neopan 400 Presto, which was the same emulsion in different packaging aimed at different markets. Both were discontinued in 2013 as part of the collapse of Fujifilm's film catalog in that period.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31. For night work past one second, Zone Light Meter applies the correction: a ten-second meter reading becomes roughly fifteen seconds at the negative, a thirty-second reading climbs to about fifty. The film handles push processing well to EI 800 or 1600 when needed.