Fujifilm Pro 160C

Pro 160C arrived in 2004 as the punchier half of a two-film pairing. Fujifilm released it alongside Pro 160S, with the C standing for contrast and saturation and the S for soft skin tone. Both shared the fourth cyan-sensitive layer that Reala introduced fifteen years earlier, but the curves were tuned for different ends of the professional market. 160S went into wedding and portrait bags. 160C went into architectural and commercial work where the art director wanted more bite.

Published RMS granularity is 3, which is genuinely fine, on par with Kodak Portra 160. Exposure latitude runs roughly minus one to plus three stops, the same forgiving profile that defines most fourth-layer Fuji color negatives. Where 160C separates from Portra 160 is the highlight response: skies hold their blue rather than washing to cyan-gray, and primary reds keep their saturation as exposure pushes up. The trade is that skin can render a little ruddy under direct sun. For people in open shade, 160S is the correct choice. For products on a white sweep or a brick facade at golden hour, 160C is.

Fuji discontinued Pro 160C in all formats in 2010. The sister film Pro 160S was renamed Pro 160NS the same year and lingered in 120 and sheet until 2017 and 2018, but the C variant ended in 2010. Pros who still chase the 160C look rate freezer-stock at ISO 125 to compensate for age fog.

The stock came in 35mm, 120, 220, and 4x5 sheets. None are in current production; what shows up on auction sites is typically a decade past its date.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.10. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second; a 30-second metered exposure climbs to about 35 seconds at the negative. The math barely moves the dial at handheld speeds, which is part of why this film traveled well into architecture work where tripod times of several seconds were routine.