Konica Centuria 400

Centuria 400 was the version most working photographers actually used. The Super 400 datasheet, dated February 2002, calls it an ISO 400/27 daylight color negative with wide latitude on a triacetate base, processed in C-41 or the Konica CNK-4 chemistry most labs of the era could run. The MCC and UCC emulsion technologies that ran through the Super line gave it tighter grain than its consumer ISO 400 peers, with Konica claiming the highest actual speed in class as of early 2002.

The rendering sits between Fuji Superia 400 and Kodak Ultramax 400 in a way some shooters loved and others found indecisive. Reds come back warmer than Fuji and less orange than Kodak. Greens lean cooler than either. Skin tones run more natural than the consumer competition of the period, which was why the film picked up a following among Japanese wedding shooters and family-event photographers who could not justify Portra prices. Compared with Fuji Superia 400, the Konica grain looks finer in highlights but breaks up more visibly in shadow.

Latitude is the genuine asset. Field reports support around three stops of usable overexposure with one to two stops of usable underexposure, comparable to Kodak Gold 400 of the same era and a hair more forgiving than Superia 400. Rate it at 320 for indoor work to lift the shadows; rate it at 400 outdoors and trust the latitude.

Production ended with the Konica Minolta imaging shutdown in 2006. DNP relaunched the brand briefly between 2007 and 2009 with what some users believe was rebadged Kodacolor. The genuine Konica 400 is now freezer-stock, sold in 35mm; the 400-speed in 120 came under the separate Centuria Pro 400 label that Konica launched in 2003.

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. The datasheet confirms no correction is needed from 1/10000 to one second, with a single stop of compensation at ten seconds, consistent with this exponent.