Konica Centuria 800

The Centuria Super 800 datasheet describes it as a film built for amateurs working with consumer zoom lenses who needed shutter speed without a tripod. That framing tells you the design priorities. Konica engineered the emulsion for indoor parties, dusk street scenes, and shaded portrait work where a slower film could not hold a sharp frame. The February 2002 spec sheet lists it as ISO 800/30, daylight balanced, triacetate base, emulsion numbers in the 500 to 549 range, DX-code 26-6.

The MCC (Multi-Coated Crystal) and UCC (Ultra Consistent Crystal) technologies carried over from the rest of the Super line, and Konica claimed the highest actual speed in class as of early 2002 along with what their literature called excellent granularity for the speed. Field reports back the claim partially. The grain at ISO 800 is tighter than Fujicolor Superia 800 of the same period, though it falls short of the Kodak Portra 800 tier and was never really competing in that league. The film was sold in 35mm only.

Dusk and overcast days are where it earned its reputation. Skin tones under mixed light came back natural without the green cast that plagued cheaper 800-speed stocks of the era, and the film handled tungsten ambient better than its spec sheet predicted, with a recoverable orange shift rather than the full collapse some consumer films of the period produced. Direct noon sun looks muddy on this stock. That is the trade for the speed.

Production wrapped up with the Konica Minolta imaging shutdown in 2006. DNP did not relaunch the 800 in their brief 2007 to 2009 revival, so all current supply is genuine Konica freezer-stock. Apply the usual stop per decade overexposure rule for aged rolls.

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 original datasheet specifies no compensation from 1/10000 to one second and one stop at ten seconds, consistent with this curve.