Sakura SR-V 100

SR-V 100 sat one generation before SR-G in Konica's color negative lineup. The V-series launched in 1987 alongside the worldwide retirement of the Sakura brand, and SR-V 100 specifically appears in archived materials with develop-before dates running into 1989, putting active manufacture in a tight two-year window before SR-G replaced it. The overlap is short. Late Sakura-branded boxes are a transition artifact more than a technical milestone.

As an emulsion it was a competent late-1980s C-41 negative at ISO 100, tuned for daylight portraits, studio work with strobes, and slower-shutter landscapes. Color signature followed Konica's house style: warmer than Fujicolor Reala, less aggressively red than Kodacolor VR 100, skin tones in the middle. Grain was tight enough that 8x10 enlargements held without noticeable texture.

The stock was popular in Japan and Australia, both markets where Konica had strong consumer distribution. Less common in the United States, where Kodacolor and Fujicolor dominated drugstore counters. That regional pattern is why Australian estate sales surface intact bricks you almost never see from American garages.

Fresh SR-V 100 would land near Lomography Color 100 for grain and tonality, with a softer skin response. It loses to Portra 160 on latitude by about a stop and to Ektar 100 on saturation by quite a bit. As a 1980s document of color rendering it is more interesting than as a working film today.

No fresh stock has been made since the early 1990s when SR-G replaced it. What circulates is exclusively expired film, often with mild magenta shift and raised base fog from decades of room-temperature storage. Freezer-stored rolls scan more cleanly. Rate down a stop or two for storage fade.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A 30-second meter reading becomes about 70 seconds at the negative. For night work or tripod interiors at f/16, the correction matters as much as the storage compensation.