Sakura SR-V 400

SR-V 400 was the fast end of Konica's V-series color negative range, launched in 1987 as the Sakura brand retired and the Konica nameplate took over. Boxes carrying Sakura labeling are mostly late Pacific export stock from the transition window. Konica did not stop at ISO 400 in the V-series; SR-V 3200 also existed, part of a push that made Konica the most aggressive high-speed color manufacturer of the late 1980s.

As a working emulsion it occupied the same shelf space as Fujicolor HR 400 and Kodacolor Gold 400 of the same year. Color leaned warm without going orange, skin tones printed flatter than the Kodak peer, and grain was visible at 8x10 in a way that read as typical for the speed class in 1988. Japanese labs handled it cleanly because the masking density was lower than Kodak's, which made printer balance easier on automated minilab equipment.

Use cases mirrored any fast consumer film of the era. Indoor available-light family shots. Overcast outdoor work. Mixed-light scenes where slower film would have demanded flash. Late-1980s Japanese compacts and autofocus 35mms ate through this stock in volume.

Fresh equivalents today would be Kodak Gold 400, warmer and slightly more saturated, or Lomography 400, a Kodak-derived consumer stock that lands closer in tonal character. Portra 400 outclasses fresh SR-V 400 on latitude and skin rendering by a substantial margin.

SR-G 400 replaced SR-V 400 in 1989, and Konica Minolta exited photography entirely in March 2006. No fresh stock exists. Surviving rolls are estate-find expired film, often with magenta shift and raised base fog. Rate down a stop for every decade past the date and budget for grain.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A 5-second meter reading becomes about 8 seconds at the negative. For ISO 400 indoors at small apertures, the threshold comes up constantly, and on heavily expired stock the storage compensation matters more than the math itself.