The Death and Re-Birth of Fuji Acros

Fuji's well renowned Acros film being discontinued in April 2018 caused chaos in the analogue photography world. Therefore it was only right that they bring it back to life, (at least to stop the angry mobs) as the last of the original Acros stocks deplete.

This being my first ever blog post, I thought it would be nice to discuss Acros as we enter 2020 and Acros 2 hits the shelves. The above photo was taken on Fuji's original Acros and this was my first time shooting it, and I love it. The photo was captured on my Lubitel 2 (a Russian TLR from the 50's), currently my only camera for shooting 120 film.

As a proud member of the ILFORD team (proud and potentially therefore biased) I was surprised at how much I liked this film. As you may notice from my other photos, I like high contrast, gritty photography which I often get from push processing and post editing. Fuji's Acros, shot at box speed (iso 100) came out with very pleasing results and considering I use my Lubitel with the sunny 16 rule (not the most accurate light meter), it was very forgiving. All photos from the one roll that I shot came out clear and well exposed with a naturally high contrast which I am very fond of. Details are kept in the shadows and highlights while contrast remains fairly punchy with next to no post editing.

To conclude, this post is about the death of the original Fuji Acros and is not a comparison to Acros 2. However finally shooting this beautiful film means I will be sure to pick up and shoot the new version.

Matt