Fuji Sensia 100 (35mm)

Fujichrome Sensia 100 is (was!) Fuji’s flagship consumer grade slide film, easy to find in supermarkets at a reasonably cheap price and popular among amateur photographers as a first-time experience with shooting on positive film.

When it comes to normal E6 processing Sensia 100 really isn’t anything special. Colours appear a bit washed out, especially the blues in sky or sea, while whites and skin tones are rendered accurately. I would normally recommend a different film, such as the Velvia or Provia for anyone wanting to get into E6 slide processing. Velvia 100 has beautiful color rendition and turns the saturation up a notch compared to Sensia.

Turning 180 degrees and dipping this emulsion in C-41 chemicals is a different story. This is where the beast comes out and she sure packs a punch. Red is definitely the dominant color, but you may also get a shift towards beautiful pink or even on rare occasions experience yellow and green.

Sensia was the film of choice for me when I decided to try out cross-processing for the first time, and man was I loving it! I was instantly hooked and it still is one of my favourite films for x-pro.

Have a look at these couple of shots from my first cross-processed roll and you’ll understand what I’m talking about…

Here’s an example of how unpredictable cross-processing can be. I took these two shots below with a few seconds apart, same subject, same distance, same settings and same light conditions…

My Sensia 100 has followed me on many trips. She’s met the communist ghost in Moscow, Russia…

I introduced her to my relatives in Egersund, Norway…

She’s been in New York City, USA…

And she’s been all around my former hometown of Göteborg, Sweden…

She’s also performed well under pressure, like in these double exposures I made with klickovic (1-12) and lazara (13-21)…

For those of you who survived this far I’m gonna let you in on a little secret… Ever wondered about that expensive film called Fuji Astia? You’d like to try it but maybe it was a bit too expensive for your wallet? Well, here’s the thing, Astia 100 is practically the same film as Sensia 100, but with a pro badge on her shoulder. The film code that you can find on the developed slides reads RA for Sensia and RAP for Astia and my conclusion from comparing shots from the two is that they both come for the same emulsion. Maybe the handling of production differs where Astia is handled with more care while Sensia gets the rough treatment, but if you have a look at these final cross-processed Astia shots you’ll see there’s hardly any difference between the two…

Last autumn we all got the sad news that Fuji has decided to discontinue the line of Sensia films, so my advice to all of you is to STOCK UP! Production was stopped the same day of the announcement, but you should still be able to find this film at a wide range of stores and in online shops.

written by anarchy on 2011-02-09 #gear #film #slide #35mm #review #sensia #cross #lomography #fuji #anarchy #fujichrome #sensia-100 #x-pro #cross-process #user-review #emusion