FujifilmNeopan 100 Acros II

Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros II is an ISO 100 black-and-white negative film, developed in standard black-and-white chemistry such as D-76 [1]. Fujifilm sells it on its grain, with a diffuse RMS granularity of 7, and on long exposures that need no correction up to 120 seconds [1]. It replaced the original Acros, discontinued in 2018, and went on sale in Japan in November 2019 [4] [5].

Look and color

Acros II turns colors into grays according to its own spectral sensitivity, which gives blue less weight than most panchromatic films:

• Blues darker than on other films, but not darker than the eye sees them. Converting our test RAW files with the Acros II curve instead of plain luminance made a sky only 1.8 L* lighter, against 3.2 with Tri-X 400 and 4.1 with HP5 Plus. Skin lost 1.5 L* (3.8 with Tri-X) and a pink shirt gained 0.6 [17]. “Dark skies” are relative to other films: without a filter, the sky still comes out lighter than in a luminance conversion.
• Less blue than the original Acros. On the two datasheets, Acros II is less sensitive below 450 nm, and its red cut-off sits about 10 nm further out (our reading) [1] [2]. Blue Moon Camera expects “slightly darker blues and greens than the original but slightly lighter reds” [6].
• Blue darker than green. In a rainbow test, 35mmc found that “Blue is darker than Green” on Acros II, unlike HP5 Plus, and suggests it may separate sky and clouds without a filter [8].
• Orthopanchromatic or panchromatic? Fujifilm calls both Acros and Acros II “orthopanchromatic” [1] [2]. Analog.cafe writes that Acros II moved to full panchromatic sensitivity [9]. On the datasheets, the red cut-off moves by about 10 nm; we see no change of category (our reading).
• Filters. Fujifilm gives daylight factors of 2 for a No. 8 yellow, 4 for a No. 21 orange and 8 for a No. 25 red [1].

Tonality

• Curve. In D-76 for 7 min, base plus fog sits near 0.15, the toe is short (about 0.4 log units) and the gradient keeps rising with exposure, from about 0.54 to about 0.75, with no shoulder up to a density of about 2 (our reading of the graph) [1]. Highlights keep separating.
• Average gradient about 0.58 in D-76 at 7 min, close to the 0.56 contrast index Kodak targets for Tri-X [1] [16].
• Reviews describe “very clean, crisp highlights”, “rich shadows” and a “wonderful transition of grays in between” [7]; Parallax finds “smooth tones and good contrast” with “lots of detail in the highlights and shadows” [11].
• Compared with the original Acros: “slightly higher contrast in the midtones and slightly deeper shadows” [6]; Emulsive sees “a bit less shadow detail” while “highlights remain largely the same” [10].
• Contrast is debated. A customer review on The Darkroom finds “very pleasing but minimal contrast” [12]. Analog.cafe notes that overexposure gives less contrast and underexposure more [9].
• Long exposures: no correction below 120 s, then +½ stop from 120 to 1000 s [1]. Analog.cafe calls it “a perfect film for astrophotography” [9].

Grain and sharpness

• Fujifilm claims “the world’s highest standard in grain quality among ISO-100 black-and-white films” [1]. The original Acros had the same RMS of 7 [2]. RMS values measured in different developers are only roughly comparable.
• Blue Moon Camera finds Acros II “even finer than TMax 100” [7]; Parallax speaks of “super fine grain” [11].
• Resolving power: 60 lines/mm at 1.6:1 chart contrast and 200 lines/mm at 1000:1 [1], against 63 and 200 for T-Max 100 [13].

Spectral sensitivity

Fujifilm’s spectrogram is measured in 5400 K daylight, not under tungsten light like Ilford’s or on an equal-energy basis like Kodak’s. The blue sits about 0.3 to 0.4 log units below a maximum near 580 nm, with a dip near 495 nm, small peaks near 627 and 645 nm and a sharp cut-off just above 650 nm [1]. In practice, skies come out a little lighter than in a luminance conversion but darker than with Tri-X or HP5 Plus, and skin and reds stay close to their luminance [17].

Names, status and history

• 2000 to 2018. The original Neopan 100 Acros was introduced in 2000 and discontinued in its last formats, 135 and 120, in 2018 [5]. Fujifilm cited falling demand and raw materials that had become hard to obtain [4].
• Acros II, 2019. Fujifilm reworked the film around substitute raw materials and a revised manufacturing process, and released it in Japan on November 22, 2019, in 35 mm and 120 [4]. Sales outside Japan followed from spring 2020 [5] [6].
• Who makes it. Wikipedia says the emulsion is still coated at Fujifilm’s Ashigara factory in Japan, with conversion and packaging reportedly done by Harman in the UK [5]. Analog.cafe writes that it is “packaged in the UK, presumably by Harman/Ilford, but manufactured in Japan” [9], and Emulsive that it “is not a rebranded ILFORD film” [10]. We found no Fujifilm statement naming a partner.
• Status. On September 29, 2026, Fujifilm’s US site listed Neopan 100 Acros II with no discontinuation notice [3].
• Datasheet. AF3-0258E covers the 135 format and dates from February 2020 [1].