Review: Fujifilm Reala Ace
Sometimes the difference is subtle yet inspiring and most times a blog post is 100% subjective. This is one of those times.
Having a love affair with Fujifilm that dates back to the 90’s and started with their wildly popular Velvia, I’m always excited when a new film simulation gets released. Normally I’m a big Neg Pro Hi kind of person, however with the release of the GFX100 II we now have a new film simulation called Reala Ace that is my new go to.
Tonality
Fujifilm touts the new Reala Ace as a film that “combines faithful color reproduction with hard tonality”. Looking at their marketing graph it solidly plants this film simulation right between Provia and pro neg hi. It would make sense when looking at the same image side by side I’ve found that Reala Ace has a significant gain in overall contrast compared to both Pro Neg Hi and Provia.
Looking at the below subjects face, the light really becomes sculpted giving the riders face shape. This isn’t always a good choice in portraiture, but in this case where there is so much going on with the helmet and back ground, having the added contrast really brings the viewer in.
ISO800 1/480s @ F2
Saturation
It doesn’t stop with the tonality though. . . I’ve always been one to tone down the saturation in most images (there’s always exceptions). Reala Ace plants you square in the middle of Provia and Pro Neg Hi for saturation, a place I think is damn near perfect for most situations. If we look at the above example you can see that the skin tones are less saturated especially in the reds, giving a more realistic and pleasing result.
Color
The color accuracy rendering is also beautiful. I’m a big critic of how blues and skin tones are rendered, probably due to my love of the ocean and working in outdoor lifestyle all these years. Reala Ace has been hitting it out of the park on every test / photo project so far. Usually I dive into the color editor of Capture One to tweak colors, since working with this film simulation I haven’t had to do that.
Take a close look at the helmet in the three examples above, you’ll notice that the Reala Ace is the most neutral of them all. Which is a good thing as the helmet was an extremely light matte gray.
Film Look
Not wanting to take away from the other film simulations, Reala Ace combined with the GFX100 II is one of the most film-like experiences I’ve found in digital. This is likely due to the amazingly smooth color gradations from the GFX100 II combined with Fujifilm’s stunning color science and lenses that are not only razor sharp but also add a character of their own.
Remember, All of this is completely subjective. I encourage you to go explore and test to find your favorite Fujifilm Film Simulation.
