Film Simulation Lab
Move the controls below and watch which way each Fujifilm image setting pushes a photograph. The base images are real 1940s Kodachrome transparencies plus a few CC0 photographs — using actual film to understand settings that emulate film seems about right.
Base photo
Dynamic range
Grain effect
Not Fujifilm’s own rendering
This is an approximation computed in your browser. Use it to learn which direction each setting pushes the image; trust your camera’s JPEG for the actual colour.
Base photos are public-domain or CC0 only, because applying an effect creates a derivative work.
What each of the thirteen simulations is doing
| Simulation | What it does | When to reach for it | Bodies |
|---|---|---|---|
| PROVIA / Standard | Fujifilm's baseline. Middling saturation and contrast, accurate skin, no strong opinion. | Use it when you have no reason to use anything else — and as the reference you judge the others against. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Velvia / Vivid | Saturation and contrast both pushed hard — bluer skies, denser greens, heavier shadows. Named after the slide film, and like the film it was made for landscapes. | Landscapes, bright days, anything where you want colour to shout. It usually overcooks skin, so be careful with people. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| ASTIA / Soft | Slightly richer colour than standard but lower contrast and softer highlights. Skin runs warm and bright — the friendliest Fujifilm base for portraits. | Portraits, family snapshots, backlight. When you want good colour without sacrificing skin. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Classic Chrome | Desaturated, with harder shadows and flattened highlights. Yellows drift towards olive and reds go dark and heavy. It reads like an old magazine printing. | Street, documentary, overcast days. When you want the picture to calm down and look less like a postcard. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| PRO Neg. Std | The flattest, most neutral colour mode. Skin transitions very smoothly and almost no colour interpretation is applied. | Studio portraits, product shots, anything you plan to edit later. Straight out of camera it is meant to look a little plain. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| PRO Neg. Hi | Same family as Std but one step more contrasty, so edges have more life. Skin stays neutral. | Portraits on location, flat light. The first thing to try when Std feels too soft. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Classic Neg. | Modelled on consumer negative film. Shadows lean teal, midtones lean magenta, highlights lean yellow — colours separate from each other strongly. | Street, travel, night markets. The usual pick when you want a film feeling rather than a clean one. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Nostalgic Neg. | Amber highlights, blueish shadows, blacks lifted a touch. Inspired by the printing of 1970s American photo books. Not available on the X-E4. | Dusk, warm indoor light, anything that wants a gentle nostalgia. Much softer-spoken than Classic Neg. | X-T5 |
| ETERNA / Cinema | Low saturation, low contrast, visibly lifted shadows. Designed for video, because it leaves so much room to grade afterwards. | Video, high-contrast scenes, pictures that want to be quiet. It looks grey straight out of camera on purpose. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| ETERNA Bleach Bypass | Imitates skipping the bleach step in processing: colour is nearly drained away while contrast climbs hard. Like a faint wash of colour over a black-and-white print. | Grey cities, metal, rain. Used sparingly it has real character; used everywhere it just looks like a filter. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| ACROS | Fujifilm's better black and white. Finer shadow gradation than Monochrome, with a fine grain structure added automatically in the darker tones. | Any time you decide the colour in a scene is not helping. The Ye / R / G filter variants then let you control sky and skin separately. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Monochrome | The plain black-and-white conversion — more direct than ACROS, with less gradation. | When ACROS feels too refined and you want something blunter. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
| Sepia | Monochrome with a brown tone. Narrow in use, but worth knowing about because it makes the difference between toning and desaturating obvious. | Almost never. It is listed here for completeness. | X-T5 · X-E4 |
The body column reflects the X-T5 and X-E4 as shipped. Firmware updates can add or remove modes — your camera’s menu is the authority.