Konica Centuria 100

Konica launched the Centuria line in 1999 as a refresh of its consumer color negative range, replacing the older VX naming and folding in two emulsion technologies the company called MCC (Multi-Coated Crystal) and UCC (Ultra Consistent Crystal). Centuria 100 sat at the slow end of the family. The datasheets dated February 2002 list it as ISO 100/21, triacetate base, balanced for daylight, processed in C-41 or the Konica CNK series. Reciprocity holds flat from 1/10000 to one second per the spec sheet, with a single stop of compensation called for at ten seconds.

The palette is the reason people still rummage through estate boxes for sealed rolls. Centuria 100 renders cooler than Kodak Gold of the same period and warmer than Fujicolor Reala. Skin tones land closer to neutral than either, with the magenta channel held back enough that lab prints rarely needed correction. Wedding shooters in Japan loaded it heavily, and APS versions cycled through point-and-shoot cameras for nearly a decade.

The Centuria branding outlived Konica itself. Konica merged with Minolta in 2003, the merged company shuttered the imaging division in 2006, and DNP Dai Nippon Printing bought the Odawara factory and relaunched the brand briefly in 2007 before retiring it again around 2009. The film you find today is freezer-stock at best and warm-stored estate sales at worst. Overexpose by a stop per decade past the date code and most rolls still produce printable negatives.

The original Centuria 100 was offered in 135 and 120; the Centuria Super 100 datasheet lists only 35mm. Find the older 120 boxes if you want medium format. There is no current production.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 60 seconds at the negative. On freezer stock the dye couplers have aged enough that an extra third of a stop on top of the math usually helps for indoor work past about ten seconds.