A four-minute video review of the pre-production version of the Lucky C400 film was posted on Douyin last week. This is my translated and verified summary, along with samples and additional sources.
Lucky has recently begun large-scale in-house production of their colour-negative film, Lucky C200 (see my review of this film here: analog.cafe/r/lucky-c200--…), to serve the insatiable local¹ and international demand for analogue photographic material. It took them just over a year (after the initial announcement and rumours) to bring it to market, and this new, yet-to-be-announced ISO 400 version is already in the hands of the select few.
@小丁不是器材党 shot and developed the pre-release Lucky C400 and posted his results on February 14th.
The video², found on the Chinese version of TikTok, begins with the speaker recalling issues they’ve experienced with the earlier Lucky C200 films, which have since been resolved.
“Today, I was very fortunate to get my hands on some Lucky C400 test film. I used a Nikon F6 camera… I think it’s really good, better than I expected.”
The OP, 小丁 (Xiao Ding), continues — “The negative strip is very clean; it has no edge markings because it’s a test roll… There are no scratches, no blue stripes, no water ripples, and no white spots… I’m very satisfied.”
“I feel that even when zoomed in, the graininess is perfectly acceptable, and the colours are very good.” — he then added — “There’s a three-dimensional quality to the grain.”
The film appears to lean towards blue in the shadows and orange in the highlights. The slight yellow tint in the greens, according to Xiao, is due to his scanner’s rendering bias (he used Noritsu).
I’ve seen a similar orange (highlights) and blue (shadows) casts in Lucky C200. Xiao suggested that these colours are part of the Lucky “signature,” which he found quite beautiful.
Indeed, despite producing comparatively realistic/accurate tones, the Lucky colour film looks like nothing else on the market.
The dynamic range, as Xiao later showed in the high-contrast photo of a scooter, is limited (the same is true of the C200), yet “the colours are generally unaffected,” he pointed out. I understood that as the film’s ability to retain its colours in the fringes without adding any further casts or drifts.
“Really, pretty good.”
The video ended with a question: “How much would you be willing to pay for this film?”
For context, 周 (another recipient of the Lucky C400 test roll) said that he spent 50 RMB — or $7.25 — on his roll of Lucky C200.
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¹ — According to Chen Yan, deputy general manager of Lucky Film Co., Ltd for QQ, the company survey revealed that over 1.5 million rolls of film are bought and sold in China annually: news.qq.com/rain/a/2025082…
The image in this post features two screenshots from the original video review by @小丁不是器材党, plus one showing @摄影周老师 holding the unmarked test roll of Lucky C400 (his video can be found here: douyin.com/video/760780135…).
Here’s another sample of Lucky C400, shot by @追风少年🏍️.
The OP’s caption says: “Lucky C400 test film, second release online. Lucky C400 test film + Contax 50 1.4, normal ISO, daylight shooting…” (machine translated).
Dmitri edited on Feb 19, ‘26
Dmitri
Dmitri
Dmitri edited on Feb 19, ‘26
Dmitri edited on Feb 19, ‘26