KONO! Delight ART 400 is a hand-tinted colour negative film in 135 format, 36 exposures, ISO 400, C-41 process. Delight is KONO!'s "professional" line: a good factory emulsion underneath, tinted by hand to alter hue, saturation and contrast.
How the picture looks
The film gives saturated and bright colour at once, and — this is its defining trait — the character depends on the light. In sunshine the world comes out in delicate, almost watercolour pastels. The lower the light, the stronger the tint asserts itself. The makers describe the result as a homage to the late seventies: a warm, slightly faded palette, like an old family slide.
What to shoot on it
Portraits in soft light, a walk through town, mood photography — anything you want to see as a memory rather than a document. ISO 400 means you need not think about shutter speed: it covers an overcast day, a room by the window, and dusk at a wide aperture.
How to shoot it
Meter at the nominal ISO 400; the DX code is standard. Remember this film's one rule: light controls the strength of the effect. Want pastel — shoot in sun; want a pronounced tint — go into shade and into the evening. The DX code is present, so an automatic camera will read the speed itself.
Processing and scanning
Ordinary C-41 at any lab. As with every tinted film, ask for a scan with no automatic colour correction: automation reads the tint as a white-balance error and neutralises it.
How it compares
Against ordinary ISO 400 colour film (Kodak UltraMax, Fujifilm Superia) you are paying for an effect you would otherwise fake in an editor — and getting it honestly, optically, with the unpredictability of handwork. Against Revolog: there the effect is a pattern laid over the frame, here it is a continuous tint.
