Lucky Color 200 .
Color 200 marks Lucky’s return to colour film. It might seem to be a new player in the colour film space, but Lucky’s history goes back to the 1950s, when it was producing motion picture and black and white film. Colour film followed in the 80s, and for a time Lucky was part owned by Kodak. Lucky stopped making colour film in 2012, but brought it back in 2025 because of the resurgence of analogue photography. C200 is the first entry.
So who’s it for? Lucky is pitching this at the consumer end of the market, in the same category as Kodak Gold 200. And they are similar films. It does look similar in scans once its reddish cast is reduced, and has a similar amount of grain. Like Gold, it’s a good film for portraiture, travel and as a general all-rounder. It does have differences: it has lower contrast with brighter shadows, is a little cooler and is less saturated, except on red subjects. Those are noticeably bolder. It also tends to take on a green cast when underexposed.
Lucky Color 200 is an easy choice to throw in a bag when you don’t know what you’ll be shooting. It’s at its best in bright light. Under cloud or indoors, its colours turn more muted. It can handle a stop of overexposure well and could easily become your everyday film, at a price point that is hard to argue with.
- + A roll to throw in your camera for a weekend
- + Portraiture and candids
- + Travel
- − When you want warmer colours — choose Gold 200
- − Finer grain — choose CineStill 50D
- − When you have less light — choose Lucky Color 400
more from their film.
Grain is fine and even for an ISO 200 film, much like Kodak Gold 200. Contrast is low, with brighter shadows than Gold. Latitude is workable rather than generous: it's less forgiving than the more established 200-speed films, so meter carefully. It handles a stop of overexposure, but bright highlights lose detail quickly. Underexposure turns it dull, with a green cast in the shadows.
Its look shifts a lot with the light. In bright sun, colour is strong and well defined. In overcast, flat or indoor light, colours turn muted and greyish, sometimes a little muddy. Its colour has a red or magenta lean rather than the yellow warmth of the Kodak 200s: reds come out strong and clean, blues and cyans a little quieter, and skin can pick up a pink cast. We haven't found push or pull guidance for it, so expect normal C-41 processing at box speed.
In 35mm, rolls are 36 exposures in a DX-coded canister, so cameras that read DX codes set ISO 200 automatically. Any lab that runs C-41 can process it.