Canon Agfa RSX II Film Simulation Review
The latest stop on our Canon Picture Style voyage: Agfa RSX II.
One (of many) limitation of Canon’s Picture Style system: a lack of control over highlight and shadow tones. White balance is up to the camera, so you don’t have much control over color grading. Individual color HSL settings, levels, contrast, and sharpness – that’s about all you can adjust.
Unlike Fuji’s more fine-grained approach to film simulations, Canon’s system lacks both the film legacy and customization options.
What you end up getting is slight variations on a theme.
Agfachrome RSX II is a diverse positive film, a little soft and dreamy, but with a punch of contrast. The colors are vivid and true-to-life without being overwhelming, which made it a versatile choice across different subjects (it’s been discontinued for years now).
On Canon cameras, this Agfa Picture Style is…fine? It works. There’s nothing offensive about it.
But like many of these Canon film emulations, there’s nothing special about it, either. You don’t look at it and think, “Wow, that’s an accurate, useful positive film emulation.”
It’s nice that the skin tones are good, it has a touch of contrast, and yet it retains the slightly warm, soft look that the classic Agfa RSX II had. Muted greens. Saturated reds.
This Picture Style has been another all-purpose one for me (much like the Kodachrome Picture Style): flexible enough to fit my style and applicable in most situations. If you’re a JPEG shooter, you could use this as a reliable film emulation.
But like all these Canon Picture Styles, don’t expect Mastin-, RNI-, or VSCO-levels of film emulation.
Get this Agfa Picture Style in the VW collection, and check out my reviews of other Canon film emulations.