Kodak Ultramax 400 Review

Analog Film Review

Kodak Ultramax 400

Best budgeted Option for every film shooters

Kodak Ultramax 400 Review

Signature Kodak Warm Tone

Kodak Ultramax 400 is within the family of Gold 200 and ColorPlus 200. It is actually an all-purpose film. Within Kodak’s ISO400 family tree seems people overlooked this film and I think cost and value-wise this is such a great option compare with Kodak Portra 400 and Ektar 100.

So far I have shot quite a number of rolls of Ultramax 400. Its signature warmness is very recognisable and has very high exposure latitude and strong saturation. Which gives you rich colour and sensitive to red and blue colours (Fujifilm will be more sensitive to green).

kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-zagreb-market-afternoon-kaptol-street-red-blue-colour
Zagreb, Croatia 2018
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-zagreb-market-kaptol-travel-umbrella-people-catheral-church
Zagreb, Croatia 2018
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-dubrovnik-croatia-kings-landing-game-of-thrones-25mm-f4-voigtlander-view-top
Dubrovnik, Croatia 2018

High contrast and Grain

The sharpness of this film is not bad and with medium to high contrast. Its skin tone is not as accurate as Portra 400 but it is not a bad film. Like I mentioned above, the red and blue are prominent. However, the green that produced by Kodak Ultramax has so many layers. This film gives you a very good definition of different colour tones.

But the only downside of using this film will be the grain. The grain structure is quite coarse compare with other 400 iso film such as Superia Premium or Portra 400.

kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-zagreb-light-street-moment-spotlight-walking-woman
Zagreb, Croatia 2018

A Cheap Option for Street Photography

This film is relatively easy to help you bring out the contents from your shots. To further elaborate it keeps everything that you have capture authentic with its colour rendition and no matter it is outdoor or indoor and has a great balance between different colour hue and much closer to what we look in our human eyes. 

If you are planning to pick a film for street photography and wouldn’t want to worry too much about the price and quality. This is your to-go film but of course, if you find the tone from Fujifilm is better. I would recommend you to try Superia Premium 400 and Fujifilm Industrial 100/400.

kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-lake-bohinj-slovenia-travel-woman-sitting-with-mountain-cloudy-sky-summilux-35mm-f1.4-leica-infinity-lock
Lake Bohinj, Slovenia 2018
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-rovinj-croatia-split-scene-reading-newspaper-and-picnic-sunbathing-summilux-35mm-f1.4-infinity-lock
Rovinj, Croatia 2018

Surprised performance on point and shoot cameras

I have tried using Yashica T5 and Olympus MjuII with this film and it performs really well. If you use flash on these compact cameras and it balance really well because of its exposure latitude.

kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-yashica-t5-michelle-portrait-flash-with-poster-background-checked-shirt-look
Yashica T5, 2017
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-yashica-t5-flash-gary-holding-leica-camera-point-and-shoot-ps-compact
Yashica T5, 2017
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-yashica-t5-auto-macro-grasshopper-bokeh-green-tint-flash
Yashica T5, 2017

A Cheap Option for Street Photography

Overall it is a good versatile film to keep in your bag. It should be a film that would store in different film shooters’ fridge. In my opinion, this film performs the best under daylight environment, especially on a sunny day. The shadow will and tone will be muddy if that day is overcast.

kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-hk-hong-kong-housing-estate-uncle-with-sunglasses-standing-in-front-of-buildings-blocks-nikon-f100-85mm-f1.4-AFD
Hong Kong 2018
kodak-ultramax-400-iso-film-review-hk-hong-kong-housing-estate-uncle-colourful-bench-looking-at-me-nikon-f100-85mm-f1.4-AFD
Hong Kong 2018

Album

analog-film-review-kodak-vision3-vision-3-5219-7219-500T-800T-tungsten-photography-low-light-rem-jet-cinematic-cinematography-cannister-film-stripe-blog-character-characteristic-feature-ECN-2-C41-processing
Prev Kodak Vision 3 5219 500T Colour Negative Film
Next Summicron 50mm f2 Collapsible Radioactive - Is It Just a Myth
Leica-summicron-50mm-f2-50-f2.0-collapsible-v1-cron-lens-review-screw-bayonet-m-mount-radioactive-lathanum-camera-gears-film-hcb-black-and-white-l39-ltm-front

3 Comments

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.