Kodak Vision 3 5207 250D (Daylight) Motion Picture Film
Kodak Vision 3 5207 250D
Analog Film Review
Motion Picture Film
Kodak Vision 3 5207 250D (Daylight) Motion Picture Film
Kodak Vision 3 5207 250D Motion Picture Film
I have tried Cinestill and its original Kodak Vision 3 500T. What’s next? I am curious to understand more about these movie film stocks. I ordered a few and I fell in love with them. Now I stocked many and it became my go-to film.
This cine film is a medium-speed vision 3 technology daylight-balanced (5500K) emulsion. It has amazing skin tones and colour rendition. From Kodak website it said, “The proprietary, advanced Dye Layering Technology (DLT) provides noticeably reduced grain in shadows”. In a sense that it has great tolerance for you to expose your film 2 stops without blown-out highlight details.
Great news to all movie lovers. If you are looking for cinematic characters, you must have heard of these blockbusters. There are so many movies shot with this film such as Thor, Dunkirk, La La Land, Spectre, The Imitation Game…etc. All these great titles have a common colour palette that came from this cine film.
Kodak 500T was my first cinematic film to shoot with. At first, I was hesitant to try any of these cinematic film stocks because most of them have expired and all the photos taken and shown on Flickr or Instagram are in weird colour. At last, I bought my first roll from the Classical camera shop and they confirmed it is bulk rolled from fresh film stock. After the amazing result from Vision 3 500T, I decided to try this Kodak 250D and I am now deeply addicted to its character.
Basic about Rem-jet Backing
I always hear about Remjet, so what is it? The main difference between the cine film and the normal colour negative film is the remjet. It is an extra protective layer sitting on the base of the film that acts as a lubrication purpose to prevent halation of highlights, static, unwanted light exposure around the edge of the film, scratches on the film. This layer is required for motion picture film to move through a camera at a very high speed.
Best Colour Film Stock from Kodak
Kodak Super Gold 400 discontinued in 2015, Superia Premium 400 also discontinued, so what’s the colour film I can shoot with and match with my tone? Except for the colour reversal film, this is probably the best colour negative film I have shot with Kodak so far. I started shooting different Kodak’s film 11 years ago, so far Portra 160 or 400 VC was still the best until I tried this film. This film has become my everyday film despite the expensive developing costs.
Why? First of all, it has super-rich contrast and meticulous details especially if you shoot it during sunset. It gives up ultra-fine details and pastel tones like Fujifilm Pro400H and finer grain (not a big fan of Pro400H). Also, I think it delivers better skin tone than Portra because Portra delivers pale skin tone and I personally find 250D’s rendering is better.
With the anti-halation layer, it has extraordinary performance when you shoot it towards the sun or with any subject that has ultra bright highlights.
Night photography with Kodak 250D
Not only Cinestill 800T and Kodak Vision 3 500T deliver excellent low light photography and give me options to use at high speed. But this 250D actually does better than them!
Why? It delivers excellent image quality if you shoot it during the day and surprisingly good at night. My experience with Cinestill 800T and Kodak Vision 3 5219 500T already establish a foundation that those are my go-to films if I am going to do some street photography at night. However, what Kodak 250D can actually offer me are the super-rich contrast and deep black. From the image below you can see it is extra sensitive to magenta, yellow and red. Even if you metered it incorrectly it just gives you that cinematic mood and the details in the shadow still retain as much as they can.
If you like the movie The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan and you would like to get the same tone. You have to try this and Kodak Vision 3 5219 500T.
Final Thoughts!
I think this is so far the best and most underrated film from Kodak because not all film labs process it. If you don’t mind developing it at home or send it to a lab that does ECN-2 processing, it is a keeper
So far I don’t have any experience developing my own motion picture film. But I will definitely try doing that with the ECN kit available in the market. If you are looking for a reliable film with character and just something a little different from Portra go for this film! Cost-wise, the developing and scanning cost balance out the expensive price of Kodak Portra 160 or Portra 400 and gives you amazing image quality. Honestly, I like Kodak Ektar 100’s rich tone, but when you are underexposed or you want to shoot it at night with ISO100 it seems impossible unless you have a steady hand.
I ordered them from someone bulk loaded already and I am going to list it up for sale on the website to spread the motion picture love around the globe!!
21 Comments
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Ordered some because of this article. Can’t wait to try it out!
Hi Anson,
Nice article!
May I know any labs in HK develop ECN-2?
KK
Hi KK,
Thanks for your comment. So far I developed ECN-2 in classical camera shop, Megatoni and colorluxe but they all send to Megatoni for development. You may refer to this post for more info. https://tahusa.co/guides-and-tips/places-to-develop-film-in-hong-kong/
Anson
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this film. I love love love the colors. I’ve been curious to try it but was puzzled by so much difference in image quality/color on the Internet. I read a bit about this film and the nuances of ECN-2 vs C-41 and now I see how it should look! Definitely worth trying and I am now searching for a US-based lab that could take it for ECN-2 processing (not C-41).
Hey Selena, thanks for visiting my website and I am so happy that you got the information that you need. Can’t wait to see your ECN-2 results! Let me know if you have other questions.
According to the FPP website where I purchased Vision3 250D, these are the labs where you can send your film.
Blue Moon Camera (Portland, Oregon), Boutique Film Lab (Tennessee) or The Camera Shop (Minnesota) or Old School Photo Lab (New Hampshire) OR for folks who are home processing using our FPP Home Color Negative Processing Kit.
https://filmphotographystore.com/collections/35mm-vision-3-film
My first-time experience with VISION3 250D Color Negative Film was not a positive one. I sent my film (US$10) off to a lab for ECN-2 processing and scanning (US$30), and as you can see from the link, the results were sub-par. There is a colour cast on skin tones that I can’t explain.
I’m either a terrible film photographer (for sure) or have a problem with my Minolta XD-11?
https://islandinthenet.com/ironbound-farm/#KodakVision3250D
Hey Khurt, sorry to hear about the result. I think this is related to the scanning part. Maybe you can try using iphone/application invert the image to see if it is actually that weird in skintone?
I’m not sure Khurt Williams, why you would not adjust a colour cast in Photoshop? Colour negative film gives the possibility to change colour balance to a huge extent – more than reversal film. I find the colour negative process wonderful and hope photographers start printing with chemicals again, because it is a highly creative craft skill. Good prints are made in the darkroom, whereas an inkjet printer is merely a machine.
I’m skilled with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop but I was not able to get the skins colours of my dark skinned family to be anything close to reality.
If possible, any samples that I can refer to?
How do you like to expose for this film? Was considering trying it out myself, would love to hear from your experience as I love how all of your shots turned out!
Best,
Micah
Thanks Micah for your message. I would suggest exposing it at ISO250 first, what’s the best about this film is the highlight resistance due to remjet and especially its rendering is extremely nice when it is approaching sunset. Share me some images when you get the result!
Regards,
Anson
Thanks for replying! It’s my first time developing ECN-2 so no promises haha, I’ll let you know how it goes!
Thank you for replying! It’s my first try developing ENC-2 so no promises, I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hi there! I have developed an interest in learning more about this style of Cine film but I keep on coming up with this context that confuses me and you touched upon on your article, but it didn’t full answer my confusion. You stated: “The main difference between the cine film and the normal colour negative film is the remjet.” however I have noticed that some Cine films have the remjet removed. This confuses me, why would you remove it if you were trying to simulate the Cine look? Or am I not understanding something correctly?
Also thank you for this article. It was super insightful.
Thanks for your comment! And it is a very good point for all the readers out there. Correct me if I am wrong, two different type of film: C-41 colour negatives and ECN-2 process Cine film. By removing the remjet, it allows user to process the motion picture film usually with ECN-2 film in C-41 (normal photo lab does). So what I perceive would be removing that allows shooters to use it to achieve a different look, similar to Cine film but behave differently at its highlight and halation. Because not everywhere can process ECN-2.
If I would have to list them as different types
1. Colour negatives film in C-41 (e.g. Portra 400)
2. Motion picture film in ECN-2 (e.g. Kodak 250D)
3. Motion picture film without remjet in C-41 (Cinestill 400D)
Let me know if you still have questions on it!
Anson
I’m curious about how this film would look with C41 home processing and scanning with my Epson scanner.
Me too actually. Please share me the result if you had a chance to do that.
Thanks for the write-up Anson! I’m in Hong Kong and just getting back into film photography, picked up some Vision 3 50D (packaged as “Nolan”) at Showa in Mongkok. They explained that it was a different chemical process, but I didn’t really know what I bought, just did it as an experiment. Now I’m excited to shoot with it! The 50D should have super fine grain, so great for trying some daylight portraits. Have you tried this one? Anyway, glad to stumble on your website.
Thanks for the comment. Yes I have tried it HERE. The Vision 3 50D is the repackaged motion picture film and it requires ECN-2 process (different from normal colour negatives). It is a nice film with ultra fine grain and I like to expose it at ISO100 to give me more contrasts. Happy to do a photowalk in HK if you have time!