Top 5 Colour Negative Films You Should Try
Top 5 Colour Negative Films You Should Try
Guides and Tips
Top 5 Colour Negative Films You Should Try
There are 3 different types of film, colour negative, black and white negative and colour reversal (slide) film. In terms of price, cost of processing and usage, colour negative is the most common option. There are more colour negative film options than other film types in the market with major brands such as Kodak, Fujifilm, Cinestill…etc. Below are my top 5 colour negative films that I would recommend you to try.
Kodak Ektar 100
It has high contrast, great amount of sharpness and ultra-fine grain, suitable for landscape and street photography but not under low light environment because of its strong purple tint in the shadows and also it is not the best for portraiture as it produced inaccurate skin tone.
Refer to Kodak Ektar 100 review for more info
Kodak Portra 160 / 400
Great for portraiture and general photography. It has accurate colour tone and great exposure latitude in producing nice pastel tone. Normally I like to use Portra 160 with my Rolleiflex to take portraits as 160 iso give more depth in the colour.
Refer to Kodak Portra 400 review for more info
Kodak Ultramax 400
It is relatively more price-friendly than other films on this list. Ultramax 400 has tremendous warmth and adequate level of contrast which makes me feel comfortable to shoot with. The downside is the amount of grain, it is coarse and quite noticeable when you shoot at night or at dim environment.
Refer to Kodak Ultramax 400 review for more info
Fujifilm Superia Premium 400
To me, this film is suitable for a documentary style of photography or street photography. It is sharp and it brings out the contrast and quite sensitive to red, blue and green hue. I have used this film in South East Asian and I find it performs really well with the colour palette in those places such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Refer to Fujifilm Superia Premium 400 review for more info
Cinestill Tungsten 800T
This film is so popular in the market, famous for creating cinematic mood and people love to use it at night with its unique red halo and the ability to be able to use at a higher ISO. It’s true ISO is 500 which it is originate from Kodak Vision 3 5219 500T with rem-jet removed. It is grainy and has some serious colour shift but great for night photography and capturing mood. It is expensive and the result is quite unstable since first few frames normally have light leak, some find it interesting and if the film has not been stored properly it will have some chemical residue on the negatives.
Refer to Cinestill Tungsten 800T review for more info
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