Tales on Film

The last days, there are a lot of articles in the news concerning the stock of Kodak. Investors have lost faith in the company that started the photography for the masses about 131 years ago, the stocks has plummet about 85 procent in the last week and if we look further back, the stock of Kodak has gone down from 80,25 points in 1997 to 1,33 today. That accounts for a loss of 99,5% in the last 15 years.

Most of you know the timeline of Kodak, George eastman Kodak invented the roll film and marketed with the now famous line: “You press the button, we do the rest.” Since then the company became the biggest camera and film producer in the world. In 1975 an engineer from Kodak invented the digital camera. But Kodak only got in the digital business around 2000, that was a capital mistake and that’s where the big decline of the stock began.

If Kodak would go bankrupt, I would guess they will not disappear, but they’ll downsize. I don’t know what they are going to downsize, but I don’t think they will drop the film line. Kodak still makes a lot of film for motion pictures and they just released several new films in the last year. That’s a clear indication that there still is hope for the color films produced by Kodak. I would guess that they are probably going to kill of the black and white film, because there hasn’t been a new film in a while and they have been dropping b/w films consistently lately.

I don’t know what the future will bring, but I rather certain that kodak won’t go down without a fight…

Hamish Innes-Brown took this photo with a Mamiya c330 on Kodak portra 160nc at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne, Australia.

You can find some more in his amazing flickr-set and is also selling prints of these photos over on Redbubble

Found at Petapixel

Another Kodak film that’s not made anymore, but I use quite often, because we have quite a large stash of it, Kodak Royal Supra 400. It was a professional negative film, but there is not much to find about it on the internet. The Royal Supra replaced that the older supra 400, it was supposed to be the same colors, but just a different and better emulsion. The reports are mixed, but I do generally like the film.

Outside, the film has a nice neutral color, it doesn’t really turn yellow like most of the kodak 400 iso films do.

Inside the film turns a bit red, but not too much, to be annoying. There is however not a lot of detail in the shadows, this makes the film pretty contrasty, something I like.

If you push the film about 2 stops, it has the tendency to get very vivid colors. There is a lot of saturation when pushed, but it works pretty good with the high contrast the film already has in darker situations.

Overall the film is pretty good, the only thing that can become annoying is the grain. There is almost none in dark situations, but in good light it’s very noticeable, although it’s definitely not ugly. So again I kind of like it. It’s not the best 400 color film I used, but it’s a decent film, with very consistent results. There is no noticeable color cast on it, after all it was a professional film.

I noticed in the search results of this site, that there is a huge interest in the different film types you can find. I’m only reviewing the film I have used till now and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions

After the previous article about Kodak Portra 160VC, I have to write one about 400VC too. Since October 2011, this film isn’t made anymore, it has been replaced by the Portra 400. As with the portra 160VC the VC stands for Vivid Color, so the color should be more saturated.

The film is optimized to use under cloudy condition and inside with natural light.

At dusk and dawn, the film gets a very blueish cast, but I do like the colors.

At night, the film is acting pretty decent with the artificial lights. Even at this time, there isn’t a lot of noise to be seen

Overall I like this film, it’s fast enough to use in darker situations, but it doesn’t have a lot of noise. The colors are nice and nicely saturated. I don’t use the film a lot, but it’s a great overall film

I noticed in the search results of this site, that there is a huge interest in the different film types you can find. I’m only reviewing the film I have used till now and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions

Next up in the film guide is Kodak Portra 160VC, a medium speed color film at 160 iso. Now since a couple of months this film isn’t made anymore and will be replaced by the Kodak Portra 160. The VC in the film name stands for Vivid Color, according to the specs this film should be more saturated than most films.

As you can see in the above photo, the film is optimized for daylight. Although it’s supposed to be a saturated and contrasty film on a cloudy day, the photos come out a tiny bit cool.

Compared the color temperature with between the above photo and the one before, and you can see that kodak intended this film to be used in sunlight, with very bright colors.

When the film is used inside you get an orange cast, it’s quite hard to get it nicely balanced with artificial light. It’s not the best option to use portra 160VC inside, although with a bit of tweaking afterwards, you could still use it.

Overall I like this film for shooting outside, but I do like nicely saturated and contrasty pictures. The grain on the film is also almost non existing, which is makes it a great film for outdoor portraits at sunrise, sunset or slightly overcast days. Be aware of the limitations of this film, but you can use it to your advantage, is I did in the photo above, by using the film with an external flash in a light tent. The white balance was almost spot on.

I noticed in the search results of this site, that there is a huge interest in the different film types you can find. I’m only reviewing the film I have used till now and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions