Brilliant colours and saturation. Can handle low light well. Tasteful grain.

This film was a beautiful one for portraits, and close up shots. I felt that the landscapes I took had less tone and depth. But I only have a basic point and shoot

I used this film on a variety a different occasions to test it including pushing it one and two stops. I would say it can offer saturation and vivid colours but it does not seem to perform consistently; from my experience and observations I can see it offers atmosphere for perhaps otherwise flat indoor portraits and interiors only if pushed. shot at box speed I was not that impressed compared to Portra 400 and other sensitive colour negative films. Compared to some old negatives, scans and prints I worked with years ago I reckon it still seems relatively pleasing if you like the Kodak bright warm red yellow blue look which I am not a fan of. I recently shot a roll indoor under very difficult lighting conditions mainly working with available light where it performed well shot at 1600 and pushed one stop. The colours came out warm and pleasant with increased contrast as expected. Outdoors, on sunny days however I struggled with blown highlights and the dynamic range seemed rather narrow for a negative film; (some colleagues tried to convince me to shot on 120 claiming it gives better overall results but I am not really convinced and the high price alone would probably put me off) on overcast days the results were quite flat and underwhelming. I do not recall such inconsistency from the past use. I am not convinced I would want to use it at night with a lot of artificial lighting, the best results I got by pushing and using available day-light. I think a lot of people treat it as a universal low light film for urban and party photography but I don't think it is actually very well balanced for artificial lights, neons etc. (incoherent / line spectrum lights) as there are colour shifts and it may be unpredictable and over-saturate some colours. Due to its high price I do not plan to use it regularly; I have not shot enough rolls to make any other conclusions.

This was my first roll of Portra 800 and it just took my breath away when I saw the results. I wanted it for a visit to Bletchley Park, including indoor, hand-held shots, and inevitably I had a rather unfairly cinematic mental image of what I might like to capture. The film must have read my mind! The light was often even lower than I envisaged so I was sometimes on the edge of what felt sensible, but it gave me back stunningly rich colours and the feeling of being somewhere really special. I rather liked the little bits of halation on bright light sources. I wasn't sure how it would do outside on a sunny day, but needn't have worried: it did me proud there too with gentle blue skies and all the shadow detail I could want. Awe-inspiring stuff.

Love Portra 800, looks great in sunny conditions pushed to 1600