Back in the day I had a prejudice against Kodak print film, as it seemed to have an orange cast. Some people liked the 'warm' tones, but I preferred a film that didn't suggest we lived in perpetual sunset. This try-out made me reassess my views - the brick and tiles of the old barn are pretty much spot-on and the greenery around Mickleham Bridge are true to life. The backlit gloopy chocolate-coloured Thames mud of Rainham is authentic too. So... prejudice overcome! (But I still prefer black & white.)
I tried this out last year on a dull day in December and was favourably impressed, so I thought I'd see how it coped with capturing livelier subject matter in somewhat brighter weather at the Peper Harow Point-to-Point and later in SE1 in Waterloo sunshine. XP2 showed winning form in all conditions. Thoroughly recommended - you won't regret placing a tenner on this one!
I gave this an outing at Pains Hill Park in Cobham, Surrey, on a bright, sunny day at the end of May and, wow, it really performed for me. Lovely rich blacks and an innate eeriness that made PH's Gothic Tower seem even more gothic. It seems to respond really well to bright light, deep shadows and contre-jour picture-taking.
Used this for a wedding in a darker, industrial venue. For most work I'll use Portra 400, as I prefer the colours and skin tones - they're less full on and saturated. But I loved the latency and the fact I could get images in low light. I'll definitely return for when I need a film that handles low light well.
For these all these shots I rated at 400 so they got that stop extra light and then processed at box speed..
Very very sharp film, with lovely cool tones. Shot some of this in winter/early spring and it captured that kind of light really well. I've gone for 4/5 instead of 5/5 because of the price.
Gold is probably my favourite film of all time, and medium format really does it justice. Beautiful colours, rich and summery without being too saturated. Perfect, and not too expensive either. Absolutely shines in sunlight, and I tend to overexpose one stop.
I love this film. The colours are so rich and warm, and it looks especially good in medium format. Does best on a sunny day. Expensive, but worth the cost!
I really love this film. I'm a big fan of Ilford's Delta films, they are well worth the money. Lovely contrast, smooth images, nice grain. Looks especially good in 120 rather than 35mm.
I say it's great if you nail the exposure because I didn't! I shot at box speed and the results were underexposed for my liking, so worth exposing +1 in my opinion. The few shots which weren't underexposed were much less flat. The colour palette is cool but rich. I do mostly landscape photography - not sure if I'd use this again for this, but that's personal taste.
Loading this into a Yashica 635 I pushed this a bit with some night photography, and a little indoor photography. It didn’t let me down. Even with the long exposures needed it retained a nice, smooth grain, and the contrast is lovely.
Writing this review I’m about to buy another couple of rolls with the aim of shooting in a mix of daylight and night (on an upcoming short trip).
Develops nicely in ID-11 1+1.
I have really enjoyed shooting this stock. It has great contrast and makes images look wonderful. Not only is it easy to shoot it also allows for a wide range of pushing/pulling capabilities.
Analogue Wonderland did an amazing job with my photos - I love the golden style, the light and the quality. This photo is from Cambridge, it’s one of my favourites! AW always has quick service too - I’ll definitely buy this film from them again 📸
Quick, helpful and great looking photos - I always come back to AW!
I like Ultramax more than most I talk to - I find it super flexible, pretty forgiving and generally easy to grab and run with. It also doesn't require the second mortgage that Portra 400 needs. The colours are a bit something - perhaps best described as a brown tinge that is quite hard to 'correct; for. Sometimes it's lovely though; I like natural light portraits with this and outdoor scenes in sun or shade.
I think this is better than Gold - some people online have noted the similarity in price with Gold and said buy that instead, but I prefer the colour with ColorPlus (yes, very "film looking", as in how you remember film looking, but I don't love the colour cast of Gold). It's fun, it's fairly cheap, it looks good, it's ISO200 so fairly easy to use in most conditions. Go for it.
Delighted with the film processing quality and turnround times for my B/W photos and will also be using for colour in future....their jpeg quality is good and website navigation through all purchases is quick and simple.
Fun lightweight and some great results for a point and shoot. I wasn't expecting much but it came up with some great results. Very worthwhile experimenting with 'Panorama'. Best results in bright sunlight and unusual angles......
I sometimes go back to a familiar place to see if I can get something new or a different look to it.
I must have shot the marsh stumps on at least 10 different films by now, but never Rollei 400. In fact I've never used it much at all.
I'd bought a couple of rolls after it delivered fantastic results three years ago (scroll back through reviews until you find the train...).
But they'd sat in the stash forgotten until I started running low on my usual go-tos.
So I gave it a spin up the marshes and, well - if it's not a film that's screaming "use me more" then I'm a kipper.
Fantastic tone and contrast, although there might have been an orange filter on the end.
I also shot a few frames of Tri-X (final image, wompare with the one before...) and I reckon Rollei rolled all over it, which isn't bad going for an £8.50 film.
Portra 160...is it worth the price premium over Gold? Yes, it definitely is, but it's one I use for particular projects close to my creative heart. The subtle colour palette is perfectly balanced, and as a lover of landscape, I'm especially delighted with how it renders greens. I've tried many, many films for landscape, and this one is 100% top of the pile. I'd love it to be cheaper, but I can't recommend it highly enough.
So much depth and it's so malleable. At a great price and great structure.
I don't usually like 400ISO films, but really that's in 35mm. In this 120 format you get much nicer results (in my mind) with the large negatives, and this is a completely dependable, affordable film, with really nice contrast. And, of course, some superb packaging.
A Yashica 635 might seem an unnatural choice to shoot a winter sport like cyclocross, but I absolutely loved the results using this Kodak T-Max 400. In medium format this comes out as both smooth AND sharp and has encouraged me to shoot even more action stuff with my old TLR!
Ran this through a 70 year old Voigtländer Vitessa N, and it was really nicely useable, with some great contrast in the images.
The grain was noticeable, but in a way that gave it a nice retro feel. A truly, properly classic look.
So this turned out noisier than I expected, but that’s my fault really because I developed 1+3 in ID-11 assuming the film would stay smoother than it did in the end (I was shooting a roll in 120 at the same time and this is one of my favourites in that format).
Now, that said, I still loved the results, especially in contrasty scenes. Will definitely try this again, and develop it 1+1 instead!
Having shot the 120 version of this, and thinking it wasn’t as ‘Ortho’ as other orthochromatic films I’ve shot, it ‘did’ have a nice contrast. So knowing I was going to Mull, and possibly having a trip to Staffa in particular, I decided to give this a go in my 70 year old Wray Stereographic camera.
I still don’t think it darkens the reds in quite the same dramatic way as, say, Rollei Ortho, but I got the contrast I wanted. Wee bit noisy, but I liked the rough effect this all produced.
