Kodak Portra 160 - 120 Film
Description
One of the best colour films ever seen - with very fine grain, high saturation and low contrast the Portra 160 film will make children look angelic, your friends look beautiful, and often captures the mood of a situation more truthfully than you realised would be possible - especially in medium format. A pack of 5 ensures great value and 60 picture-perfect photographs.
Specification
| Format: | 120 |
| Colour: | Colour |
| Type: | Negative |
| ISO: | 160 |
| Exposures: | 12 |
| Pack size: | 5 or 1 |
To understand more about the details above you can check out our film guide or if you want some inspiration then head over to our page on choosing your next film. And if you want the full details about the film, including technical information, read about Kodak Portra over on EMULSIVE.
Kodak - properly known as Kodak Eastman - was founded in America in 1888 and dominated the "Western" world of photography for the next 100 years, constantly in fierce rivalry with the Japanese Fuji. Similarly to Fuji the advent of digital photography at the turn of the century caused significant financial problems. A late attempt to win in the compact market was hit by the rise of mobile photography and bankruptcy followed in 2012. Fortunately the photography business has survived under the Kodak Alaris name - based in Hertfordshire, England - and they have delighted the analogue industry by pledging continued support for film production and the promise of bringing back old favourite emulsions.
For more information about the brand check out our bio of Kodak
This product is sometimes mis-spelled Porta.
Sample shots (c) Oğuzhan Abdik and BobvdK
Where we ship
When you buy your camera film from us we can ship it across the UK, Europe, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Canada (more countries planned soon!) So buy your Kodak Portra Film 120 Colour ISO 160 5-pack today and dive back into the fun of 120 film photography!
I found the scans to be quite flat on this film. It works good with some scenes, however I personally added back a bit of contrast and saturation. I shoot Portra 160 at 100 to get some more shadow detail, since it has such good exposure latitude, the highlights won't be effected at all. Plenty of detail to be pulled! The grain appears almost non existent on this film which makes the results from it look really clean. Will definitely buy again, but Portra 400 might be better in some situations since I found myself struggling with low shutter speeds when shooting wide open!
Lovely for people, but the colours are a little muted for landscapes etc.
Portra 160 is an outstanding film that shines when using it outdoors, with the fine grain really complimenting landscapes. I have shot it in various vintage cameras and the results are brilliant. The warmth of 160 definitely lends itself to great outdoor shots but also looks fantastic with skin tones. This film has absolutely earned its reputation.
I shot some promotional images for a friends upcoming single release, and wanted to shoot it on film, as it really suited her singer/songwriter aesthetic.
Some fantastic colours, and the negative scan barely needed any additional processing.
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I'd put off trying Portra for as long as possible as I'd heard so many people talking about how wonderful it was I wanted to really see the difference when I did try it- I didn't want it to be one of the first/only films I'd tried and then be saying nice things about it without knowing any better.
That said, having now tried and tested all the other big name emulsions, I'm still blown over by how good this stuff is(the 160 version at least- I understand all three versions are a little different...). The warm, pastel colours and very fine grain bring the best of what makes shooting film special- rather than coldly reflecting reality like a RAW image from a good DSLR, Portra subtly enhances that same reality with a warm and pleasant tint- a bit like Super 8, Portra has the ability to render images how the mind recalls them rather than how the eye sees them. Perhaps that doesn't make much sense... try this film and you'll see what I mean for yourself!
