Iso 800 films

[AndrewMc]

Hi folks.

Does anyone use Kodak Porta 800 or Fuji NPZ/ Pro800Z film.

I take photos of rock bands. Think tight wee venues and horrible red lighting.
I tend to get the best results when using my 50mm lens and getting right in close to the action. Usually I've got Fuji 800 loaded in my camera for doing this but I'm currently suffering a bit of a famine of Fuji Superia/press800
The only stuff I can find online is in big bulk lots which I both don't need, can't store and can't afford so I'm looking for alternatives.

1600 Superia has served as a pretty decent substitute for me but it's a bit more grainy than I'd like at times.

Pro800Z is daylight film so I think if I use them under artificial light such as concert lighting then I'm going to get some odd colours which would be fantastic if it eliminated red but probably won't.

Kodak Porta I've never used and know nothing about. If anyone has experience of using it in comparison to Superia 800 I'd love to hear about it.

Cheers!

Andrew.

 

[bob100684]

superia/press 800 are daylight films too. Portra 800 had a pretty damn strong yellow cast when we get it at our lab....-6 points on the frontier.

 

[AndrewMc]

Yeah I'd been expecting it to be yellow from readin the other posts about the other porta films.
I've used Fuji pro160 and found it kind of blue in daylight. Didn't like it anywhere near as much as the 400 version

 

[Helen B]

I use both Fuji Pro800Z and Portra 800, though mostly Portra 800 (the current 2006 version) because I find that it has a slight edge in terms of higher effective speed in tungsten light and lower graininess. It is also more pushable - I'm happy pushing it two stops (I don't bother with a one stop push for colour neg film) and rating it at EI 2000 in tungsten light. I don't like to rate pushed Pro 800Z that high - I'm more comfortable with it at 1250 or 1600.

One thing that has just become clearer to me is that Portra 800 has better spectral sensitivity in tungsten light than Pro 800Z.

You should be able to balance up both Portra 800 and Pro 800Z when printing after shooting it under tungsten-ish lighting. With both films (or any daylight neg film used in tungsten lighting), the more exposure you give them, the better you will be able to balance the shadows. They all have a blip on their graininess graph down at the toe, so that's another reason to keep important detail way from the toe.

Best,
Helen