"Special" Colour film wanted for Leica R6 with 35-70mm Vario Elmar

RezaLoghme · Apr 30, 2025

Normally I shoot black and white — both film and digital — but I’ve decided to dedicate my Leica R6 to colour photography. I only have one lens for it at the moment; nothing fancy, but decent enough. That’s not really the focus here though.

I’m looking for suggestions for a colour film that offers a distinctive look — something with a bit of character. I don’t mean expired or weird for the sake of it, just not aiming for a modern, clean, or overly neutral palette. Think something that adds a touch of mood or uniqueness to the image.

Some context:

I send my film to a lab (no home development)
I’m based in the EU, so ideally looking for something that’s readily available through “normal” channels here
I’m not interested in the eBay or expired film rabbit hole

Would love to hear your thoughts — anything from boutique emulsions to underrated gems.

Thanks!

koraks · Apr 30, 2025

Color negative, or positive/slide film? The latter is more relevant when it comes to particular characteristics of the film as such. But then your choices are very limited to Kodak and a few flavors of (difficult to obtain) Fuji.

Practically speaking, you're more likely to end up with color negative.

RezaLoghme said:
a distinctive look

You'll get that through post processing and/or printing choices. Since I assume you're going to work with a hybrid process (i.e. scan and do digital from there), what you do to the files is much more relevant than what the film records in the first place. Color negative is a bit like camera raw; it's inherently quite flexible and can be taken in pretty much any direction, especially digitally. That part of the process has vastly more influence than the choice of film stock. Film stock does affect things like grain, halation etc. In terms of color, I wouldn't worry about it too much as it'll drop away against what happens from the scanning step onwards.

RezaLoghme · Apr 30, 2025

Ok good point - then what is the "Levis 501" of colour films, simple, robust, cheap, available everywhere?

What about these "new" brands like Orwo?

koraks · Apr 30, 2025

Kodak Portra, Gold, ProImage or Ektar. Fuji 200. Take your pick. For the hybrid photographer, the differences are quite slim.

RezaLoghme said:
What about these "new" brands like Orwo?

They fail some of your criteria, e.g. in terms of availability but also "weirdness", palette etc.

RezaLoghme · Apr 30, 2025

WOLFEN NC500

Sounds interesting and can be bought from their website, or am I missing something?

koraks · Apr 30, 2025

It's a product made on shaky manufacturing infrastructure, so availability is basically "as long as it lasts". You can expect this to have poor color separation (desaturated look) and color accuracy, and relatively coarse grain for its speed. Give it a try, but I don't think it's what you're looking for going by the criteria you outlined. It's basically a low-tech film along the lines of what might be manufactured in the 1950s.

bdial · Apr 30, 2025

My suggestion would be Kodak Ektar.

khh · Apr 30, 2025

You could always try Kodak Colorplus too if you want something on the cheaper side.

runswithsizzers · Apr 30, 2025

I second @bdial's suggestion to try Kodak Ektar. However, I have read that Kodak products are relatively higher in price on your side of the Atlantic ocean, which might be a factor if you shoot a lot of color film.

I also agree with @koraks when he mentions that the differences between the various mainstream color negative films is more subtle than the differences which can result from digital post processing.

Nicholas Lindan · Apr 30, 2025

My advice - worth every penny of the price charged - is:

If you are scanning then do the color tweaking in PhotoShop/Gimp/...

Use the highest quality film you can get - which boils down to Kodak or Fuji. You want to get as high fidelity a negative as possible. The cost of film is trivial in comparison to all the other costs in photography.

If you are shooting slides then you might try using a didymium filter. I've never tried one with color negative film, but given the spectral curve - resembling the Alps - there should also be some color shifting you can't get with PhotoShop. Get the filter from ebay - that way if you don't like the results you aren't out much money. Also, they seem to have gone out of production among the common (Tiffen/Hoya/...) filter makers.

And don't forget about using a polarizing filter for increased color saturation.

brbo · Apr 30, 2025

Kodak UltraMax 400. It will have a bit of grain, not too sterile, but also not too muddy as ColorPlus 200 or ColorImage 100 Pro can be.

If you want to move away from “perfect” negative film (everything from Kodak and Fuji) into the realm of “distinctive”, I’d recommend Lomography Lomochrome ‘92 over anything from Orwo. It will still have plenty of grain, but much better colour (separation, saturation) than Orwo. Nobody will mistake it for a Kodak film, that’s for sure.

runswithsizzers · Apr 30, 2025

Actually, now that I think about it, if you are not scanning color negatives and post processing the digital scans, then I would probably recommend Fuji Velvia slide film. It definitely has a "distinctive look" and is not likely to be accused of having an "overly neutral palette." Depending on where you are, it may be harder to find a local lab that does E6 processing(?) but probably not a problem if you are mailing your film to a lab.

brbo · Apr 30, 2025

Velvia and “readily available” must be… well I don’t think we have a word for that.

RezaLoghme · Apr 30, 2025

Thanks! I'm definitely not interested in slides—colour negatives it is. I'll start with one roll and see how it goes, though knowing myself, I'll probably end up back with black and white anyway.

runswithsizzers · Apr 30, 2025

brbo said:
Velvia and “readily available” must be… well I don’t think we have a word for that.

Oops! I see what you mean. The places where I usually buy film are all showing Velvia as "out of stock." Last I heard, Fuji was going to stop shipping Velvia 100 to the US, but was still supplying it to other markets(?) But I guess you are saying availability is no better in Europe? Too bad.

pentaxuser · Apr 30, 2025

I'd have thought Harman Phoenix might have fitted the bill

pentaxuser

koraks · Apr 30, 2025

pentaxuser said:
I'd have thought Harman Phoenix might have fitted the bill

That's kind of weird, though. Very much so, in fact. Probably the weirdest C41 film out there, and has been, and probably will be for a long, long time.

2ndGenNikonian · Apr 30, 2025

I can recommend Orwo NC400. It's similar to NC500, but the overall look is cool rather than warm. Phoenix is nice as well, if you can scan it properly.

koraks · Apr 30, 2025

2ndGenNikonian said:
Orwo NC400. It's similar to NC500

Right, like peas in a pod, eh.

Magenta = NC500, cyan = NC400.

2ndGenNikonian said:
cool rather than warm

Depends on how you print/edit it. This is not baked into the film, contrary to other aspects of color rendition. Fidgeting a bit with the yellow filter dial makes a big difference and can make a supposedly 'warm' film print cool and vice versa. Because there's no 'warm' film. Saturated or contrasty, yes. Crossover, linearity etc - yes, that's inherent to the film, although even those aspects can be manipulated afterwards (especially in digital space).

Please tell me which film was used for the images below - and while you're at it, which one is the 'real' look of this film. To make it easier, I'll give away that it's either NC400 or NC500.

The NC films will have a few things in common that are inherent to the product. 'Warmth/coolness' is not one of them. And evidently, they respond very, dramatically different contrast-wise and also in terms of crossover behavior.

DeletedAcct1 · Apr 30, 2025

RezaLoghme said:
Normally I shoot black and white — both film and digital — but I’ve decided to dedicate my Leica R6 to colour photography. I only have one lens for it at the moment; nothing fancy, but decent enough. That’s not really the focus here though.

I’m looking for suggestions for a colour film that offers a distinctive look — something with a bit of character. I don’t mean expired or weird for the sake of it, just not aiming for a modern, clean, or overly neutral palette. Think something that adds a touch of mood or uniqueness to the image.

Some context:

I send my film to a lab (no home development)

I’m based in the EU, so ideally looking for something that’s readily available through “normal” channels here

I’m not interested in the eBay or expired film rabbit hole

Would love to hear your thoughts — anything from boutique emulsions to underrated gems.

Thanks!

I'd send films to a reputable lab only. I'd chose Fujicolor 100.

pentaxuser · Apr 30, 2025

koraks said:
That's kind of weird, though. Very much so, in fact. Probably the weirdest C41 film out there, and has been, and probably will be for a long, long time.

It's so weird that I have no intention of getting one until it becomes just a "normal" colour film and cheaper than similar C41s from that other place

That still seems to be Harman's intention with a "fun ride" thrown in along the way or does it? I am not convinced that I personally have a "long long time" left so may never see the "promised land"

Anyway, the point being that not all of us are as dull as dishwater in terms of what we want from film, unlike me, and it just struck me that the OP may want to consider it.

pentaxuser

Paul Howell · Apr 30, 2025

Here in the U.S Fujicolor is rebranded Kodacolor, (I have not seen Fuji or Kodacolor 100 in a long time) so your choices might be limited to Kodak color negative film or repurposed movie film. Color 200 is good if you live a warm area as it is designed for 3rd world type environments without access to refrigeration. Porta is good as it designed for skin tones. I like Porta 400 quite a bit. Ektar and Kodacolor have more contrast and colors seems to be a bit more vivid than Porta. Unsure if Cinflm are avialable in your neck of the world, it is Cinfilm without out the RAM jet backing, otherwise if you use repuruposed movie film you need a lab that can process it.

2ndGenNikonian · Apr 30, 2025

koraks said:
Right, like peas in a pod, eh.
View attachment 397574
Magenta = NC500, cyan = NC400.

Depends on how you print/edit it. This is not baked into the film, contrary to other aspects of color rendition. Fidgeting a bit with the yellow filter dial makes a big difference and can make a supposedly 'warm' film print cool and vice versa. Because there's no 'warm' film. Saturated or contrasty, yes. Crossover, linearity etc - yes, that's inherent to the film, although even those aspects can be manipulated afterwards (especially in digital space).

Please tell me which film was used for the images below - and while you're at it, which one is the 'real' look of this film. To make it easier, I'll give away that it's either NC400 or NC500.
View attachment 397575

The NC films will have a few things in common that are inherent to the product. 'Warmth/coolness' is not one of them. And evidently, they respond very, dramatically different contrast-wise and also in terms of crossover behavior.

Interesting. My experience was probably due to the lab scans I got. I'll have to look more into it.

koraks · May 1, 2025

2ndGenNikonian said:
Interesting. My experience was probably due to the lab scans I got. I'll have to look more into it.

Yes, that's probably the main factor at work here - as it usually is. It's important to keep in mind that with CN film, what we're actually looking at is the negative plus the way it's been post-processed (digitally or in optical printing). You can't really separate out one from the other unless you're either taking objective measurements on the negatives itself, or you're making A/B comparisons of one film against another and only draw conclusions within that relative context. If you take two shots of the same scene and scan those side by side on a flatbed scanner in a single file, you can actually see how the negatives relate. Such experiments can be quite enlightening.

ChrisLA · May 1, 2025

RezaLoghme said:
WOLFEN NC500
Sounds interesting and can be bought from their website, or am I missing something?

I shot a roll of it at box speed and the whole roll had blue mottling (something like underexposure artifacts). Someday I will try another at a lower EI, maybe that will help.

Suggestions would be Ektar, which is very saturated and certainly distinctive (beware of underexposure or heavy shade, which will come out bluish), or Portra 800 which is also saturated and relatively fine grain for an 800 speed film (but unfortunately your most expensive option).

"Special" Colour film wanted for Leica R6 with 35-70mm Vario Elmar

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