Suggest a color film that's one step better than Kodak Gold or ColorPlus?

[dcy]

I have shot Kodak Gold and Color Plus and they work well enough. I am mostly happy with my photos. A couple of times I've been disappointed by the dynamic range. I shoot half frame and the grain of Gold & ColorPlus is fine, but I wouldn't complain if it was smaller. I want to try something better (more expensive) than Kodak Gold to see if I like it. This is 100% casual use. I just pop the film into my camera and spend 2 weeks shooting a roll. I mostly shoot in sunny conditions, so I'm looking at low-ISO films. Here are the options as I understand them:

• Ektar 100 --- $15 / roll --- Great for landscapes. Makes people look like lobsters.
• Portra 160 --- $15 / roll --- Great for portraits, but you're expected to post-process its muted colors to get the result you want.
• Aerocolor IV == Flic Film Elektra 100 --- $14 / roll --- Accurate colors. Watch out for light piping.
• Vision3 50 D == Flic Film Cine 50 D --- $11 / roll --- Finest grain. ISO 50 may be limiting. Develop in ECN-2 or cross-process in C-41.
• Pro Image 100 --- $10 / roll --- Larger grain (same as K. Gold), but with much better dynamic range.

My question is completely subjective: Which film(s) do you think I should try?

 

[MattKing]

Portra 160 - because if you are scanning and then working from digital, every film's result requires post-processing.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have used Pro Image, seems to be similar to Ektar 100 with larger gain, color was close to Ektar as well. If you print then printing Vision 3 or any repurposed movie film without the orange mask can be an issue. If you scan and print then I would give Vision 3 a try, the few rolls I have shot were printed using a Frontier which did a good of balancing the colors. To be truthful, I no longer shoot color film, just too expensive. If I want color I use a DSLR.

 

[BrianShaw]

Portra 160. I agree with your impression of “muted color” but you might want to review Koraks posts on that topic as he may have a different opinion/experience.

 

[dcy]

Thanks!

Yes, I am scanning. No current plans to try RA4 (I don't even have the necessary equipment). I will try Portra 150, and also Vision 3 and see how it goes. Thanks for the help!

 

[DREW WILEY]

Ektar is a trickier film to work with. But If people look like lobsters, it's certainly not the fault of the film. Maybe the camera wasn't intended for underwater use in a boiling pot. You might try something more forgiving of error like Portra 400, which is also a little more saturated than Portra 160.

 

[mshchem]

Portra 160 is capable of extraordinary color. It's the most accurate col9r negative film available today.

Ektar is extraordinary as well.

 

[brian steinberger]

I would recommend portra 160. My favorite.

 

[halfaman]

I would not say Portra 160 has muted colors, it simply does not have the artificial warmth of Color Plus and Gold. Ektat is weird for me, tones differ considerabley with the type of lightning.

Portra 160 is my favourite too.

 

[brbo]

Fujicolor 100. But, since it will be very hard to get any of that, get Kodak Portra 400.

 

[koraks]

Portra 160 --- $15 / roll --- Great for portraits, but you're expected to post-process its muted colors to get the result you want.

All color negative needs to be 'post processed' to make the colors look less muted and correct. There's also nothing inherently muted about Portra 160. Print it optically on RA4 paper, you'll see. We just get to see a lot of photos that people made on Portra and that ended up looking desaturated and we've started to associate that look with 'Portra'. I've never found it an accurate assessment.

Aerocolor IV == Flic Film Elektra 100 --- $14 / roll --- Accurate colors.

Aerocolor does not give 'accurate colors'. It's prone to quite serious color shifts and crossover, as you'd expect from an unmasked film. If unmasked films would give accurate colors, no manufacturer would have gone to the lengths of figuring out dye masking.

Vision3 50 D == Flic Film Cine 50 D --- $11 / roll --- Finest grain. ISO 50 may be limiting. Develop in ECN-2 or cross-process in C-41.

Opinions vary, but I've never found ECN2 film to perform optimally in C41 developer. It can look OK in many cases, but ultimately I've always ran into crossover problems that made e.g. cloudy skies look particularly yuckie.

Pro Image 100 --- $10 / roll --- Larger grain (same as K. Gold), but with much better dynamic range.

'much better dynamic range'? What does that mean, really? What I do see is that Gold has a sloped-off curve, so it's effectively self-compensating similarly to B&W films like Delta 3200 (just less strongly so), whereas ProImage has more linear curves - albeit diverging ones, so you can run into crossover issues at very high SBR's and/or overexposure. The term 'dynamic range' as applied to color negative film is rather tricky and its meaning ultimately depends strongly on what happens with the negative - how it's turned into a presentable image afterwards. Overall, I wouldn't get too stuck on it.

What's not clear from your post is what you're looking for and what you expect from a color negative film. Overall I'd expect you're looking for a decent all-round film, in which case Gold is just fine, ProImage is a decent alternative if you want a very slight improvement in grain, and Portra is the logical conclusion if your budget allows for it. They're all subtly different in terms of contrast, color rendition etc, but especially in a hybrid workflow, most of these differences end up being barely relevant and most of what you end up noticing is the evident difference in film speed and fineness of grain - although the results aren't that dramatically variable w.r.t. that last bit either.

A couple of times I've been disappointed by the dynamic range.

You're better off investing your time into learning how to optimize your scanning and digital post processing instead of going into the minutiae of film differences. Even Ektar has massive dynamic range if you scan it properly.