Superia 800 (+2) or Superia 1600 (+1)?

I'm going to be shooting my daughter's school musical tonight and no flash allowed so it's going to be fast colour film. Obviously I want reasonable saturation with little grain and fastest speeds (not wanting much I know).

I've got the choice between using superia 800 and maybe having topush it 1 or 2 stops (depending on the lighting when I get there) or Superia 1600 and no push or max 1 stop.

Which would you recommend - rock and a hard place I know

Superia 800 will have less grain but very little shadow detail at +2. I kinda like it at +1 / 1600 for situations where you've got theatrical lighting and can get away with less shadow detail. Superia 1600 will have loads of grain but better shadow detail, on account of the raised speed.

The short answer is "yes"

The slightly longer answer is "bring 'em both!"

Shadow detail is almost always more important than lack of grain. I say you should use the faster film.

I haven't used much (any?) 800 speed films. I recently bought some Superia 1600 and find it to be a remarkable film, for what it is. Yes it has grain, but this is 2007. The grain is better than 400 speed films from the 70's & 80's (by comparison) but it's there.

But, um, who cares? You're recording a piece of personal history. If you can see the faces and expressions, will you throw your images away in disgust if you can't see the eyelashes?

Also keep in mind, you'll need an 80a blue filter, most likely, so your film speed automatically loses one stop. Unless of course you can print them or scan them yourself and do color correction, or can get them printed at your lab with proper color correction.

Thanks everyone for the guidance.

Finally decided to go with the 800 pushed 1 stop. Could have probably got away with no push but would have been working with the lens wide open and down to 1/60th at times so decided not to risk it.

I didn't bother with filtration as I didn't want to lose the extra stop plus they are going to be scanned so I should be able to correct the colour cast from the lighting.

I got the negatives back today from the lab (by the way for anyone in London - particularly the City - Speedysnaps in Aldgate push process C41 & E6. C41 is £3.99 for 36 process only on a 3 hour turnaround).

Very pleased with the results. Grain is there but not intrusive and both the shadow detail and saturation is better than I expected. I would say that someone who actually knew what they were doing, unlike me, should be able to get some excellent results with this film.