What 120 Color Films are your favorite?

cny3123 · Oct 15, 2012

Sorry if this is something that's asked a lot, but I have tended to always shoot B/W films. I am interested in trying out shooting some color negative films (at my uni we can process our own C41 films.)
I don't think I'm looking for anything that has super vivid or saturated colors, but still something that is maybe more subdued, but still accurate. Was looking at Portra 400 maybe?

What films are your favorites and for what subjects are you generally shooting?
Thanks,
Chris

Marc B. · Oct 15, 2012

Fall foliage in October...Ektar!

polyglot · Oct 15, 2012

If you want accurate without the crazy saturation, try Portra 160 or Fuji Pro160S. Or Reala. Nothing wrong with Portra 400 either but the 160 is finer.

Newt_on_Swings · Oct 15, 2012

You would have liked Portra NC then. You might as well try out the current Portra which merged both VC and NC.

kevs · Oct 16, 2012

Kodachrome 64. *sigh*

Rudeofus · Oct 16, 2012

E100VS. *sigh*

landscapepics · Oct 16, 2012

I tend to use Portra 160 when I'm carrying a tripod (mostly); but Portra 400 is fine if I'm likely to be hand-holding the camera.

Ektar is nice but can be bit wild ... Portra more dependable in any situation.

RattyMouse · Oct 16, 2012

I am a big fan of Fujifilm Reala 100. The first roll I tried came back from the lab really ugly looking. But folks here encouraged me to try again with a different lab and the results I found could NOT be more different. Very beautiful colors while still quite realistic looking. Much cheaper than Porta 400 which is my second choice.

thegman · Oct 16, 2012

Portra 400 is a great choice, if you over expose it, the colours become a bit more muted, i.e. shoot it at ISO 100. It's a great all round film, fine grain, and acceptable at ISO 800 or 1600.

Fujifilm 400H is very nice too, maybe slightly more muted, but I could be wrong there.

benjiboy · Oct 16, 2012

Fuji Reala

cny3123 · Oct 16, 2012

Thanks all, I'll definitely have to give Portra 400 a try, maybe later if I get the chance I'll try Reala too.
thegman, when you say if you overexpose it, do you mean actually shoot the film like its an ISO 100 film, and then develop it as such, or just overexpose the film and then develop it as a ISO 400 film? Sorry, still a student and learning my way around film.

thegman · Oct 16, 2012

cny3123 said:
Thanks all, I'll definitely have to give Portra 400 a try, maybe later if I get the chance I'll try Reala too.
thegman, when you say if you overexpose it, do you mean actually shoot the film like its an ISO 100 film, and then develop it as such, or just overexpose the film and then develop it as a ISO 400 film? Sorry, still a student and learning my way around film.

Just overexpose and develop as ISO 400. So basically, all your photos will be 2 stops over exposed, which on most C41 films is fine, you get more shadow detail and colours tend to fade just a bit.

E. von Hoegh · Oct 16, 2012

kevs said:
Kodachrome 64. *sigh*

Mine too. I have some in the freezer for old time's sake.

BrianShaw · Oct 16, 2012

E. von Hoegh said:
Mine too. I have some in the freezer for old time's sake.

At this point ymay as well take it out and put it on a shelf where you can enjoy looking at it.

liquid695 · Oct 16, 2012

Fuji Reala for C41 and Provia 100 for E6

E. von Hoegh · Oct 16, 2012

BrianShaw said:
At this point ymay as well take it out and put it on a shelf where you can enjoy looking at it.

There's one on the shelf, too.

cny3123 · Oct 16, 2012

thegman said:
Just overexpose and develop as ISO 400. So basically, all your photos will be 2 stops over exposed, which on most C41 films is fine, you get more shadow detail and colours tend to fade just a bit.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Also I'll give Reala a try as well when I get the chance. I just picked up a roll or two of Portra 400. I'm curious to see how the color film develops. Only have ever shot and developed with black and white films.

MattKing · Oct 16, 2012

Portra 160 (now). Portra 160 NC previously.

But the suggestion of Portra 400 is a good one.

You may gain a better appreciation of the role that the film plays if you try some Ektar 100 as well.

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 16, 2012

Provia 400X.

cny3123 · Oct 16, 2012

MattKing said:
Portra 160 (now). Portra 160 NC previously.

But the suggestion of Portra 400 is a good one.

You may gain a better appreciation of the role that the film plays if you try some Ektar 100 as well.

I'll have to take a chance with ektar at some point, for now, when I get the time I'd like to just try dabbling with development of the color film I'll be shooting. From what I've heard from friends it's a bit more of a challenge simply because you need to keep everything more to temperature vs. developing B/W films.

polyglot · Oct 16, 2012

Eh, C41 is pretty forgiving - you can correct most minor errors in the printing stage to RA4 and you can correct the most gross errors of development (except contaminated developer) including colour crossover if you're scanning. If you're comfortable with B&W, you should give C41 a go.

If you've got a Jobo or similar, it's trivial.

cny3123 · Oct 16, 2012

polyglot said:
Eh, C41 is pretty forgiving - you can correct most minor errors in the printing stage to RA4 and you can correct the most gross errors of development (except contaminated developer) including colour crossover if you're scanning. If you're comfortable with B&W, you should give C41 a go.

If you've got a Jobo or similar, it's trivial.

Not quite clear what RA4 means, or what a Jobo is. Sorry, not quite a film aficionado, just somewhat experienced with B/W development and printing.

As far as developing and printing goes, my uni provides all the chemistry for developing the film. We have enlargers for printing, and a machine that develops the print for us. Not sure of the make and model, its just a really big machine as far as I know Haven't taken the time to see what it is yet.

polyglot · Oct 16, 2012

RA4 is the chemical process for making colour prints on paper. It is designed to work in conjunction with C41 so that you can expose RA4 paper in an enlarger through a C41 negative and that produces a positive print.

A Jobo is a rotary processor with temperature control. If you're developing at home instead of at your uni's lab, a Jobo is a common way to get temperature control for colour.

cny3123 · Oct 17, 2012

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Yeah, since our uni has a lab where I'll be developing and printing it isn't as much of a worry to me. I want to try and make use of our photo facilities here as much as possible, and try out color while I can for almost free £35 lab fee for using all the facilities and chemistry for developing film and printing a semester isn't too bad, before graduating

nworth · Oct 17, 2012

Right now, things are in a bit of a flux. I'm using up my existing stocks of Portra 400VC, and I have a few rolls of Ektar left for something where I can use it effectively. Despite medium format and heavier equipment with tripods, I still behave pretty much like a snapshot taker. I concentrate on the scene and not the settings. That makes me appreciate negative films. My guess is that I will stick with Portra. I'll probably use 160 mostly, but 400 has its uses. I haven't used Fuji negative film for a while, but when I did, I preferred the Kodak films.

What 120 Color Films are your favorite?

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