opinion on color film 800 speed

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What's a good choice in terms of sharpness and color rendition? The guy at the local camera store recommended Supra 800. I heard from somewhere that 800 color neg film has a naturally greenish tint when printed. Is that true?

-- Ken Kwok (kkwok@gostanford.com), November 10, 2001

Answers

Fuji NHGII rated and EI 640 and processed normally is pretty darn nice. I haven't tried Portra 800, but I bet its nice too. I know from experience that NHGII processed and Wolf Camaera (They use Kodak Royal paper) makes very nice machine prints. If the guy operating the machine is unfamiliar with the film, tell him to use the Fuji Supra 800 program channel.

800 color print film does not naturally have a greenish tint, although the old Kodak Max 800 could turn slightly greenish in the shadows.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), November 10, 2001.


Ken,

I have had good success with Fuji NHGII and the new NPZ, both shot at 800, for indoor / available darkness shots and for high school sports on rainy, overcast days.

In all cases, the film has been processed with Fuji equipment and printed on Fuji paper (4x6 machine prints). I have not noticed any color shifts.

-Nick

-- Nicholas Wybolt (nwybolt@earthlink.net), November 10, 2001.


I have used Provia 400F with great success pushed up to 1600... it isn't a neg film, but if you want speed and like slides its the way to go.

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), November 10, 2001.

I've been using Fuji's 800 Press film for about 6 months now for low-light situations, and I can't say that I've noticed any greenish casts to my prints. I think a lot of it may have to do with the competence of the place you're having it printed.

-- Rich Fowler (richfowler@mindspring.com), November 10, 2001.

Ken:

I shot Fuji 800 first about 6 years ago during a trip to Isreal and shot a Hibiscus there, taking advantage of the higher speed to allow a usable shutter speed. I printed my own 16x20 form it on Fuji paper and NOBODY beleives it was shot on 800 film until I show then the contact of the neg. There was certainly no colour problem with the Lobster colour flower and the green background.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 11, 2001.



I use and love all the Kodak Portra films, including the 800. Admittedly I use 800 more with medium format. The big problem with using color film in low light indoors is color casts (not all of which can be corrected easily in printing so it seems). Once you start with CC filters, you end up with an effectively slower film. I tend to favor b&w for those applications.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), November 11, 2001.

800 speed films were discussed a few of days ago at the end of the following thread:

greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006wYQ

In short, Fuji 800 Press wins for me on cost + grainlessness.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), November 11, 2001.


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