Portra 800 vs. CineStill 800T
Two heavyweights competing with each other in night time photography. This ain't the ultimate shootout, this blog shall inform and give you an indication on when you'd want to grab one film over the other.
Kodak Portra 800
Portra 800 is known for it's warmth and natural colour rendition at daytime. Paired with fine grain in both 120 and 35mm it's the top choice in ISO800 films available today.
Photos are saturated and punchy, with a soft contrast. The film provides great exposure latitude, being very forgiving when underexposing and surely when overexposing. Portra 800 accentuates warm tones.
CineStill 800T
Created by US company CineStill Inc. this film is a variant of Kodak's Vision 3 film (Kodak 5219 500T). With the Remjet layer removed, it's enabled for standard C-41 development in any lab.
This film shows pronounced halation effects, which is one of its characteristics. Being tungsten balanced, it transforms warm tones into cooler tones and delivers a very cinematic look.
Enough words, show me photos!
These two photos clearly show the main difference of warmth vs. cooler cinematic look. Loads of neon-light paired with a slight bit of moonlight (and a Rolls Royce).
The difference becomes less obvious once you're in a full tungsten environment (Düsseldorf Metro Station) with no natural light. The main difference is the halation effect. While still visible, the cinematic look becomes more subtle.
Environmental light (and be it just moonlight) will elevate the warmth of Portra 800. CineStill 800T remains cooler, due to the halation effect lights turn red.
Photos made by @cvandebroek
Developed and scanned by @optikoldschool
Kodak Portra 800 is available in the online store in both 120 and 35mm.