Film is NOT dead: NEW Film PORTRA 160 Film from KODAK

[Tim Gray]

Any project date when it will hit the market- I have a freezer full of 160S, but I want to stock up on the new portra stock when I get the opportunity.

The Kodak site says:

Based on current sales, KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 160NC AND 160VC products are expected to be available in the market though April 2011.

and:

PORTRA 160 Film will be available in the following sizes beginning in March of 2011...

[Athiril]

Bob - thanks for that tidbit about switching on the fly between NC and VC. Interesting. Loved your book by the way!

I can only hope that Portra 800 gets a makeover too.

Oh, well if you push process the new Portra 400, it handles extremely well.. and I mean a proper push process.. an 800 version of that would be even better

[Jeff Kubach]

That's great to hear, at least it is not all doom and gloom.

Jeff

[WRSchmalfuss]

Good news, now I can use the 220 film insert again for my Contax 645 AF.

Even better would it be, to get an 220 B&W roll film with 400 ISO again!

[bestbefore1978]

Great news, I think I'm now going to settle wholesale on Kodak for everything colour (and 50% black and white)
Portra 160 / 400 for portraits or flash
Ektar 100 for landscape (replacing Provia 100F, which is superb but virtually impossible to scan if exposure isn't within 1/3 stop of optimum)
Tri-X for virtually all Black & White (apart from experimentation with the Adox and Rollei films for interesting effect)

[Mackinaw]

Still a bit odd. It would have been cheaper to simply continue to make 160NC and drop 160VC. Creating a new film, even tweaking an existing one takes some money. Good to see they're still spending some money on film R&D. Hopefully it will continue.

If I recall correctly back when the new Portra 400 was introduced, PE mentioned that the film had a lot in common with Kodak's movie film which greatly simplified Kodak's film production. I suspect that's also the case here with this new 160 film.

Jim B.

[bblhed]

Where is the love for Portra 800?

Lots of talk about Portra 160 and 400, Even Ektar, but Portra 800 is still being made also.

Has anyone even used Portra 800? Someone must because they are still making it but I would like to know what it's like as I have never used it myself.

[bestbefore1978]

I've used it once or twice in medium format, for the indoors shots at a wedding. It was remarkably fine grain for 800 speed, but I did have trouble with colour correction in the highlights (mixed tungsten/daylight inside the church).
Some other shots, sunny conditions in daylight again gave relatively low grain, and good colour rendition, possibly a good film for handheld colour street photography?

[Tim Gray]

I use Portra 800. I like it quite a bit. Grainier than the 400 varieties obviously. It works well for me in tungsten lighting though seems to be really sensitive to the green from fluorescents. What's odd about the green though is that it's not a sickly green but a really rich green. As a result, it's been pretty easy for me to correct out (digitally). I also find it to have a bit of a different color balance than the other Portra's and to be more saturated than it is stated to be. Again, I'm scanning, so take it with a grain of salt.

Here's a couple shots from the most recent version (800-3). If you right click on the photo and select original, you can see them at the full scan size - some are up to 4k x 6k. Portra 800-3 samples

[Athiril]

You tried the Fuji stuff for fluro?

And apparently Portra 400 pushes for better results than 800. I need to give that a go..