Aristacolor Print Film from Freestyle

[mts]

Arista 100 film isn't the best for resolution either. Dye clusters are somewhat large and diffuse. Here is a full-frame 35 mm picture (a runoff into Water Canyon) and a detail section I scanned at 4000 dpi.

I should also mention that the Arista film base is somewhat thinner than either Kodak or Fuji products. The thinner base makes it more difficult to achieve the slight curl that is necessary to load Nikkor reels, but other than that problem, it doesn't seem to matter.

[2F/2F]

It doesn't look as bad as all that, and the price is right. It looks overexposed and scanned to me. I might just have to try me some.

[popeetheus]

Looks like an interesting film. Those scans look fine to me, especially if you are going for that effect. I'd like to find a film that would be close to the old 5035 Kodacolor II for those times when I don't want such a modern look.

[kodachrome64]

If you want cheap, go with some Fuji Superia. Or even Ektar 100 for that matter is quite a bit cheaper than Portra. Of course it depends on what you are shooting but I am with PE on the dye stability issue...and I wouldn't be very quick to say that doesn't matter because I have a hybrid workflow....

There are plenty of digit@l equivalent "dye stability" issues that photogs are dealing with now, except they are trying to figure out how to keep their files on magnetic media and wondering if they'll be able to open them in 20 years. To me, buying the brand-name film (if at all possible) is worth the assurance of knowing you have the best chance at having an image several decades from now.

[Ektagraphic]

It's not that I want to go cheap,(I don't like cheap films at all) it is just that I need 12 exposure rolls.

[PhotoJim]

B&H and Adorama both sell most of the Fuji Superias in 12-exposure rolls. They are disproportionately expensive (I think they are only about $1.69 whereas 36-exposure rolls are $1.99), but they are available.

I wonder if your solution might be to get 100' rolls of films and roll them off yourself to the lengths you need.

[nickrapak]

It's not that I want to go cheap,(I don't like cheap films at all) it is just that I need 12 exposure rolls.

I don't know whether you saw my last post, but there are other options for 12 exposure rolls.

B&H has two Kodak emulsions: Gold 200 and Max 400.

Adorama has two Fuji emulsions: Superia 100 and 200.

Ultrafine has several emulsions in 12 exposure: Fuji, Konica, and their own brand, which is cheaper than Freestyle's.

[alanrockwood]

Lots of interesting replies so far, but it looks like only a very few have actually tried the stuff.

Now, if you just had an old Exakta you could wind from cassette to cassette in-camera, and cut the film off in mid roll using the built in cut-off knife. That way almost any roll of film could be used as a 12-exposure roll.

[mts]

Here is a followup on Arista 100. As I mentioned earlier, I got better results by rating the film at EI-50 instead of the advertised 100. The color balance (with my scratch-mix chemistry) is not as easily corrected as the wonderfully balanced Kodak Portra and Fuji 160S products, but you can get decent abeit not professional-level results from it. It's certainly acceptable for a learning material which is how Freestyle advertises their Arista line of films and chemistry.

This is the best image I could get of the MacBeth chart and a negative made of Clematis growing near the front door. Both images were made on the same roll, processed and scanned identically. The exposures were determined by the camera using EI-50, and both images are close to full-frame scans.