kodak 400uc or fuji pro 400h

[scorpius73]

im heading off to san juan puerto rico next week for 6 days. im taking my contax g1 with 28mm, 45mm and 90mm lenses. im just trying to decide which film i should take. i like both. if you were me. which one would you go for. the very saturated uc or the more life like 400h? my girlfriend says ill be lugging too much, but im also taking a zeiss super ikonta IV for B&W film (fuji neopan 400) and a holga with pro 400h for fun.

 

[icebear]

Hi Scorpius,

I tried the Kodak 400 and somehow didn't like it. I use the UC100 but at 400 ISO I prefer the Fuji H. Have fun during your trip.

 

[sepiareverb]

I prefer the reds in the Fuji to what I've gotten with the Kodak UC.

 

[J J Kapsberger]

I find the Fuji 400H scans relatively easily for a color neg film. Hue/Saturation and curves in Photoshop can be used to give the colors more vibrancy if you need maximum punch.

 

[sepiareverb]

Scans? What is this scans you speak of? 😀

I just started wet printing my color negs today!

 

[Monte920]

For travel, I prefer 400UC over Pro400H. For indoor portrait, I prefer Pro400H over 400UC.

Keep in mind both are "professional" films, which means they are more geared toward to be used for some specific purposes, rather than general shots. Pro400H is great for the skin tone, making it one of the best portrait films on the market. However, its color is not very saturated. When you shoot wild life or natural scenes, the color will look somewhat "pale" and will not stand out to have the "Wow" factor. 400UC is somewhat in the opposite direction. It is more saturated, and more vivid in color. But I was disappointed in some portrait shots, which yielded "yellowish" skin tone, much less attractive than the pleasant "pinkish" skin tone generated by Pro400H.

If I were you, I will simply bring Fuji Xtra 400. It is a general use film but really excellent in both outdoor natural scenes as well as portrait. And most important, it is cheap! If you insist in bringing professional film, I will bring Fuji Pro 160C or Kodak Portra 400NC. Pro160C is great for portrait, but more saturated than Pro400H. 400NC is almost as saturated as 400UC, but I like the former's skin tone much better.

Hope this helps you! 🙂

 

[Jamie123]

I can only second Monte920's recommendation of Portra 400NC. It is by far my favourite color film!

I have one little correction to Monte920's post, though. 400NC is definitely NOT as saturated as 400UC. NC stands for natural color while UC is ultra color.

 

[scorpius73]

yes, i shoot alot of superia 400. its great stuff. for this trip i think im leaning to the 400uc. i want those saturated colors when im in old san juan.

 

[Jamie123]

If you want saturated I'd recommend using Kodak Portra 400VC. UC is just a terrible film IMHO, though I know many will disagree.

 

[suzums]

I've always gone with Pro 400H before I tried the free samples that Kodak sent out of their Portra series. For outdoors, I prefer the 400VC over anything else.