Cheap color options...

[Diggin99]

I just started reading Eggleston's guide and it got me to thinking about color film. I used to like provia 100...but I just looked at the prices and that is not within my current budget. What would you recommend for a color film, negative or slide, that might be ok for general use? I mean something that I can get in a larger quantity and use to practice color shots that will likely be in rural settings, outdoors, natural light, but once in a while in an urban environment and at dusk? It does not have to be the best...just ok and functional but not totally horrid in color tone?

Something that is iso 100 and iso 400 would be ideal! Anyone tried lucky?

Nancy

 

[rool]

Fuji superia 400

 

[Richard Black]

Superia 100. Great color and not too expensive!

 

[ghost]

glad you got the book!

the kodak gold 100 at the supermarket is pretty nice.

 

[JohnM]

Let me second (or third) the Fuji film recommendations.

Very nice color film on the cheap.

 

[Diggin99]

thanks!

thanks!

Thanks for the tips! I will be sure to check out B and H!

Nancy

 

[wlewisiii]

Exactly what Roland said. Reala is especially fun stuff to work with. Plus if you have a Walgreens around, the house brand (confirmed this earlier today with staff there) is now made by Fuji. Same stuff as the green box but should be even cheaper than the supermarket Fuji. Just wish the 100 was Reala instead of Superia, but it's still good stuff.

William

 

[dmr]

The Fuji 200 and 400 may be available under the Walgreens Studio 35 brand for a bit less. I just got my first roll of the new Walgreens back and it's most definitely Fuji.

However, YMMV, sometimes lately I've seen the Walgreens rebranded Fuji a bit higher than the genuine Fuji at Target'.

If you do the Walgreens, be sure it's the made in Japan stuff, since I'm sure there's still some older Walgreens/Agfa (not bad, but I like Fuji better) in the pipeline.

 

[JJW]

Fuji is cheap at Wal*Mart

Fuji is cheap at Wal*Mart

You can get Fuji 100 in four packs at Wal*Mart for ~$4.75.

It's great film... stupendous resolution, wide latitude and very good color.

 

[amateriat]

On the amateur-film end, Fuji Superia 400 is a winner; Fuji Superia 800 can be a bit squirrelly, depending on the light, but the 400, within limits, seems more capable. I've mostly dealt with the pro versions of the above, with somewhat better results, and I'm also going to try the new version of Kodak Portra 800. No one has an absolute lock on the night. ;-)


- Barrett

 

[Kat]

I agree, I like Fuji Superia compared to other "branded" films. Though if I'm not taking pics of anything important or for test rolls, I do like a cheap film we have here in the Philippines, box says "Solid Gold," comes only in ASA200, costs less than Fuji and I really like the colors (rich/saturated), but a little on the grainy side.

 

[nrb]

I've bought a box of Agfa Vista 400 and am pretty pleased with the results. Nice vivid colours and no grain for € .60 @ roll...

 

[dmr]

I agree, I like Fuji Superia compared to other "branded" films.

I really think that "4th color layer" helps when shooting in low light or incandesdcent or mixed light. I used to think it was just marketing hype, but the Fuji just seems to perform much better for a lot of the things I shoot, such as dim/night street scenes.

 

[Trius]

I concur on Reala. I haven't tried the Superias (I have some Eckerd 200 that I suspect is Superia), and can rarely find ANY ISO100 films at "amateur" prices. Funny, but Kodak Gold 100 doesn't seem to exist in Rochester. Wassup w/ that?

But here's a Reala 100 shot from my gallery; scan was from a local "prosumer"lab and seemed pretty decent.

 

[jano]

My results with reala have been wonky, to say the least. I will get nice, wonderfully pleasant pastel-like colors sometimes, and then other times just blandness or blahness. It's a nice film when you get the right lighting, otherwise, it's so so and can be weird. The nicest color print film I tried so far was agfa vista 200, BUT, no longer available 🙁 low grain, nice mid-level contrast, good colors.

 

[Trius]

Oh, I DO wish Wallgreens/Vista 200 were still around. This isn't super sharp due to shutter speed, but I like the colour/tonal scale. Tower 51/Steinheil Cassar 50/2.8

 

[bshimmin]

Hi folks. I've been looking around for a good all-around color film (400 speed), and as strange as it may seem, I've had really good luck with Kodak 400UC (the same stuff you can now buy in wallgreens/cvs). It reproduces color (especially indoors) beautifully. It also has very manageable grain. I've been down on Kodak in the past for its shoddy treatment of the BW market, but I think they've done a fine job with this affordable film. Attached (hopefully) is a recent snap from a local museum, taken through a Minilux.

Cheers,

brad

 

[Rhoyle]

When dealing with inexpensive color print films, it's been my experience that most all of them work pretty well-some some better than others, but most are acceptable. The variable that comes into play more than which brand you're using is the processing. I've had some stunning prints out of Kodak Gold 200, Fuji Superia 400 and others, then the next time I'd take the film somewhere else for processing and the results would be quite poor. Invariably, when I get poor results, I can usually scan the film myself at home (Epson 4870 scanner) and get noticable improvement. Rarely do I get negatives that look bad, but I'll often get prints that look bad if I'm not careful about where I have it processed. Find a lab that you like and trust and they should do a good job no matter what film you're using.

 

[amateriat]

I'll give Kodak UC400 a qualified thumbs-up; as long as the processing is up-to-snuff, it's a very nice film under most circumstances (subjectively a tad more forgiving in low light than Fuji Superia 400; Fuji Pro 400 is a somewhat different story, and possibly my favorite ISO 400 color neg film overall, as used in the attached image).


- Barrett

 

[dmr]

Oh, I DO wish Wallgreens/Vista 200 were still around. This isn't super sharp due to shutter speed, but I like the colour/tonal scale.

At least around here, it's still around, sortakinda, mixed in with the newer Walgreens/Fuji. I've even seen some Japan and some Germany boxes of the same speed on the same shelf, but of course it varies from store to store.

Last winter I bought a whole bunch of that when it was like $.70-some per roll in the 8-packs. I've shot most of it, and most of what I shot was just casual everyday snapshooting in the P&S, like office parties, friends at the bar, etc., but I did get some great street shots in Chicago, some Las Vegas daytime scenes, and some various urban snow scenes during our only really scenic snow of the season with the W/A 200. The reds and browns are very nice with this film. It does seem a bit grainier than the Fuji 200 and Kodak Gold 200.

I tried a 4-pack of the Walgreens/Agfa 400 but didn't really like it. Too grainy and bizarre color response in a mix of twilight and street lights.