Kodak updates Portra film!

[Nachkebia]

I love portra films and I think this news deserves to be here, so film lovers like me can enjoy it 🙂 congrats everybody!

Comparisons

Press res.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060911005436&newsLang=en

Here some demonstration and extra information from kodak.
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/portra/portraIndex.jhtml?id=0.2.22.14.7.14&lc=en

Gallery with some pictures here, mostly medium format 🙂
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/portra/gallery.html

 

[jaapv]

That is a nice find, Vladimer! 🙂 At least it makes a change from the press-releases full of negatives about chemical photography that the Kodak company has been giving out over the last year.

 

[Jamie123]

Nice to see that they still put some effort into improving films.

I love Portra, too. Unfortunately every scanner software I use somehow messes up the colors with the negative color profiles so I prefer using slide film. I still might try out a roll now that it the film has "outstanding scanning results" 🙂

 

[Nachkebia]

Jamie123 : Yeah, coolscann also plays with color, but what I do is, when developing I ask lab to print contact sheet so I know colors and later stange I correct colors with curves, but anyhow lets see how new film scans! CAN`T WAIT!

 

[Stephan]

It looks like they haven't changed the names of the films though. That won't make it easy finding some of this to try. I just hope this isn't just a chance for them to put their prices up by 30% again 🙁

 

[Jamie123]

Jamie123 : Yeah, coolscann also plays with color, but what I do is, when developing I ask lab to print contact sheet so I know colors and later stange I correct colors with curves, but anyhow lets see how new film scans! CAN`T WAIT!

That's a pretty good idea! I'll try that out next time I get a film developed. I have a roll of portra 400vc 120 film in the fridge that I bought last week but I doubt that it's one of the new ones.

 

[Nachkebia]

Stephan : Read this http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/professional/products/films/portra/qAndAUS.pdf?id=0.2.22.14.7.14.20&lc=en

You will identify new film with this graphical type on every new package

 

[Stephan]

Stephan : Read this http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/professional/products/films/portra/qAndAUS.pdf?id=0.2.22.14.7.14.20&lc=en

You will identify new film with this graphical type on every new package

Ooooh, thanks 🙂

The edge print on the film reads 160 NC-2 now I see as well. And the've dropped the tungsten balance 100T, but then I've bever heard of anyone using this in the first place. Fuji still make NPL as far as I can tell anyway for those who want tungsten print film (I'll give that a try actually, just to see what it's like before it dies out too).

 

[Nachkebia]

Great great! we need more optimism in film! cheeer up people! this might be the last shake in a color film world! sadly 🙁

 

[sockeyed]

Yay! I guess that my local lab was making things up when they told me Kodak was dropping 400VC. I find it hard to get the 400VC here in Vancouver, though, and it's pricey.

 

[leif e]

Really good news. I discovered Portra only this summer and love it - even to scan. If this upgrade keeps it´s promises, then we´re really going somewhere.
leif e

 

[Ben Z]

It looks like they haven't changed the names of the films though.

A welcome departure from their past history of sometimes changing only the names😀 😀

 

[Dougg]

Delighted to see this continued improvement in Kodak film, bodes well for the longer term. And I had to verify they still are supporting 220 size film! 😀

 

[sbug]

I noticed this update yesterday when I was looking up T-Max push-process developing times on the Kodak website. I love Portra so I'm excited to try the new stuff and compare with the older film. I also have just started trying their 400UC which I think is a spinoff of the Portra family. That seems to be good stuff as well and I can get it local for a pretty reasonable price.

 

[SDK]

And the've dropped the tungsten balance 100T, but then I've bever heard of anyone using this in the first place. Fuji still make NPL as far as I can tell anyway for those who want tungsten print film (I'll give that a try actually, just to see what it's like before it dies out too).

Too bad they're discontinuing the Portra 100T. It's the about the only long exposure negative film in 35mm. Fuji NPL is only sold as sheet and 120/220 roll film. There may be some obscure copy films, but 100T is really good for night shots and indoor tripod mounted photography. Large format photographer Tim Davis uses the 4x5 version for his indoor work, producing amazing, big prints, with a quirky take on political and other themes.

I hope Kodak really has improved the 400 and 800 ISO Portra films, which were so much grainier than Fuji's equivalents. I really did not like the old Portra 800 at all, it has ugly grain, more than Fuji 1600. I found Portra 400NC far too flat in contrast in 4x5" for landscapes. Portra 160VC is pretty nice, and if the new version improves upon it, I'll shoot more of it.

 

[Tom Diaz]

Great news! Portra 160NC and 400NC are my favorite films. I get them developed (anywhere!) and scanned-to-CD for pretty cheap. The good pictures I scan with my desktop Konica-Minolta Scan Elite 5400 scanner. That is a great machine and scans the negatives with no wacky profiles and no other strange results. Too bad they got out of the business, but you can still get one on ebay...

I also am quite fond of a couple of slide films, but I do not know of a reasonable priced, available service that will develop a roll of E6 film and give me proof-quality scans (1000 dpi).

 

[jano]

How do these do for landscapes? Specifically deserts and mountains? I'm going on a trip to Bodie this weekend, trying to determine what film to take 🙂

 

[Dougg]

How about the BW400CN, Jano? Bodie seems more a B&W place to me. Since the chromogenic is listed among the new improved Portras, I wonder if it's benefited from improvements as well...

 

[jano]

I'm definitley taking b&w (acros and efke are what I'm used to, and maybe foma 200) and I might try the bw400cn stuff. Never used it before. But I am thinking of some color, too, mainly because I just learned how to do the advanced vusecan scanning workflow with some twists that yeilds most excellent results 🙂

 

[thelovecollect]

that's good to know..
i will be shooting color negs excusively for a class i'm taking..

what speed do you rate these films at?
and what speed for fuji negs?