Jump to content

Kodak Colorplus 200 vs Gold 200


fatihayoglu

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hi all,

So I am planning to start to develop my C41 at home however first I'd like to start with some cheap films rather than my Portra and Ektars.

Has anybody used the films in the topic, what are the advantages and disadvantages? Can you push any of them, how are their latitudes, etc?

 

Many thanks,

Fatih

Link to post
Share on other sites

You can treat them equally, differences are small. Maybe colourplus is a tiny bit grainier and contrastier, but nothing that stands out. Same with Fuji C200. If you want to try something different, see if you can get Kodak Pro Image 100. It's smaller grain than the rest,  and most importantly gives good/pleasing skintones, also a bit less saturated and contrasty than Gold/Colourplus. Essentially it's like a cheap version of Portra, usually sold to wedding photographers on a smaller budget. Around £5-6/roll, but prices can vary as always. Comes in propacks of 5.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, giannis said:

You can treat them equally, differences are small. Maybe colourplus is a tiny bit grainier and contrastier, but nothing that stands out. Same with Fuji C200. If you want to try something different, see if you can get Kodak Pro Image 100. It's smaller grain than the rest,  and most importantly gives good/pleasing skintones, also a bit less saturated and contrasty than Gold/Colourplus. Essentially it's like a cheap version of Portra, usually sold to wedding photographers on a smaller budget. Around £5-6/roll, but prices can vary as always. Comes in propacks of 5.

Thanks a lot, that’s very useful. Yes, I can find ProImage, I’ll give a try to that one as well. I read, it’s good to overexpose these films, like 1/3 to full stop. Would you agree? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, fatihayoglu said:

Thanks a lot, that’s very useful. Yes, I can find ProImage, I’ll give a try to that one as well. I read, it’s good to overexpose these films, like 1/3 to full stop. Would you agree? 

Yeah you could overexpose them a bit. Mind you, after a stop of overexposure they start decreasing in saturation. Usually, on cameras with a meter, I set the ISO dial half a stop to a stop lower than the film speed (i.e. overexposing half a stop) when there's contrasty light, more as a safety measure. I.e. if the meter is fooled by some stray light or a strong reflection, and underexposes one stop, in reality it'll expose just right (or underexpose for half a stop), due to how I set up the ISO, so the shot will look ok. You could do that and shoot worry free.

But don't take as much liberty as, say, with Portra, overexposing habitually 2+ stops. These consumer films don't have the latitude for it, and they don't look particularly nice.

Here's a shot with Gold 200, in warm light, I guess around half a stop overexposed. Excuse the dust, I was too lazy to clone stamp it out.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I  think going for cheaper film is a mistake and I made it for the best of reasons. Kodak reissued Proimage 100 as part of their professional range, as being a film very suited to use in hot and/or humid countries. Perfect I thought, for a long trip of my wife and I, round all the bits of central and north east India we had missed on previous trips. I  got through ten rolls of Proimage (plus 1200 digital images) on our trip.

As we were going to be there for the Holi festival where folks chuck buckets of coloured powder over each other and not wanting to expose my R9 or digital CL to this, I bought a virtually unused and boxed compact Yashica 110W auto-focus, motor-drive camera complete with Zeiss zoom lens for £8 from our local charity shop. It is almost the same camera as the very fashionable and expensive Contax T3 but with a blobby aluminium instead of square edged titanium body. I bought Kodak Ultramax 400 to use with this. The end results of the Ultramax are far better than the Proimage, which is sold as a cheap budget film in India. The Proimage has a very 1950's Ektacolor washed out look. From now on I am going to stick to Ektar, Portra, Ulltramax and Ektachrome for colour. Anything else is a false economy, home or professional processed. 

Wilson

Edited by wlaidlaw
  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

I remember, you’ve mentioned previously you didn’t like ProImage. It’s surprising as it’s one of Kodak Pro films and it’s not cheap as well. OTH, UltraMax and Gold are same grade films AFAIK both has T grain emulsion so now I’m trialing Gold, we’ll see how it goes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, fatihayoglu said:

I remember, you’ve mentioned previously you didn’t like ProImage. It’s surprising as it’s one of Kodak Pro films and it’s not cheap as well. OTH, UltraMax and Gold are same grade films AFAIK both has T grain emulsion so now I’m trialing Gold, we’ll see how it goes.

It is a bit of a slippery marketing trick selling Proimage as a professional level film in the west. It has been for sale for years in Africa, Indian sub-continent and the far east as Kodak's budget print film, with Royal Gold, Ultracolor, Portra and later Ektar 100/Ultramax 400 as their premium print films. Below is a typical example of the look of Proimage taken with an R9 and 24 Elmarit-R  V.2. I have not tweaked this at all, apart from posting size. It is as scanned by Peak Photos on the Noritsu scanner at 30.5 megapixels. If I  was ever to use Proimage again (unlikely), I would as others have suggested, rate it at 125 or 160 ISO. It seems to blow out highlights very easily, especially with a wide angle lens, showing a lot of sky. Ektar seems to have a noticeably wider dynamic range. 

Wilson

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited by wlaidlaw
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 6/8/2020 at 8:04 PM, wlaidlaw said:

I bought Kodak Ultramax 400 to use with this. The end results of the Ultramax are far better than the Proimage, which is sold as a cheap budget film in India. The Proimage has a very 1950's Ektacolor washed out look. 

That is by design though. It's supposed to be less saturated, so it gives good skintones. It's like a cheap version of Portra (maybe a bit more contrasty). Especially marketed to wedding photographers or social event photographers on a budget, in the past. It's successor (or sibling) Profoto XL is the same, it even has about 3-4 extra frames per roll, to facilitate people shooting such events, that usually need lots of frames.

Long story short, it's a specific look and if someone doesn't like Portra, they won't like ProImage, and vice versa. The colour palette is very similar, Portra has more DR and slightly smaller grain (the 160 version). Many people enjoy the saturated, contrasty looks of films like Superia, Gold, Ektar etc. . It has nothing to do with "pro" or not, but what look you like. Many people dislike Portra as well, they find it washed out and bland, yet it's as "pro" of a film as is possible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I used to shoot a fair amount of Portra and as a change tried ProImage. While the former colours seemed accurate, the latter's were always off. It just seemed inferior.

The only consumer grade film I would happily shoot now is Fujicolor 200. If wishing to push I would only use Portra 400 as it pushes well one stop, and pulls well too. My main colour film of choice is Fuji Pro400H, but my experience of pushing it is muddy shadows. Porta 400, Lomography 800 and the Fujis I mentioned do well when pulled one stop. 

My advice on C41 development as someone who has done it a fair amount but now stopped - start with a film that you already know the character of well. If you are making errors in development you will spot them easily. Don't start pulling and pushing until that is mastered for the same reason. Also choose your film stock for the type of photography you intend to do. I now use Fuji Pro400H exclusively, except for when I shoot portraits - there is a slight pink cast that makes your average caucasian look a bit hot and bothered, but does suit the colours of Sakura and renders Japanese skin tones more accurately  - whereas Portra was optimised for portraits and Western skin tones (forgive the language, but these were important factors in colour cast choosing).

 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

It is the narrow DR as well as the washed out colour I don't like. I have no problem with Portra for Portra situations (people photos at family events etc). The saturation and colour balance I can deal with in PP but narrow dynamic range you can't do a lot about without making the image look over-processed. In the photo above of people boarding a local ferry at the Gateway to India terminal in Mumbai, the actual subject, the people boarding, is slightly under-exposed, whereas the sky is considerably over-exposed. I would have needed to have been using a variable density ND filter to have cured this, which is close to impossible with the weird front of the 24 Elmarit-R (bayonet hood and Series VIII filter). With the very wide DR of Ektar 100, this would have been far less of a problem. The very wide DR that you encounter in India and similar tropical countries and the difficulties of getting skin tones near correct, is why I avoid using my normal reversal film and use negative.

For closer shots, I can use fill in flash, where both the SF58 and SF40 work well TTL on my R8 and R9. This helps a lot with skin tones. My Metz built SF60 is reaching the end of its life, with its nasty cheap plastic foot very worn and wobbly. The Nissin made SF45 is far better with a nice rigid and non-wearing metal foot. Why Leica signed off on a plastic foot for such a large and heavy flash as the SF58, totally escapes me. An SF60 is on the cards if I can find a reasonably priced and nice condition S/H one. 

Wilson

Edited by wlaidlaw
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Absolutely agree with comments above re starting with a known film, surely that's the only way you can assess your results, using a known standard. What's the cost difference against Portra when you want presumably to switch to that later? Money well spent.

I would shoot two rolls, same lens, same camera or two known bodies same lens (reducing variabilities - lenses vary in actual aperture and bodies in actual speeds) with same scenes and exposures, send one off to your usual lab and process the other yourself, compare and contrast the results otherwise you are shooting and processing blind. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...