Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 36 Exposure Film (Pack of 3)

Product Information

There’s also a new ISO 400 colour negative film made in Germany by ORWO that I’ve recently reviewed: Wolfen NC 500 . Unfortunately, it’s neither cheap nor capable of rendering colours as accurately as UltraMax. It has charm and applications, but you can’t use it the same way as consumer colour films. Additionally, the rolls I got did not have DX coding, rendering NC 500 unusable on most point-and-shoot cameras . Especially during the winter season I practice a lot of night-time photography. During the day, one photograph might take up 1/125th of a second of your time. However, at night, things change drastically. You should have much more time on your hands as a single exposure can easily consume several minutes. I think that UltraMax is an excellent or even the best general-purpose film. It renders scenes and skin tones realistically in fine grain and gives way to be manipulated digitally after the fact without losing too much fidelity. But it’s not as versatile as Portra 400. You won’t get away with over-exposing it by three stops. And to get the best colours out of UltraMax, you may need to spend a little extra time adjusting the colour balance sliders or avoid rainy or dusky weather altogether. I self-developed the film with Kodak’s Flexicolor C41 process at standard temps and times with a Jobo system, and converted the files to digital with a Sony a99ii and Minolta 50mm macro lens using a Cinestill light pad.

Generally, photographers want film with good exposure latitude as it helps them to get better, more well exposed images. Which Is The Best? Overall, it’s safe to say that Superia’s best feature is its dynamic range. This makes it a forgiving film , suitable for plastic toy cameras , old cameras with less-than-reliable shutters, and for metering using the Sunny 16 rule . It is also an excellent film to shoot in high-contrast scenes such as high noon and night photography . I guess this is the important question because I think it’s quite complicated, I think Superia has a place (for as long as it’s still around).Basically, whether you can or can’t shoot out-of-date film is determined by a number of different things. To be more specific, you are likely to see this when you underexpose shadows. You are likely to see a green tinge to your photographs. And if you expose correctly, shots the green tones will be more subtle. If you then take the film into well lit, brighter conditions, Fujifilm will look slightly cooler (blue-er across the spectrum) and Kodak film will render slightly warmer tones. Superia 400 is a classic Fuji 35mm film that faithfully reproduces colours and skin tones in low-light while colour-balanced for flash - this is an excellent general use emulsion. All of this makes sense since, Superia was produced to be consumer-grade, for the most part, people only really had 35mm cameras so there wasn’t much point in producing medium or large format film. Can You Shoot Them Out-Of-Date?

I will not digress into the hot topic of film pricing, inflation, and supply chain issues) Roll 1 – EI 400 Kodak Portra 400 is pretty notorious for having fairly muted tones so that it can be edited to your heart’s content, so it’s generally pretty pastel which is what I expected. What wasn’t prepared for was for the Superia to be almost identical. Kodak UltraMax with Canon QL25, scanned at a minilab (Chiang Mai). How much does Kodak UltraMax 400 cost, and where to buy it.

The Images – Day-Time Shots

Superia is more worth it because at the time of writing it is a good bit cheaper. Is it worth using it on holiday? Probably. Is it worth using it for some semi-important portraits? Probably also. For best results, avoid cool colours in your scenes, such as rainy or cloudy days. Whereas strong or warm-toned shades work well with UltraMax, blue or grey weather often throws it off-balance, leaving you with colour casts in the shadows that are difficult to correct. It might be hard to see, but with Portra 400 on the left, the overexposed areas aren’t as ‘blown out’ as they are with the Fuji on the right. Also, the Portra retains a bit more of the shadows than the Fuji does. If you have expired film from the 60s that was stored at room temperature, or it had been left in the sun, or car boot, it is unlikely you will get great results as the chemicals will break down much faster in these conditions than if it was kept cool. The ultimate way to store expired film is in the freezer as this halts the degrading of chemicals on the film; films can be stored for decades in the freezer with minimal degradation to the chemicals. Refrigeration is somewhere between the two, but freezing expired film is the best way to maintain its quality.