Wednesday, December 09, 2020

Cinestill 800T

 In sorting out the expired film in my refrigerator I came across a roll of Cinestill 800T.  It was only six months past the expiration date, so I decided to give it a try.  It seemed a good idea to start with some interior shots since the film is said to be balanced for indoor lighting, so I made half a dozen shots of my cat.



On the way out the door I thought to myself that I should really have a filter on the Minolta Himatic 7S to account for the fact that I had Tungsten-balanced film in the camera.  However, when I processed the film the images looked to me like those I would expect from normal outdoor color film.






The first few frames had light leak streaks across them, but the rest looked ok.  It seemed likely that the felt light trap on the film cartridge might be at fault.  Otherwise, I thought the grain and color looked pretty good, though not what I expected.

I probably would not consider using this film again because of the twelve dollar cost per roll.  I still have some curiosity about this stuff, however.  One of the most appealing photos I ever came across on Flickr was made on Cinestill by David Ramos.  If I thought that I could come close to what he got from the film, the cost would not be an issue.

6 comments:

Rick Scheibner said...

I really like your choice of subject matter for this film. You probably already know this, but Cinestill 800T is Kodak Vision 3 500T with the remjet removed. I just received some of the Vision 3 tungsten film from FPP and plan to shoot it over the holidays. And come to think of it, I think I do have some of the Cinestill 800T in 120 format in the back of my freezer somewhere. I should probably plan on shooting some of that over the holidays as well.

Mike said...

Thanks for that info on the origins of the 800T. I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to explore this film's capabilities, but it is clearly worth looking into. I'll be looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

JR Smith said...

I have only shot one roll of this film and had some fun with it. I need to try another.

Here are my shots: http://www.fogdog-photography.com/fogdog-blog/2017/5/3/lightbox-wednesday-17

Mike said...

You did better with that film than I did. It does produce very smooth results for an 800 speed film. I may talk myself into trying another roll.

kodachromeguy@bellsouth.net said...

I like your cat. He/she has major hair production!

Mike said...

Ruthie had been a pretty cooperative test subject for a lot of film and cameras. She works for food, and regular brushing.