Now that I have worked with the color developer, it’s time to try out some new film stock. I was looking for some Kodak Portra 400, but it was sold out in the places I usually shop. I instead grabbed some Kodak Portra 800, Kodak Ektar 100 and some Cinestill 800T.
Cinestill originally got it’s start by removing the ramjet layer off Kodak Vision 3 motion picture film and repackaging it in 135 rolls for 35mm still cameras. As they grew, they are able to special order the same film without the ramjet. The Cinestill 800T is a 500 ISO film color balanced for Tungsten light, around 3000°K.
Outdoor shots in daylight is not the ideal shooting conditions for this film. Cinestill on the packaging says to expose at 500 EL with an 85 color warming filter for daylight shots, which I did here.
Anytime, you’re dealing with light temperatures higher than Tungsten light, you need to throw on the filter.
Reviews said that outdoor shots at night are were this film shines (when the sun doesn’t). That may have been universal 10 or 15 years ago, but outdoor lighting has changed since then. With the move to LED lights, there’s been a shift in color temperatures. These lights are cooler and have better color rendering, which is great in real life but not so much for this film.
Before I go into that more, I want to point out that the lack of ramjet layer on the film also eliminates the annihilation properties on the back of the film. As you can see with the traffic lights, there’s a halo around the lights, and the other lights are blown out a bit. The light reflects slightly off the back of the film, which results in the halos. It’s not a deficiency but a property of this film if you’re going to use it.
I did have to adjust the color balance quite a bit throughout this roll. Some pictures looked relatively good, requiring only small adjustments. Others, I had to adjust heavily to get the desired look.
Since both of these last two pictures came out well, I adjusted the latter one with a warmer tone than the other. I do prefer the warmer tone of the second picture over the first.
Even though this is an ISO 500 film, Cinestill recommends shooting it at 800 EL and slightly pushing it, which is what I did. Considering that this was the same developer that I used on the previous rolls, compensating for the chemical exhaustion in addition to the push seems to work pretty well.
While I think this roll came out very good overall, I do not like the cooler look of this film and it’s overall limitations. It’s not a bad film, but it all depends on what look you’re going for. I have a preference of warmer colors, so this one’s not for me. I have another roll of this film, and I’ll use it again, but unless I have a specific need for it, I will not be getting it too often. However, I’m curious about the Cinestill 50D and the new Cinestill 400 film that’s coming out. It will be interesting to see those in the future.
Development Details
- Film: Cinestill 800T
- Camera ISO setting: 800 (500 for daylight shots)
- Developer: CineStill C41 Developer at 102ºF
- Development Time: 4 Minutes
- Development Agitation: Kodak Style (5x inversions every 30 seconds)