This will be a short one. I went to Cinestill’s website recently and the results were predictable. I glazed over and evidently ordered a mess of film. Included in this haul were a few rolls of Cinestill 400D since I had not tried it yet. Spoiler alert. I like it.
The camera and lens used are favorite of mine. One of the few cameras that are as good as everything I have heard about them.
Let’s face it, Kodak Portra 400 is the predominant colour negative film of the decade. When Fujifilm inexplicably pulled Pro400H off the market, it left Kodak to dominate the medium-speed colour negative film market. It’s so ubiquitous that those looking for an alternative might be hard pressed to find it. Well with Cinestill 400D we have been provided a warm Californian alternative to Portra’s cool East Coast vibes.
I’ve always been a Canon guy, a digital one, and like many of us I’ve collected more than 10 EF lenses for almost every purpose. Since the pandemic breakout in 2020 I’ve started to re-explore the 35mm film world (thanks to a lucky find of a Nikon Coolscan 5000 buried in my basement), my first thought was: “since I own many EF lenses why not use them on a film EOS camera?” The first film camera was an EOS 650, perfectly compatible with all my lenses but with some caveats: 1 AF point, just 2 metering modes, no lcd backlight… you know, coming from a DSLR the drawbacks were a little disappointing.
The inspiration for this project came from a photographer named Michael Somoroff, who made a project called “Absence of Subject“. He took the legendary photographer August Sander’s monumental work “People of the 20th Century” and simply erased the subjects, putting the background in primary focus.
To me Landscape Photography in general is not very interesting unless something unexpected is added to the picture. So when I started to add light to the scenes something happened. After that I used both subjects and light together.
Cinestill 800T is an amazing film stock that has its own unique style and character. I’m a huge fan of its cool blue/green tones, and of course those controversial red halations which I happen to love.
