Today’s Post by Joe Farace
No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.—Robert Adams
Kodak’s GC/UltraMax 400 is a high-speed daylight-balanced 35mm color negative film that I have been wanting to try again.
I’ve had really good luck shooting Kodak’s 35mm color negative films including Gold 200. Based on my previous experience with UltraMax 400, it has a wide exposure latitude as well as a fine grain structure with consistent and accurate colors. They just pop! I found it’s vibrant overall color palette worked great for outdoor photography.
UltraMax 400 has a nominal sensitivity of ISO 400 and is supposedly well-suited for both scanning and enlarging and the scan that Mike’s Camera made were superb. The film is said to be “optimized for skin tone reproduction” making this film suitable for portraiture but I have yet to be able to find a model to photograph in my home studio to do a portrait or glamour session using film. The below image was shot back in the day when all my portrait and glamour shoot were shot on film. If you or someone you know might be interested in posing for me, please click the CONTACT tab and let’s talk.
How I made this portrait: The portrait was made using available light in the outdoor shooting space of a friend’s studio on a day when it was closed. It was shot with a Contax 167 MT SLR, that’s similar to the one I recently acquired along with a Carl Zeiss 50mm f/1.7 lens and Kodak color negative film. Scans were from Kodak’s defunct Photo CD process and opened using Lemke Software’s Graphic Converter that is not without its quirks (and features.)
A three-pack of UltraMax 400 is/was offered on B&H’s website for $19.99 but it has been on back order for several months. Every few weeks they send me an email (above right) to tell me it’s “not available,” at least not yet. I wonder when it’s finally available will that pack of film still cost twenty bucks. One can only hope. In the meantime, I’m going to keep my name of the waiting list to see how long this process drags out.
LATEST UPDATE: On October 27, 2022, I received yet another e-mail update from B&H stating, “We regret the item remains unavailable. ” I’m getting ready to start a pool to see, if and when the film will ever be available. Anybody interested?
Anther color negative film I want to try is contained in Lomo’s Analogue Duet Mixed 35mm Film Pack ($28.90) but it’s “out of stock” as of the above update too and has been for some time. The package includes “Lomography’s coolest, color-shifting 35mm films”— LomoChrome Metropolis and new Purple—and includes a free key chain. Each C-41 film comes in an “irresistible, individual tin can.” I’ll save that can when I send it in for processing. I have a large container of (plastic) film containers to use if I decide ship it out-of-state.So once again, Joe’s Film Box for this month is empty.
If you would like to send me another kind of film to review or any other stuff that could be used for these posts and my videos you can mail it to: Joe Farace, PO BOX 2081, PARKER, CO 80134
PS: Just a reminder: My video Why Film, Why Now is live now on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at a my reasons and philosophy about why I’m a film photographer. Also Podcast #5 is now available as well.