Today’s Post by Joe Farace
March 25 is National Tolkien Reading Day among fans of the renowned author. I confess to never having read a single word of any of his books but I did see some of the movies…
Kodak’s UltraMax 400 is a relatively high-speed daylight-balanced color negative film that offers wide exposure latitude as well as a relatively fine grain structure producing what Kodak claims to be “consistent and accurate colors.”
The film has a nominal sensitivity of ISO 400/27° that the company says is well suited for scanning or making enlargements and based on the 2048 x 3072 “Enhanced” scans The Darkroom produced from my test film, I couldn’t agree more. Because of its speed, UltraMax 400 is a versatile film that seems to be a good choice for both daylight and low light shooting. It’s somewhat grainier than Kodak Gold 200 but not objectionably so and it’s a versatile enough to keep in your camera bag, particularly when you want that “film look.”
During my solo recent photo walk down Mainstreet (yes, it’s one word) in Parker, Colorado, I shot a 36-exposure roll of fresh (Expires 01/24) Kodak Ultramax 400. The film is supposed to perform best at “box speed” or slightly overexposed and that’s how I shot it during my solo photo walk with a Leica M6 TTL. The film is DX coded and has some a tolerance for exposure and can be pushed to 1600 if you need an extra speed bump. The M6 TTL I shot the film in has no DX Coding support. Heck, the mostly-manual camera doesn’t even have an on-off switch.
Ultramax 400 is a good all-purpose film, capturing details well and at 400 ISO is a good all-around speed for shooting under a variety of lighting conditions. This consumer-oriented film has a vibrant color palette that’s aimed at general and outdoor photography. Like most Kodak consumer films, its warm tones—not quite as warm as Kodak Gold 200—should make it good film for portraits and it’s strong saturation works well for landscapes too. The film is said to be optimized for skin tone reproduction making it suitable for portraiture but I did not get to photograph any people during my photo walk, not that I don’t want too. Some kids did run into one of my Jacks and Ball shots (above) and they either made or ruined the shot—you decide.
The film is available in both 36-exposure ($10.99) and 24-exposure rolls ($8.99.) Prices are from B&H at the time of this writing. When available, a three-roll pack is currently priced at $19.99 and looks like the best deal but with Kodak and Fuji film prices are a constantly moving target, so get’em when you can.
How I Made this Shot: The above image was made with my Leica M6 TTL with 50mm Summicron-S f/2 lens, exposure unrecorded, but I was shooting a lot around the sweet spot aperture of f/8 that day. I did shoot a quick brick wall test and both film and Summicron-S lens performed up to the standards you might expect from Leica and Kodak.
I sent the film to The Darkroom for processing and scanning on March 1 and received an email acknowledging receipt of the film on March 8 and was notified that scans were available for viewing and download on March 9 and the film was being shipped back to me on the same day. All of the scans were clean and bright and showed off the films dynamic range, color and sharpness,
I really liked Ultramax 400’s rendition of bright colors and it will be my go-to color film when the light might be a little lower than the conditions under which I shot these tests.
If you would like to send me a roll 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