Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! Do you like eating durian? I love it a lot but it’s not for everyone, it’s an acquired taste so it may take some time for your palate to accept it. Some say it’s sweet and tart while some say it also reminds them of vomit in the way it smells, the texture is also reminiscent of rotting flesh to them. I don’t see it as such, for me, it tastes and feels like exquisite cheese. You can debate with everyone about it but food is a matter of taste, just like how Joachim Loew (the German coach) like his own snot. Today, we shall look into something that is a bit confusing to me, I just don’t know what to make of it, is it good or is this trash? Join me today as we look into this confusing topic.

Introduction:

The Cinestill 400D is something that I have always wanted to shoot with but I was always indecisive, it’s not cheap at all and that’s one of the main reasons why. At one point, my curiosity had to be scratched, so I bought 2 rolls of this stock to review. As far as I know, I don’t recall seeing this film in Tokyo when I was still living there 2 years ago so this must have been sold just over a year ago or somewhere around that period.

Cinestill likes to color their film based on its perceived characteristics, purple suggests that it has a warm tone, leaning towards magenta or amber. The purple theme is cute, making it very appealing to younger customers and intrigues the rest, too.

As we all know, Cinestill – the company, repackages Kodak’s cinema film without the remjet layer. That is true for Cinestill 800T. Cinema film has a black layer that prevents reflection from the pressure plate of a movie camera from affecting the emulsion, the said pressure plate gets worn and turns shiny and that is enough to create an effect called halation. The said effect is easily seen when shooting bright sources of light, giving this reddish-glow around them. This anti-halation layer requires a process to remove it just before processing when using common commercial machines for C-41 chemistry, leaving that layer on is going to ruin the chemistry and expensive machinery used for developing film. This is the reason why the layer is stripped or not applied to the stock when repackaged by Cinestill or other 3rd party vendors. This isn’t new, it has always been something that a few people did, but Cinestill just makes it convenient for us and safe for the labs, and they charge a premium for that. Cinestill claims that this isn’t merely a film that they have repackaged from a commercial stock off-the-shelf like they used to do (after removing the said layer), but some sources say it is just Kodak Vision3 250D that’s been made specially without the remjet. I personally do not know and care about it, I just want to promote film photography and Nikon, that’s all.

It’s marketed as a fine-grain, high-dynamic range film stock that could be pushed to ridiculous levels like ISO 3200 if wanted and has a claimed base ISO of around 200-800. I am not going to dispute that as I am mostly interested in how a film renders in box-speed, in this case, ISO400. It’s sold as a daylight film, which means that it’s best used for sunny conditions. A friend told me that the D in this case stood for dynamic, I cannot verify it myself but the website says – ISO 400 daylight balanced 35mm color negative film, so I’ll just stick with that, maybe he’s had too much cannabis.

I have no idea on what to expect from this because I have never shot with it. Since I am getting lazier as I get older, I shot my 2 rolls with my trusty Nikon F3 along with several lenses, mostly fast.

The substrate is purple, how strange. It does not feel brittle, stiff or thicker than your usual roll film. The black rem-jet layer has been totally washed from it, allowing you to use this safely with regular machines without any risk of clogging or fouling-out the chemistry, a very expensive maintenance for operators of film laboratories!

Let’s see how this film looks like when shot in bright, sunny conditions. I don’t think that it’s meant to be used in this manner but I am curious, I am not rich so I am making a big investment here just so that we will know how this film actually works in various conditions.

This article isn’t sponsored by anyone, the resources used here comes from my own pocket and from the support of my wonderful readers. That gives me the integrity to say whatever I think of this film based on what I get from the lab. This is the importance of having an independent reviewer.

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This is what I got on the first frames of my 2nd roll. I do not think that this has something to do with the film, this has more to do with a manufacturing defect, most likely with the cartridge. I should have been a lot more careful when loading my film, I recall loading this under a sunny sky so that may be it. The lining around the lips of the cartridge should have been tight enough to prevent this.

Halation is evident in really bright highlights, even on daylight, but it’s not as obvious compared to what we see with Cinestill 800T. It is much more subtle and can be harder to trigger.

Pardon the grainy, underexposed photo. Here, I’d like you to pay attention to the sun-stars, you can see the effects of halation there and how it affects your photos.

The effect is more difficult to notice when you have a broad area that’s overblown, it appears more like a subtle layer of glowing effect than a hot, blooming mess.

The effect is barely seen in this photo, even if you look closely at the white shirts in the background. You can treat this more like a normal daylight C41 stock for general use.

I shot this to show how different colors are rendered, you be the judge. The colors don’t look as saturated to me under sunny conditions, but they don’t look unnaturally pale to me either, it does have a unique or special character to it.

When you have both harsh and dark shadows in your scene, exposing towards the highlights will quickly crush the curve on the darker parts of your scene. Do note how it renders overblown parts of this photo, you’ll see that a lot in this article. On the other hand, the details on the shadows gets preserved well.

The one thing that I noticed the most is it has an amber tint, I suppose this is the defining trait of this film, more than the gimmick of the Cinestill 800T’s tendency to produce blooming highlights or the bombastic look of Lomography’s LomoChrome Purple 100-400. I did find something interesting, if you look carefully at the edges of the foliage, you will notice that it has some amber-looking bleeding effect.

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That amber tint is amplified more when shooting in extreme (bright) lighting conditions.

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That said amber-look gives your photos a distinct look, making them more interesting, as if adding a layer of glow that evokes a nostalgic and familiar feeling.

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Since human skin is naturally a shade of brown/yellow in various lightness, it won’t drastically change the look of your subjects. They won’t look like corpses, boiled prawns or Smurfs.

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This interesting look can help you make your photos look like they were shot with bad chemistry, akin to what you would see when you have your film developed with a cheap laboratory in the 1980s or 1990s, if you are old enough to remember this. Like mentioned before in one of the previous photos, this film has a tendency to make overblown parts of your scene look a little bit washed-out. Remember this, you may want to underexpose slightly when faced with a similar situation, 1/3 of a stop is probably good enough.

Let’s now see how I’d imagine this film is to be used as intended by the manufacturer. I assume that this is formulated for use with indoor lighting, that’s why it has an amber hue to offset the greenish hue that we get from florescent lights and the like.

As I have suspected, the amber hue is indeed used for negating the greenish look of artificial lighting! See how neutral the color of the foil looks. That plastic container for the sauce looks correct to my eyes. Green is the opposite of red so everything makes perfect sense.

Wow, look at those nice, long legs. Skin under artificial lighting looks dull but we don’t se any of that here in this photo. The subways here have disgusting, brutalist architecture, the lighting is just as oppressive. It now looks more natural thanks to this film. Since this film is originally meant for cinema, thee grain is fine, almost invisible, which makes it look closer to a digital photo in this regard.

How about some lowlight photos? I am curious as to how this film behaves when shooting in dark places. While I do not think that it was formulated for this kind of scenario (it’s a daylight film), you may find the need to shoot it this way out of necessity.

It’s apparent that this is not great for shooting scenes with harsh, warm artificial lighting. The amber tint just makes it look warmer. Note the effects of halation, this is a repacked cine film.

Halation everywhere! The scene looks really warm, this is more a task for the Cinestill 800T.

What I said in the previous photo should not discourage you because it still looks okay when used under artificial lighting.

I don’t recall this place to have lighting that looks this warm, this is definitely caused by the amber tint of this film. It is worth noting that the grain is on the fine side rather than coarse.

You may find the need to use this for stage photography, it’s not going to be as fast as you want it to, but it can be a decent performer for such use if you have no other options.

I really like this photo a lot, the colors look spot-on, no weird warm tints or anything of that sort, perhaps it’s due to the bright bluish fountain cancelling it.

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Here are more photos, I can’t say that I have enjoyed shooting with it because I just do not know where I should put it. The Cinestill 800T is an obvious choice for shooting in the night under warm tungsten lights but this the Cinestill 400D performs in a mediocre way for either daylight or night photography. While it’s labeled as a daylight film, I liked the results more when using it for scenes with florescent lighting like the photo of the roasted pig and the metro station.

I don’t know what to think about this film, it’s not bad at all but Cinestill 400D has a tendency to behave differently depending on your subject and shooting conditions, it’s inconsistent to say the least. This will make it a difficult film to work with because of that unpredictable character, perhaps we just need to test it more and understand what it likes or don’t like. On the fun side, some people may enjoy this quirk since it offers a surprise at every situation. It may appeal to those people who like to shoot with cheap and old point-and-shoot cameras expecting something different each time. That’s not how I shoot and enjoy film, as a middle-aged man, I enjoy stability and predictability more than anything else. Can I recommend this to my readers? I don’t know, but my photos should help you decide if this is the right stock for you. There is definitely a market for this film, it’s just that you need to know what you’re getting into, and for its price I don’t think it’s something that I would want to experiment with again, I’d rather stick to something that I am familiar with, and maybe so should you, too. It claims to have a generous dynamic range, which I did see on some cases but it fell short of my expectations in some cases, too. While it’s claimed to be able to withstand a wide range of pushing-and-pulling, I did not get to test it myself, a roll of this film is enough to pay for a nice dinner for my family at a cheap restaurant close to my house.

That’s it for today’s article, did you like it? If you did, please share it with your friends! I would also like to thank those who support this site, it helps me purchase, develop and scan film, which is not cheap here. I do not have the same convenience and economy that I get from my trusted labs and shops in Japan but your support helps me offset the cost. That makes sure that the site continues to entertain people in the coming years, I have just renewed my hosting plan recently and the cost was partly covered by you, this is a media-heavy endeavor and it reflects in my hosting plan. Again, thanks again and do come back for the best content on the internet on the subject of repair and review of classic photography equipment!

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