Kodak Professional Gold 200 Color Negative Film (120 Roll Film, 5-Pack)

Always pleasantly surprised by gold 200! when i first photographed this i was very hesitant as it was the only thing left in the store i bought it at but after looking at the images I was very pleasantly surprised with the coloring of it. Cant really go wrong with the price either!

I have run a slew of Gold 200 through a couple of my cameras and overall I like the film. It has a bit more of a neutral look to it out of the gate than I'm used to seeing with Kodak but not nearly as cool as Fujifilm used to be when they made film. It handles whites very well, as you can see in one of my example photos of the stone columns and white flowers. But it warms up nicely in post if you want that classic warm Kodak look. It seems to have good latitude for pulling back highlights as well. My gripe with the film, and this is just me being nitpicky, is with the Professional name on it. This is just a bold faced lie. This is not a professional film and it's wrong for Kodak to market it as such. This has long been a cheaper grocery store film emulsion and the proof is in the pudding. It does not live up to the aspects of being a professional Kodak film like T-Max, Portra, and Ektar. So far all of my negatives curl lengthwise, making it difficult to get a good, flat scan. Secondly, the gain is a bit messy viewed 1:1 in comparison to another professional film like Portra or Ektar. In fact, this 200 speed film has larger and more prominent grain than Portra 400, which is a full stop faster than this film. Because there is more grain, sharpness takes a bit of a hit as well. As the metaphor goes, they've essentially put a pig in a dress. It's obviously less noticeable on medium format than it is on 35mm and I'm guessing they know this, which is why the 135 film doesn't have the word professional on it. The only reason it's more of a nitpick for me than an actual gripe is the price. They've at least (for now) kept the price affordable compared to their real actual professional film. If they were charging €60 for this like they're charging for Ektar, I'd be done with Kodak. But anyway, I like the film and will continue to shoot it because it's really the last affordable color film on the market thank to Kodak's monopoly. Just know you're not getting a truly professional film when you buy this.

I bought this film in fall 22' specifically for the vibrant and warm fall foliage we get every year here in upstate New York. This has that signature Kodak warmth to the images that honestly looks great for fall foliage. It has light-medium contrast which allows you to capture great shadow detail, and medium saturation. It's not as bold as Ektar and not as neutral as Portra. It's a very middle-of- the-road, all-around color negative film that lends itself well to landscape photography specifically, but I would imagine to other genres as well. I haven't had a chance to shoot portraiture with it yet so I can't speak to skin tones. As far as grain is concerned, the grain is there but it is not gritty or messy like grocery store film so it's not distracting and does not negatively impact the image. Overall I really quite like this film and at €45/5 rolls, this will likely be my new go-to color negative film since Portra and Ektar have inflated to absolute clownish prices.

I love this one for golden hour and just portraits in nature. Adds a wonderful warmth to the photo. High quality film stock.