Love the zoom ins so we can really see the grain structure and finer details!! Lol when you did the guess-the-stock portion I guessed Portra was Lomo 100% of the time. At least its consistent. Thanks very much for an awesome video and awesome experiment!!
It's interesting how the differences between the images kind of melt away when you zoom in like that! I hope the UA-cam compression doesn't ruin the fine details too much!
Love the analysis in this one, Daren! This was lots of fun. 100% with you on the differences being virtually irrelevant... but still gonna shoot Porta for things that matter 😂
Thanks, Dmitri!! That film curl of Lomo 800 is just something else! Hopefully the Portra stocks come down in price to match the Lomo ones soon so we can start using that more often.
The data sheets for Ultramax 800 and Portra 800 are the same. Assuming the datasheets are correct, the best guess is that portra is higher quality in some or multiple ways such as halide size and distribution, dye quality, base quality (we know the bases are different, manufacturing processes, and/or post-manufactoring quality control. Or they are completely the same but portra has a thicker base. I had the same thought regarding Kodak producing a film specifically for disposable cameras. Very unlikely. For anyone still reading, I will give you a hint to a film insight: a popular and pricey discontinued film stock most likely followed the same fate as portra 800 / funsaver 800 today. ;) And a not as useful tidbit: Portra 800 and Portra 400 aren't really siblings, more like cousins. Their datasheets show quite different spectral-sensitivity curves - aka colors render differently. Portra 800 is not just more sensitive Portra 400. This is the same for Ultramax 400 vs 800, and thus Ultramax 400 and Portra 400.
Dmitri has some comparisons with Aurora 800 on his blog post that was part of this experiment - I didn't have access to the negatives, so I wasn't able to compare them for this process. But it seems to be VERY similar to the Portra 800. Definitely it isn't a remjet-removed cinema film.
I have a bunch of film stocks available in store here that I have no idea what they're worth. Like Vetrokam 400, which I thought would be the poor man's Cinestill 400 but it turns out to look quite different (I bought one roll and I'll be sending it to the lab today). Vibe 200-400-800 , from the examples I saw online, they look close to Cinestill and are like 12.50, about as expensive as rolls of Lomo. Not a fan of Cinestill particularly, it's just an alternative to Lomo 800, although costs about the same... Vetrokam too, except it has only 27 exposures (but the end of the roll was at 26 for me). I just started film photography, so I was curious to try these stocks with my style (and I'm most likely going to stick with Fuji400/Kodak Ultramax)
The only thing I can identify in the blind test with 100% accuracy is which two photos are shot in Lomo/Portra 800. I just pick two photos that are alike
The funsaver and portra stocks are easy to pick out, actually. Of the four stocks shown, the funsaver has the most greenish tint, the portra being a close second. I've been able to correctly identify those two in all of the examples except the last one, where I could have sworn the portra was the rightmost picture.
This is great, but i feel like the automatic element of Negative Lab Pro have tainted the results too much. i would like to see these manually inverted with identical settings to see how they truly compare. As it stands, they're clearly very different stocks to me.
That's why I reached out to the founder of negative lab pro. He was able to guide me on a process that ensured the conversion curves were inverted exactly the same across the different images. Dmitri at Analog Cafe also did a test using his own inversion program that he custom coded. You should check out his analysis as well!
@@LearnFilmPhotography Yeah I did notice you pointed that out. But that is the only variable left, right? Same camera body, same lens, same exposure settings during shooting and scanning. If the post processing is also identical, why do the stocks look so different if, like you say, they are the same film stocks? Surely if this is the case and there are no variables they should look identical. If Negative Lab Pro is indeed making the exact same adjustments, AND the film stocks are actually the same, they should come out the same. This obviously isn't the case so the only explination remaining is that they are indeed different film stocks. Which I also find hard to believe, but surely the evidence presented proves they're different. What other possible answer is there to why they all look so different?
@RoryChapman my understanding is that a different film will have different sensitivity to different parts on the spectrum. Meaning if they're truly different films, one color, like the reds, will be darker on one film stock than they would on another. What I noticed in the films is that the spectral sensitivity was the same between images (except the Fuji 400) - shadows were just as bright, the grains looked nearly identical. The only difference was a little bit of white balancing, which likely has to do more with the thickness of the film base rather than a difference in the emulsion. That's just my view though. Dmitri and Yvonne and others come to different conclusions when looking at these images, which I'm actually quite happy to see!
@@LearnFilmPhotography I've watched Yvonne's video, which brought me to yours and I've read what's freely available on Dimitri's website. I'm really fascinated by this whole thing, and actually interested in all the investigations into what films are what when they're repackaged. Partly because I just want to know and partly because i'm always trying to get the cost down. This one is particularly grabbing my attention though. i absolutely agree that sensitivity to light is one difference, but colour rendition, at least from my experience, also plays a big part. Original Fuji C200 was different in colour rendition than other films from that time. Fuji in general is famous for its green tones being different from other stocks. Agfa Vista 200 produces very different reds than other stocks, like Kodak for instance. and it goes on. Dimitri's article seems to suggest that NLP settings were as controlled as possible, but there was still some automatic changes going on that couldn't be changed. This could account for colour changes, but without seeing a fully manual conversion, it's impossible to know. If NLP is the only variable here, I would want to see a conversion without it. Manual conversion in Darktable maybe where you can input the numbers yourself. Or some form of manual photoshop conversion. Really it's the only way to know becasue they look different to my eyes, even with the adjustments you made, they look like different stocks. But like you, i find that hard to believe.
Love the zoom ins so we can really see the grain structure and finer details!! Lol when you did the guess-the-stock portion I guessed Portra was Lomo 100% of the time. At least its consistent. Thanks very much for an awesome video and awesome experiment!!
It's interesting how the differences between the images kind of melt away when you zoom in like that! I hope the UA-cam compression doesn't ruin the fine details too much!
Love the analysis in this one, Daren! This was lots of fun.
100% with you on the differences being virtually irrelevant... but still gonna shoot Porta for things that matter 😂
Thanks, Dmitri!! That film curl of Lomo 800 is just something else! Hopefully the Portra stocks come down in price to match the Lomo ones soon so we can start using that more often.
The data sheets for Ultramax 800 and Portra 800 are the same. Assuming the datasheets are correct, the best guess is that portra is higher quality in some or multiple ways such as halide size and distribution, dye quality, base quality (we know the bases are different, manufacturing processes, and/or post-manufactoring quality control. Or they are completely the same but portra has a thicker base.
I had the same thought regarding Kodak producing a film specifically for disposable cameras. Very unlikely.
For anyone still reading, I will give you a hint to a film insight: a popular and pricey discontinued film stock most likely followed the same fate as portra 800 / funsaver 800 today. ;)
And a not as useful tidbit: Portra 800 and Portra 400 aren't really siblings, more like cousins. Their datasheets show quite different spectral-sensitivity curves - aka colors render differently. Portra 800 is not just more sensitive Portra 400. This is the same for Ultramax 400 vs 800, and thus Ultramax 400 and Portra 400.
Great video! Really interesting and engaging. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!!
does anyone have an answer to what Aurora 800 original stock really is?
Dmitri has some comparisons with Aurora 800 on his blog post that was part of this experiment - I didn't have access to the negatives, so I wasn't able to compare them for this process. But it seems to be VERY similar to the Portra 800. Definitely it isn't a remjet-removed cinema film.
I can always guess which one is the funsaver (not taking into account the fuji), because it has lower contrast than the lomography and portra.
I have a bunch of film stocks available in store here that I have no idea what they're worth.
Like Vetrokam 400, which I thought would be the poor man's Cinestill 400 but it turns out to look quite different (I bought one roll and I'll be sending it to the lab today).
Vibe 200-400-800 , from the examples I saw online, they look close to Cinestill and are like 12.50, about as expensive as rolls of Lomo.
Not a fan of Cinestill particularly, it's just an alternative to Lomo 800, although costs about the same... Vetrokam too, except it has only 27 exposures (but the end of the roll was at 26 for me).
I just started film photography, so I was curious to try these stocks with my style (and I'm most likely going to stick with Fuji400/Kodak Ultramax)
The only thing I can identify in the blind test with 100% accuracy is which two photos are shot in Lomo/Portra 800. I just pick two photos that are alike
The funsaver and portra stocks are easy to pick out, actually. Of the four stocks shown, the funsaver has the most greenish tint, the portra being a close second. I've been able to correctly identify those two in all of the examples except the last one, where I could have sworn the portra was the rightmost picture.
Hi I found some Kodak tx and t max the film expired in 2020 could I use and do u have video on using exp film ? Ty
Black and white filme expired in 2020 should be okay to use without making any changes. I don't have a video on that just yet!
I got three right. I think i like the lomo best in all but tbe brightest shots
Awesome! That's better than I did!
This is great, but i feel like the automatic element of Negative Lab Pro have tainted the results too much. i would like to see these manually inverted with identical settings to see how they truly compare. As it stands, they're clearly very different stocks to me.
That's why I reached out to the founder of negative lab pro. He was able to guide me on a process that ensured the conversion curves were inverted exactly the same across the different images.
Dmitri at Analog Cafe also did a test using his own inversion program that he custom coded. You should check out his analysis as well!
@@LearnFilmPhotography Yeah I did notice you pointed that out. But that is the only variable left, right? Same camera body, same lens, same exposure settings during shooting and scanning. If the post processing is also identical, why do the stocks look so different if, like you say, they are the same film stocks? Surely if this is the case and there are no variables they should look identical.
If Negative Lab Pro is indeed making the exact same adjustments, AND the film stocks are actually the same, they should come out the same. This obviously isn't the case so the only explination remaining is that they are indeed different film stocks. Which I also find hard to believe, but surely the evidence presented proves they're different. What other possible answer is there to why they all look so different?
@RoryChapman my understanding is that a different film will have different sensitivity to different parts on the spectrum. Meaning if they're truly different films, one color, like the reds, will be darker on one film stock than they would on another. What I noticed in the films is that the spectral sensitivity was the same between images (except the Fuji 400) - shadows were just as bright, the grains looked nearly identical. The only difference was a little bit of white balancing, which likely has to do more with the thickness of the film base rather than a difference in the emulsion. That's just my view though. Dmitri and Yvonne and others come to different conclusions when looking at these images, which I'm actually quite happy to see!
@@LearnFilmPhotography I've watched Yvonne's video, which brought me to yours and I've read what's freely available on Dimitri's website. I'm really fascinated by this whole thing, and actually interested in all the investigations into what films are what when they're repackaged. Partly because I just want to know and partly because i'm always trying to get the cost down. This one is particularly grabbing my attention though.
i absolutely agree that sensitivity to light is one difference, but colour rendition, at least from my experience, also plays a big part. Original Fuji C200 was different in colour rendition than other films from that time. Fuji in general is famous for its green tones being different from other stocks. Agfa Vista 200 produces very different reds than other stocks, like Kodak for instance. and it goes on.
Dimitri's article seems to suggest that NLP settings were as controlled as possible, but there was still some automatic changes going on that couldn't be changed. This could account for colour changes, but without seeing a fully manual conversion, it's impossible to know.
If NLP is the only variable here, I would want to see a conversion without it. Manual conversion in Darktable maybe where you can input the numbers yourself. Or some form of manual photoshop conversion. Really it's the only way to know becasue they look different to my eyes, even with the adjustments you made, they look like different stocks. But like you, i find that hard to believe.
I wish they sold Lomo 800 in single rolls. The 3 pack that's sold here in Germany is too expensive for me.
Does it cost more there than Kodak Portra 800?
@@LearnFilmPhotography here in the US Lomo 800 for me is more expensive than portra 800 in 35. Portra runs me $17.75 and Lomo is $19.30.
@eguanzon17 that's really strange! Is that from a site like B&H? Or a local store?
@@LearnFilmPhotography i was using a local store for reference but B&H has the same price
Aurora 800 is the cheapest of the bunch
I’ve always felt that the Lomography is just off spec portra
On lomography’s site a 3 pack of 800 is almost $20.00 a role. Not good
That is very expensive! It's similar in Canada for the 35mn film - the 120 is getting very cheap, though.
Dirty hands are the best
It's all just Portra and Gold in fake mustaches and geisha costumes isn't it