I sold off a handful of boxes of Fujifilm Astia 100F Quickloads (pre-loaded 4x5 sheet film in disposable envelope) because I thought Astia was trash.  I kept getting really terrible colour shifts (all magenta actually), so didn’t think it was worthwhile.  Assuming all my Astia would come out that way, I got rid of them…only to find two sheets left over.  I shot the two, and needless to say, I really love the colours and hate myself.  Woe is me.

With tired eyes and dry mouths we climb.  Our limbs are cold and we need to get the blood back in them; we climb.  We climb and climb still until we don’t.  The sun will be up soon - magic words whispered into the colourless morning of dawn.  In an instant, it has arrived.  The sun, draping the west coast of the northern hemisphere in soft tones and warmth.  In a succession of exasperated sighs and furtive blinks golden hour morphed into blue hour until finally, all colours were shed and we were left blinded and in awe, staring straight into the sun.

Call me the hypewoman of Cinestill 400D because I was definitely a huge proponent during their campaign.  I signed up for the early-bird 120 release as well as the 100 sheets of 4x5.  Sometime in late-June or very early July I received the pro-pack of 400D and was stoked.  My parents were in town and I wanted to try test the first roll on them.  I shot these during mid-day with some in direct, harsh light, and others in the shade, and rated the roll at box speed.

So…I don’t like it.  It’s not good at box speed, the images look blown out in some places - re: halations galore!!! - and did not have that same cream-toned effect we were shown in the campaign sample images.  I’m not going to get into the specifics about the chatter behind the scenes about what Cinestill 400D is and isn’t, but all I know is that I have four more rolls, and I’ll only be shooting them at golden or blue hour and exclusively at 200 ISO, per Chris Visser’s top-notch suggestions.  Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly love that Cinestill is producing “new” film stocks and are committed to keeping film alive, but I don’t think the information about their film are entirely candid.  Anyway, I know if my results come out well when making the adjustments moving forward, I will continue to buy 400D.  How did your photos on this “new” stock come out?