Kodak UltraMax 400 Color Negative Film Review | All About Film

UltraMax is one of those films that I started using only for this series. Honestly, were I not making this series, I’d never pick it up. I find the image results fairly unexciting. To make this video, I shot more than 20 rolls in 12 different cameras. To give UltraMax 400 the fairest chance to really shine that I could I used a lot of high-end gear – Minolta Alpha 9, Pentax LX, Canon F-1, Nikon F2 and F5, Konica Autorex P, and a Kyocera T-Proof round out the good cameras that I used. With the SLRs, I used a lot of high-quality OEM lenses like vintage Nikkors, excellent Canon FDn lenses, and the Pentax Limiteds. I also shot in a Dubblefilm Show, an old Bell & Howell plastic camera, and a Robot 3 Action Camera. If I’m honest, using it across a number of classes and tiers of gear quality, I came out of the three years I used this stock off and on recognizing it has usability, but not liking it more than I did. So I did try to be as even-handed as I could with this review given that I’m not going to miss using UltraMax.

UltraMax is a fine film for some settings – casual photography, as a low-cost C-41, or as a decently good fast film for the money. UltraMax can absolutely create captivating and good images if you have a good creative vision.

So UltraMax does have a market and if you’re learning film, it’s a good and relatively forgiving color film to learn with. UltraMax is not likely to be the film you feel drawn to using your whole career as a film photographer. Also, it shouldn’t be. There are many films out there with more interesting performance characteristics. UltraMax seeks to be a forgiving film that makes your first mistakes less significant. This allows you to learn the basics without your learning curve ruining shots. So use UltraMax that way and have it help your springboard into better films that require you to have a better understanding of film photography before you use them. That is the highest and best use for Kodak UltraMax

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Video Index:
0:00 - Intro
0:12 - Skip the Intro
3:20 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Best Tips, Tricks, and Practices
5:27 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Image Characteristics
8:12 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Spectral Sensitivity
9:15 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Reciprocity Failure
10:37 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Exposure Latitude
11:40 - Kodak UltraMax 400 Review

References:
https://imaging.kodakalaris.com/sites...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabular...
https://www.imaging.org/site/PDFS/Pap...
https://veteriankey.com/film-processi....
https://www.tmax100.com/photo/pdf/fil...

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