The festive season is almost finished and a brand-new year in the form of 2023 is just around the corner. But before we pull down our decorations and banish our Christmas jumpers to the back of the wardrobe for another year, I thought it would be appropriate to go out with a bang. Outside of the big two, Kodak & Fuji(not)film, CineStill has really been grabbing headlines in the past few years for their releases of not just re-rolled cinematic film, but also this year bringing out a brand-new colour film emulsion. Something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The first two releases were 800T and 50D which are Kodak’s Vision 3 5219 & 5203 respectively, but with the anti-halation remjet layer removed. This allowed it to be processed in ordinary C-41 chemicals that could be done at any photo lab.

800T is a firm favourite amongst low light street photographers, with its high ISO, great colours and surprisingly high levels of detail. The ‘T’ stands for tungsten, as it colour balanced to make warm orange light look white. That means under normal white light everything appears slightly blue. This creative effect alongside the glowing halation around bright lights helps set it apart from other films on the market. Having never shot it before I realised that Christmas was the best time to test it out with all the bright and shiny decorations and market stools out on display. I shot the film in 35mm on my Nikon F100.

Being the biggest city in the UK (and one of the most impressive in Europe), London has always been a bit of a mecca for street photographers and the city comes further to life at Christmas, when I’d say it is easily at its best. Fortunately for me I could double up this trip to the big city with attending Photo Battle London, a photography event that aims to bring photographers from the area together to have fun and socialise. Despite its artistic and often collaborative nature, photography can often be a lonely and at times isolating career or hobby. Furthermore, most camera clubs tend to have much older members, so having something that consisted entirely of other younger people was a welcome change.

The area I covered was situated at the centre of the city: in and around Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Bond Street which had a large range of market stools, shop displays, wreaths, lights, and the odd neon sign which always comes to life with CineStill. Increasingly more and more of our artificial lighting, which was original tungsten, is being replaced by white LEDs, which in some ways renders a tungsten balanced film obsolete. However with the red glow of many of the Christmas lights I felt this film had a perfect colour rendition that had both the correct amount of saturation and rendered them very true to life. The glowing orbs of lights also contribute to a very cosy, festive feel and are in some ways truer to how our eyes perceive them. Skin tones of people (both lighter and darker) were also rendered well and didn’t suffer from any horrible colour casting.

Even after only shooting one roll I can see why this film is so beloved and one I will definitely be shooting again (despite its rather high price). Currently it is available in both 35mm and 120 roll film and I’m very keen to shoot it in the latter as I think I could create some real gorgeous images with the detail and bokeh of medium format on my Bronica SQ-A. I think with its High ISO and colour balance it probably is best left at a night-time (or low light indoor) film. Whilst I do need to do further testing, I thought daylight is probably best left to the similarly expensive Kodak Portra 800 or perhaps even Lomography’s own ISO 800 offering. And even then, ISO 800 is probably overkill unless you need a small aperture for large depths of field. An ISO 400 film like Portra is perhaps even CineStill’s new 400D would serve you better.

I hope you’ve all had a great time over the festive period, and I wish you all the very best start to 2023. Despite Kodak announcing yet another inflation busting price increase (17% from April 1st) and Fujifilm stocks continuing to dwindle, it should be another good year for me and film photography. I’ve got plenty of ideas to shoot across my different formats and a large amount of film saved up in my fridge and freezer. It’s never going to be a cheap hobby, but at least it’ll always be a fun and creative one.

If you live in the London area and are interested in joining in with the Photo Battle London, then check out the two Instagram pages below. Typically, the event is held on the last Wednesday of every month with the specific details and locations released online. Each week there is a theme announced on the evening and every who participates can enter an image by the following Friday to be part of the competition. The winner is chosen through several rounds of Instagram polls and receives a print of their winning image. I hope to see you down there soon.

Nick Minter (founder): https://www.instagram.com/nick.w.minter

Photo Battle London: https://www.instagram.com/photobattleldn

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