Canon ELAN 7NE – Kodak Portra 800

Canon EF II 50mm 1.8

This is the first roll of Portra 800 I’ve ever shot, and I want to say from the start that I love it. I had developed some rolls of Portra 400 just before shooting this one, rolls that I had shot on this same camera back in 2018, and I sort of really hated all of it. I don’t know if it was the film stock, how it was handled or stored, the extreme delay in processing, or even the state of my developing chemicals – all of which are likely contributing to some varying degree – but it just came out bad. I’m having a hard time getting the color right in the scans, and the shots sort of feel lifeless, like the dynamic range isn’t really there. Not sure why.

This Portra 800, on the other hand, was magic. I got a decent hit rate, but what’s more, this was the first roll to have more than just a few frames that I thought were really truly “good”. In fact, I count my hit rate as 26/36, but when I was first drafting this post I almost only included 17 frames because I consider them some of the best I’ve ever shot, and including the “passable” frames felt like it almost detracted from those highlights. In the end, I think the narrative of the roll is served by seeing more rather than fewer. I got the color, clarity, and texture that I want from film out of this stock and I’m eager to shoot my next roll to confirm my love of Portra 800.

Hit Rate: 26/36 (72%)