A Side by Side Film Test: Portra 400 vs Portra 800

Today FIND team member Austin conducts some side by side tests of two Kodak film stocks. Portra 400 and Portra 800. Tune in as we explore how these films handle various lighting situations including low light. Did one perform better than the other? The results may surprise you.

Which film won? What should be next? You Decide! Leave a comment telling us what you would like to see.

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[irvinwilson]

It's probably hard to imagine today the pressure for manufacturers to 'bump" the stated film speed of a film back in the day when film was all there was - no digital, no phones, etc. If you look at their guides that get packed with the film it can be seen that Portra 800 is really closer to a true 400 speed film and Portra 400 is more like 250 or 200, thus why everyone "rates at" those speeds instead of box. It's not really so much a hack as simply acknowledging what the speed of the film actually is. Very nice demo!

[claytonmoss]

Nice video, as a newwer film shooter it was really helpful seeing seeing all the stops over/under and how well the film performs.

[ryanmckm]

Truly, as a photographer who works with models from all skin tones thank you for using models of different skin tones. I'm watching this video because I have a shoot in a couple weeks and I'm looking for film, but I want to make sure the film will handle darker skin

[matt-lang]

This is fantastic, I love how methodical you guys were with the comparison; it's super useful to have such a clean analysis of the 400 and 800 Portra options!

[RyanJFleet]

This was an incredible example and loved how in depth this went. You have the chapter markers for viewers who want to skip around too. Really love this educational format. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

One thing that would be helpful is knowing what scan settings you used for these images based off your scanning form on the website. An in depth video on how to get the best out of scanning from your team and what notes to add etc... could be a highly valueable video. I see some blog posts about this but I'd love a more in depth video similiar to this about how to achive certain looks.

For example you went over the scan settings briefly in this video and you said everything was scanned on the Noritsu and scanned at netural. Based on your scanning form I added the questions below just to get clarification.
These were standard scans with minor exposure/color adjustments in lightroom? or is that a premium scan?
What size were they scanned at, Regular, Large, Ultra?
Color, Exposure, and Contrast Preferences were all Neutral?
In the notes section - were these scanned for Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows?

[dgs_productions]

Great video y’all! And the comment about taking into account different skin tones (which companies never really did) shows that you guys are educated and smart 👍🏼

[TheFilmFellow]

What a refreshingly welcome opening statement about folks with melanin! Instant subscription!

[komagome]

Very interesting and well done video. Thank you !

[coolbluejosh]

shoutout taylor bruh cus whenever i see a photo of my face mad under exposed with no detail i die a little 😂

[randallstewart]

As film comparisons go, the procedures here are far more technically accomplished than any I have previously seen on YT. Congrats. What I find a bit surprising is that that the 800 overall held up better to pushing and pulling. On the other hand, all you have to do is watch the grey scale tones on the color charts to see that these films color shift noticeably with even minor over or under exposure, contrary to the massive amounts of mythology which is pushed on YT to the contrary. In fairness, I suspect that you'd see the same shifts in other similar films. Why folks shoot expensive, high speed color films like these in open sunlight or daylight remains unexplained, but I attribute it to the copy-culture herd instinct which is so common on YT. One negative comment: He is not using his incident light meter properly, so that may be effecting the results a little. You do not recess the incident dome in open daylight, as that defeats its reason to exist, and you point the meter from the subject to the camera, not up at the sky or down at the ground (as specifically suggested). However, as long as he makes the same errors consistently, the results should be valid overall. The technically correct metering procedure would be to use a reflection meter, measuring just the 18% grey patch of the grey scale card.

[SaxSpy]

I saw the first shot of the mountains and knew it was in Utah! Awesome video

[ianharper]

Thank you for a very professional set of experiments and review.

[Seimstudios]

Great test. What confused me is the way you reversed terminology and for half of the video I was wounding what was up.

When you said -2 for example I thought you were pulling but but you meant -2 exposure and in developing terms that a push, or +2. You might want to clarify whether your terms are in camera or using standard developing terminology for future vids. I finally figured it out when I saw your settings.

Thanks for this.

[liamvlogshd]

Just off the hand gestures you can tell this a knowledgeable guy

[rcmanoj]

Conclusion: Don’t underexpose film !! Ever !! Great video. Thank you…

[micahchambers]

“As a photographer its really important to know how to shoot everybody”😂😂





All jokes aside I love that you guys are taking into account different skin tones and equipping folks with the info they need to get the shots they want! Ive never seen anyone else make the same comparison!

[freestyleskyline]

I love the idea and the concept, but I also feel like maybe part of it happens because you're compensating for the differences in. I don't think you should. They should be set on the exact same settings f-stops and shutter and everything and that show the difference in how the isos handle the exact same settings.

[kwangwestrate]

Great video!! Very interested in that Zeiss lens you talked about but couldn't find it anywhere :(

[bobo.camera]

Were these scanned with the photometry function and then matched for density? If not, then Noritsu did auto color adjustments frame by frame so it’s hard to know if any color discrepancies is due to the Noritsu or inherent to the film.

[brunoalves-pgeo]

I just bought my first film roll and to my surprise I recieved a portra800 instead of the portra400 I thought I ordered. Turns out when I search the website for portra400 the first result is actually 800 and i didnt even notice.
But from this video it seems they're pretty similar.