The Cinestill 400D Paradox

what color is it?

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Cinestill 400D is a mystery. I shot three rolls of 400 Dynamic through my Minolta X-700 SLR and Olympus XA point and shoot film camera but I still don't know what it's supposed to look like. This 35mm film is something else.

[matthewrygh]

Cinestill 400D is my favorite black and white film stock

[keithparker]

I really enjoy how the greens are very magenta and how saturated the unsaturated-ness is

[mcb]

Guys. It’s Vision3 250D. You are SUPPOSED to color grade it. That is the entire point of the film…

[Arrc_Larrc]

Tbh as a lab tech it really just depends whos scanning it how your colors are gonna come out with any film. Its funny to me when people say they shoot film for the "purity" of it. But originally you had to edit your pictures in the darkroom using filters. Doesnt make sense to me seeing people do reviews of certain films. Some have characteristics thatre different yes. But it really depends on if you nailed exposure or not otherwise the tones in your scans can get thrown off. Development is a big factor too.

[rockhills]

🤣I've yet to try 400D but that intro had me dying. I never noticed there were so many contrarian thoughts about this film!

[VariTimo]

I’m not an agrarian photographer, I’m a hunter.

I think it’s so funny because I’ve been getting these colors for five years now, shooting 800T in daylight with an 85 filter.
And yeah people can not get on the same page about what saturation, contrast, and especially green and magenta are.

Also I own a Frontier and it actually doesn’t have any LUTs specific to film stocks it applies. You can make “LUTs” with later software yourself and assign that to bar codes but you can still apply them to films without codes. The only thing that changes if it recognizes a bar code (which is only for Fuji films anyway) is that it handles the automatic color correction differently, which also only adjust the global CMY values like the operator would with the keyboard manually. I’ve heard often that the Frontiers can be inconstant from frame to frame with their auto correction because the balance each frame individually but at least with mine and the software I use it has been incredibly constant throughout and I have it on full correction with Hyper Tone. Hyper Tone is also the only correction the scanner does automatically that alters the curve. Anything else is just global CMY and density points. 400D just like 800T and 50D is just a funky film because it’s rem yet less movie stock pulled through the wrong developer and often underexposure. I don’t think the fact that it’s a cinema film with a slightly different film base is actually a problem for lab scanners. I’ve scanned ECN2 developed Vision3 on my Frontier no problem. CineStill is just fucked up cinema film.

I personally don’t edit my scans and haven’t before I had my own Frontier, when I got Frontier scans from a lab. I like the way film looks with global printer point adjustments only. But off course good scans are a great bases for edits.

[danieldelira]

One time i shot a roll of 400D and there were some images i could look at

[thatblkguy]

I'm only at the 2:30 minute mark, but this video is hilarious...cause that's exactly how it is. lol!!

[eesuuorundide]

only 3 minutes into this video and I'm cracking up already cause I've seen all these reviews. great video.

[ZessDevon]

Man, that intro made me smile

Tight presentation overall. Funny but never feels like you're wasting time

I would definitely watch more stuff in the vein of "Phototube says ___ so I tried it for myself" from you

[JonathanWagner]

That Lynch esc intro was a cinematic masterpiece and made my morning.

[MrHaydnSir]

SantaColor 100 and Cinestill 400D are my absolute favourites

[dylanpierce_]

Loved the content of this one. The explanations, images, & breakdowns were all depicted or described so well👏

[Awayne]

CineStill 400D in 35mm worked the best for me, 120 I had a lot of issues with it but probably due to my own error. It was something I been waiting for, hopefully CineStill keeps pushing out film stocks. Their B&W film is probably the best out of all of their film available.

[sabath]

Absolutely epic, nailed that first part of the video! 👏 Looking forward to more videos like this!

[srad.]

The production of this was stellar!! Absolutely loved it

[cloudedfilms]

great video! (and i haven’t even made it past the intro) love seeing the film community get creative and break the format of a “traditional” film photography video. can’t wait to see more

[szcallister]

No one does it like u. My favorite farmer around

[MrShanePhoto]

Worked in a fuji lab for 5 years. Ypu are 100% correct about how the frontier is reading this film. Non bar coded film is a pain in the ass. Anytime i got it i had to manually adjust the white balance on every frame to get some kind of consistency. With specialty films like this you're way better off scanning them yourself. More time consuming but accurate. Also every lab will be different depending on how well the maintain their developer. E6 and other positive films will mess with the c41 chemistry if too many are run through consecutively.

[ReimannPembroke]

This was a great video dude! Cool to see more film photographers in the KC area! I totally agree that the color cast is fairly inconsistent with 400D. The only thing I noticed consistently when I tested it was that it didn't really handle overexposure as well as other films. Who knows though. Everybody else might have a different experience depending on how they develop/scan.