Over the last couple of years one of the films I have used with good results is Kodak Gold 200.
This shot was taken last summer with my Voightlander and a 35mm 3.5 lens. We just walked around Ennis MT and took in some of the local town sights about an hour before dusk. To my eye Kodak Gold provides with good color saturation and has a pleasing white balance for landscape and people.
Gold has a fine grain if you don’t underexpose. I have run into a few difficulties in the shadows of some shots with Gold. You can get rid of most of the unpleasant grain with noise reduction in Lightroom, but better if you just expose for shadows and then turn the highlights down a bit. One thing to keep in mind is that this is an inexpensive film and it is 200 speed and not 100. Ektar has less grain but costs about 50% more and is 100 speed.
I find both of the above two shots to be quite attractive but the one shot with Ektar is just magic on a big high quality monitor. I took a series of about 15 of the west side of Zion National Park with Ektar and when I got them back from the developer I just went “wow”, the best shots I have even taken of Zion with regards to the red rock color.
As I said, Gold can go grainy on you when underexposed as you can see in the sky on the above two shots. But then the shot above that of the door is very sharp with little grain and the only difference is lower contrast in the scene and correct exposure on the door.
Gold can still be bought at just over $4.00 US in 36 exposure rolls here in the US. It is a good general all around film that does very well on skin tones. Ektar is a finer grain and is beautiful for landscapes, but puts red into skin color.
And here is Fuji Superia 400 for comparison.
To me Superia goes green and that is hard to control, and Ektar goes red and that can sometimes be a problem. Gold is more in the middle but you have to watch the grain.
And finally Kodak Ultramax 400.
All four of these are very good films. They have to be to have survived the purge of the last 10 years. Here are some tips.
Kodak Gold is a very stable film that is very versatile. It is not fussy at all but I would recommend no underexposing it too much or grain could become an issue. I prefer the Kodak Gold color rendition to Fuji. Fuji Superia has less grain and 400 speed. But it is also 50% more expensive on 36ex rolls.
Right now Kodak has two very good lower cost films in the color negative category. Gold at 200 speed & Ultramax at 400.
Bob Nuttmann 