After three long years I finally did some film photography last month. I picked up a film stock I had not previously shot with: Fujifilm 200. The name sounds suspiciously like Fujicolor C200 but this one is different and has none of the under- or over-exposure characterstics that would normally give C200 away. It looks warmer overall, almost like Kodak Gold … almost. If you wanted to save a pound, you could just get this new Fuji 200 stock, overexpose it, and call it a day. Nobody could tell unless they used a loupe or were fantastically nerdy about film stocks. Fujifilm 200 skews green when under-exposed, and although some praise this film for having great latitude, I did not find it exceptional. Highlights blow out pretty badly for film, although it is terrific by digital standards. But if you did under-expose, you would not have much to worry about. Although it gets muddy, the shadows still remain characterful rather than getting lost in punchy blackness as might be the case with less forgiving films. I used a Canon FTb QL for these, but metered the light separately. I do plan to shoot with Kodak Gold 200 next, but not before I have shot my favourite in-production stock Ektar, as close as I can hope to get to the legendary Kodachrome. Keen-eyed readers may notice the swirly bokeh in the first picture above. This is thanks to the Helios 44M, which is one of my favourite vintage lenses despite its having a much narrower focal length than I am used to. I came away with 21 usable exposures out of 36 (this excludes five light leaks, about eight backup exposures, and two terrible misses I would rather not show). You can find the entire album in my photography portfolio. Don’t want my frequent notes in your RSS reader? Subscribe to the essays-only feed. Subscribe to my newsletter • Reply by e-mail • Support with just £1 • Sign my guestbook • Send a webmention