Portra 160 is the “professional” grade average speed color film from Kodak. This one roll of Portra 160 cost me as much as a triple pack of Gold 200, so was it worth it?
Processing and scanning was done at urbanfilmlab in Germany.
Compared to Gold 200 I found the colors to be a bit more saturated but at the same time more neutral and the grain a bit lower as well.
Compared to digital the blue parts of the frame have a rather strong green hue, but the other colors actually look very similar to digital (read: accurately captured):
This green hue is quite obvious though, as you will surely notice in many of the pictures here with a lot of blue sky and water:
I also like how neon lights look like with this film, especially after having seen what Cinestill 800T does to such light sources.
Now all else equal – meaning Portra 160 and Gold 200 would cost the same – which one would I pick? Probably Portra 160 for being a bit less grainy and with slightly better colors – at least to my eyes.
But all else isn’t equal and I don’t think Portra 160 is worth the significantly higher price compared to Gold 200.
Another issue is that Portra (not only 160 but also 400 and 800) is usually in short supply these days and therefore not always easy to get.
In 2022 no one shoots film for economical reasons anyway though, so if the results from Portra 160 appeal to you more: go for it.
Fruther Reading
- Analogue Adventures Landing Page
- Reviews of Leica M lenses
- Review: Voigtländer VM 75mm 1.5 Nokton
- Lens aberrations explained
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The way film handles highlights is just amazing
In general I think almost all films reviewed here so far render the lighting conditions more natural than digital images. Of course modern sensors offer huge dynamic ranges, but I often feel the urge to apply sometimes heavy adjustments to highlights/depths/lighting in general to recreate a natural look in post.
This is in contrast to my personal goal to “correct” as little as possible after shooting.
Unfortunately I don’t own any film based camera and as versatile (due to the short flange focal distance) rangefinder cameras are not that cheap I’ll be limited to adjustments in post and usage of film profiles, I guess.
And as always: very nice pictures, Bastian!
Thank you for this review.
How well do the colours survive the travel through the internet?
I don’t make prints, the negatives are being scanned by the lab.
In case you have a decent screen you see what I see.
I like shooting it at 80 iso. Better color and grain. Give that a try…
I also like this film in 120 format on my Yashica 124
“This one roll of Portra 160 cost me as much as a triple pack of Gold 200, so was it worth it?” Does this mean all pictures shown were taken on just one roll of film? If so I’m very impressed. Either way they’re really nice pictures and I always enjoy reading your reviews!
Yes, this is correct.
If I ever come across another affordable roll I might add additional pictures to this article in the future though 🙂
doesnt portra offer especially nice skintones?
I wonder what a comparison between the more affordable gold would result in when shooting a typical portrait style scenario.
For myself I don’t see relevant enough difference in that regard.
in my area P160 is $14 and G200 is $9. not sure where you can get 3 rolls of G200 for a roll of P160. But since nothing can beat P160 skin tone rendering it’s pretty clear choice when I’m doing more than snapshots.
Thank you so much for sharing these impressions of film look. I try to rebuild that in RAW converter. Making styles. Especially the comparison pictures between film and digital. I love the film look a lot. And see that many pictures work even with much less dynamic range. So I reduced that also in my styles. Playing with that. Thank you and please go on like that.
Glad to hear someone is enjoying these articles 🙂
Also enjoying the film articles – thanks for doing these! 🙂
Have to say though the cyan tint in the sky is mostly a result from the processing of your scans, not baked into the film. Even the jpgs shared here can be mostly corrected with a slightly cooler color temperature and a slight shift to magenta. Also makes the building colors more accurate.
If you have the option of getting raw scans from the lab, I can recommend Negative Lab Pro for the conversions. Well worth the money 🙂
I’d love to know where you get your film from then, if your 1 roll of Portra cost as much as a 3-pack of Kodak gold..
Colour negative film has been scarcely available for months. A few months ago, the “professional” films, like Portra, were still relatively easily available, but even those are scarce right now.
The “budget” films have been rarely available for quite some time now, and when they are it’s a “blink and you miss it” kind of deal.
Right now, I’m looking at fotoimpex.com, and a roll of Portra 160 is €13,78, and the 3-pack of Gold is €23,80. The 3-pack however, isn’t available. A single roll of Gold is €8,59.. and is available right now! If you want one, order one asap, because they’ll be gone soon, believe me.
In general, you might as well go with the “pro” films since they are marginally more easily available.
In eastern Germany it is still possible to get a 3-pack of Gold 200 for ~13€ in drugstores.
By my experience: all the online shops you can forget about.
Hi Bastian, I find these analog film reviews really helpful. I wish I could see some of these images in a higher resolution.
I live in Berlin, and the situation there at the moment is as Thomas describes it. In some cases, fancy prices are required.
Your articles may have made film so attractive again for many people that you can hardly get one anymore😉.
I was really happy to get one roll of Porta 160 and cant wait to try it out.
If there is more demand I will consider uploading higher res versions of these pictures to a Flickr account 🙂
I live in the the US and I feel like kodak gold 200 is actually lower in supply, and usually sold for 14+ bucks a roll on amazon; in comparison, I can get portra 160/400 for 13 bucks a roll at the local camera store.