The roll of Kodak Ultramax from which these photos (and those of recent and coming days) have been taken was the first I’ve ever shot of this particular film stock. I’ve been quite surprised at the strong, vivid colour in the pictures. I’m not sure if this is just how the film looks, or if my Negative Lab Pro settings have enhanced the saturation in some way (I’ve not purposely boosted the saturation).
The reds, in particular, really jump out at me, especially in these two pictures of the street-food vendor, Falafel Guys, and the traditional red British phone boxes. There’s even a hint, daresay it, of Kodachrome in those reds and blues.
Some of the effect comes, I think, from the vignetting that the Z135 has a tendency to add to pictures, but that’s not all of it. Whatever the case, I have another three rolls of Ultramax waiting to be shot. I’ll not hesitate to use it again.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Kodak Ultramax. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted using Negative Lab Pro.
Taken 14 October 2023.
Steel City Snapper photography 
I like Ultramax’s color palette, but I don’t like its grain structure at all. Its price has also gotten straight-up stupid. Honestly, I wish the 90s-era Gold 400 was still available, and that consumer film was still priced like, well, consumer film.
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Thanks P. I don’t mind the grain I’ve got in these shots. It’s relatively unobtrusive for a 400asa film.
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I don’t dislike grain. Heck, Delta 3200 is one of my favorite film stocks. I just dislike the structure of Ultramax’s grain for some reason. It’s not its size or anything else, just it’s structure. It looks too much like digital noise to me. It’s not very organic looking. Gold 200 and ColorPlus, on the other hand, have very organic looking grain, as does Portra 800 and all the still-existing (made in Japan) Fujifilm color stocks. It’s a shame, because as I said, I really like Ultramax’s palette, and it does very good even under artificial lighting.
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typo correction: its* structure. (dang cell phone typing…)
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I’ve never seen such reds from Ultramax!
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Yeah, I don’t know what I did to it. I didn’t add any saturation or anything, so was pretty surprised to see such vivid tones. I’ll not be disappointed if I get similar results again.
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