Film Review: Cinestill Film
“Film is dead” is the #fakenews we are kept being fed yet if you frequent any purveyor of our beloved archaic tech, Cinestill Film is pretty much always in short supply. Even at a whopping ¥1800 (~$16 usd) per roll here in the land of the rising sun, photographers are flocking to suppliers and clearing out inventory. What’s the dealio?
If you were somehow frozen in Carbonite the last few years, Cinestill Film’s 800 Tungsten Xpro C-41 (short: 800T) is Kodak’s Vision 3 5219 motion picture cinema film (you can even see the 5219 markings on older negatives) but modified to allow it to be developed with the C-41 process as opposed to the Eastman Color Negative process. Cinestill converts the Kodak motion picture cinema film by removing the Remjet backing, a separate Anti-halation backing used to protect the film in motion picture cameras. Although the Vision 3 5219 film is originally rated at 500 ISO, the conversion to allow C-41 processing gives the film an effective rating of 800 ISO.

Cinestill has subsequently released Cinestill 50D which is essentially made in the same process as above albeit with Kodak’s Vision3 50D 7203. The “D” stands for daylight and is color balanced for 5500 K daylight. Both are available in 120 versions as well. Alright enough tech talk, let’s look at some examples already.

Cinestill 800T (35mm)

Due to the removal of the anti-halation backing, Cinestill Film exhibits a glowing effect on the image in areas with strong highlights. This layer is important to adsorb light passing through instead of reflecting it back to the sensitive layers of the film but gives Cinestill that distinct look. In more extreme light, a reddish tint to the glow can be found.







Cinestill 50D (35mm)







Cinestill 800t (120 film)



Cinestill 50D (120 film)



Precautions
As you can see Cinestill is quite sensitive to highlights so proper exposure is important. Per Brian Wright from the Cinestill team:
From our tests and user feedback, CineStill 800T is best rated at EI (Exposure Index) 800 in tungsten light when processed in standard C-41 chemistry. Though the original stock (Kodak 500T 5219) is recommended to be rated at EI 500 in tungsten light, many cinematographers and filmmakers regularly rate this film at 1000 speed with no push, due to this film’s amazing shadow latitude. Regardless, the ideal ISO/EI to rate this film at will always be somewhere between 400 and 800 without push processing. But remember, CineStill 800T is designed for C-41 processing, which causes a slight push in development and results in a denser negative. Thus, we have found 800 to be right in the middle of the ideal Exposure Index range.
I personally found overexposing* half to a full stop to be beneficial if you’re developing at box speed. If possible setting the ISO manually to 500 or 640 as other reviewers have done appears to be a good tip. I’d love to hear from others about their experiences as well.
There have been reports that in older Cinestill 800T rolls, the beginning few frames of a roll can exhibit weird streaks and light leaks. I can confirm personally that this is true. Best to stick to newer rolls as I’ve hadn’t run into this problem since.

I’ve also had poor results using Cinestill 800T with an ND filter in the day time. The below images were using a Kenko Pro ND-4. Would love to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences with ND filters.


As always, please feel free to comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with Cinestill film.
MN
*editor’s note – this was changed from a prior mistake
Hi,
Excited to see your article as I’ve just picked up my first roll of 800T for a neon lights project I’m doing this year.
I’m interested in the suggestion to under expose to ensure the highlights don’t get blown out. But maybe I’m not understanding the comment “I find underexposing half to a full stop to be beneficial if you’re developing at box speed. If possible setting the ISO manually to 500 or 640 as other reviewers have done appears to be a good tip.”
Wouldn’t setting the camera or meter to a lower value, over expose the film, as the meter / camera would be calculating for a less sensitive film, so exposing for longer, or at a wider aperture?
Thanks again, looking forward to shooting this for the first time.
Ben
That’s right, it has since been changed. Have fun and let us know how your shots went!
Hi there! Haven’t shot 800t yet but have shot 50d and it’s beautiful. One thing you said in the article with 800t is that you think underexposing it is helpful. However the method you used for under exposing, changing the ISO setting when shooting to under 800 is actually overexposing. I would imagine that like at color film it’s better to err on the side of overexposure anyways so I would assume that’s why your seeing better results when rated below 800. Thanks!
Yes thanks for noting that, it has since been changed!
Hi! Thanks for the article! Regarding the nd-filter shots, did you compensate for reciprocity failure? Some info on the factor of the filter, aperture and the shutter speeds etc. would be really helpful!
Hi Daniel, I did not since it was my understanding that it was only necessary for super long exposures. I can’t recall exactly but i just shot at what was metered through the lens, something like f5.6 at 1/1000
Just a note on the 800T .I find it works very well during day light if you shoot with an 85b at about 320 as you loss a bit more light due to the filter .. the picture look really nice
Have been using Cine Still on my sets (I am a director) to shoot photographs and the look the daylight films and tungsten film gives under professional movie lights is absolutely amazing.