As I write this Kodak ColorPlus 200 happens to be a very reasonably priced reel of colour film. It's been around the £6 mark forever but right now it's going for between £3.50 and £4.50 a reel at AnalogueWonderland.com. As one of the more reasonably priced reels, it is a great choice for anyone shooting film for the first time. I believe it was the first reel of colour film I ever shot when I picked up film photography back in 2007. What I wouldn't give to locate all my old images... Oh, well. On with the review!
Being a good film for beginners this film has a good exposure latitude. On top of this, the colour reproduction is said to be very good meaning: the images that you produce using this film are going to have colours that are fairly close to reality. This is demonstrated well here in this image taken in a bar. The detail in the plane of focus is fantastic and the grain, more noticeably in the background blur, is aesthetically pleasing without taking away from the foreground.
There are some tiny spots of white which could be attributed to a dusty lens or camera and there are no other visible artefacts in the image that come from the film itself.
This film seems to deal better when used in situations with powerful artificial lighting or on a sunny day where the subject is lit via direct sunlight. Lower lit situations cause the image to be clamped due to underexposure. The shadows are not quite as rich and the highlights lack detail. This, however, can start to look stylised so it's not of any great concern.
In this image of a mountainous landscape taken in Chamonix, France the whites have been captured very cleanly whereas the blacks are not as rich as they could be. This, however, may be down to the environment reflecting back onto the mountainside as the blacks in the tree areas toward the bottom of the image are fairly dark. Overall I like the washed-out look to the colours and tones that brings a vintage feel to all of the images. If I wanted to avoid this, I would, in future not have overexposed the image as this is known to desaturate the image to an extent.
Closing Comments
All told, I am a big fan of Kodak ColorPlus 200 despite colour being misspelt. At such affordable value and with tremendous results it's easy to see why the film is so popular. I look forward to shooting another roll very soon and with the spring now in full swing it's as good a time as any. See-ya-round!
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