When Kodak released the Portra 400 a few months ago many of us speculated that a new Portra 160 would be just around the corner… and guess what? Kodak has announced today that Kodak Professional Portra 160 will be released starting in March 2011 in: 35mm, 120/ 220, 4×5 and 8×10… fantastic!!! Click on the audio-play button to listen to a 13 minute in-depth review of this new film (I tested 120) and be sure to look at the sample images provided below while listening to the audio… What a nice way to start the week!!!
Viva la Revolution- Stephen
Please click on the images below to see larger versions of each.
Figital Revolution 
sweet. I’m looking forward to this. I’m enjoying the new Portra 400.
Just to clarify. When you are saying that you are exposing film from 25 to 400 asa are you processing to the corresponing speed or are you processing as normal?
Processing normal… EI 400 is the outer limit for N.
Looks very interesting. Have you pressed Kodak on the posibility of a Kodak Film orientated scanner and software recently? They could clean up at this stage of the game if they offered the complete package. It’s the digitising of film that is the problem.
Pete
11 years later still the scanning isn´t very consumer oriented and fidgety.
Stephen – thanks for the review.
wowsa — another great film from kodak — looks fantastic… i’ve been pushing the new portra 400 to 1600 with great success — looks like this one will have similar flexibility / latitude… nice review…
Skin and other soft tones are what this film is made for. Great test man! Exposes all of the essential qualities of this film. Thanks!
Fantastic! I’m finally getting into 4×5 and will have a beautiful new Kodak color film to look forward to!
10 years later… I am into 6×7 via Mamiya RZ67 Pro II …2020
Me too with the RZ67 – 10.5 year later
Thank you for sharing the results.
I would love to see a grain comparison of Ektar , Portra 160 and Portra 400 on your Imacon.
Great review, thanks! By the way, how did yu scan the film? Thanks again!
Linear dry scan on an Imacon 646…
no download of the review? too bad.. dunno if I can listen to this.
shots look to have quality anyway~
I believe it is on iTunes as well…
Fantastic news, but there is an irony in there.
Kodak goes through the effort of making and marketing these wonderful films and touts how great they are for scanning. However, they were quick to buy and kill Creo, the company that made their Kodak branded Eversmart and IQSmart high-end scanners.
S****y scanners like Epson’s V700 do NOT do these films justice.
So, Kodak, you have this high-end scanning technology. Please do something more than proposing only one half of the equation. If you believe there is a market fort new films, surely your market research shows there is a demand for very good, realistically-priced scanners…
I’ve asked Kodak abou the scanner question and they just don’t think there is enough volume to make it work for their business model… but there are a few new options coming soon so stay tuned…
Very nice film! I hope they will sell it in Hungary as well. The market is shrinking…
Are you saying that a certain company has got involved in making an affordable high quality multi-format scanner?
I’m sad that Minolta left the photography business; they made very good scanners for the masses.
Kodak acquired that military grade drone vision/scanner tech (Creo, Petach Tiqva) after missing their digital bus ride. Repurposing Vision3 stock is a great idea, but Kodak is a “fatso” with too too much restructuring to do to stay afloat long term.
If they can’t see a viable financial model in offering decent scanning technology to those they are marketing these new films to, then maybe it’s time to sell/license the scanning IP to someone in the east who will be nimble enough to make and market the goods. (PIE in Taiwan for example)
I hope the new options you are alluding to will be on par with or better than what was available, what, 10 years ago?
Kodak has done a lot of restructuring and they are more nimble than I think you know… I also think the scanner markets ready for more options and there will be more later this year… Will it be on par with say an Imacon… Time will tell…
My previous Microtek i800 scanner was a clunker wrought with banding problems in any slide film scan, and CA with negatives. The ONLY good thing about it was that is came with Silverfast software and Kodak IT8 targets for negatives and slides.
Selecting the corresponding negative film make, type, and ISO configured the scanner to get the best from that film.
My new Canon Canonscan 9000f is incredible by comparison, and is ranked highly by one of the writer/testers at “Shutterbug”. It also now comes with Silverfast software. The only problem is that Silverfast needs to be prodded to get the new Portra films in their list of negative films for calibration. Ektar is already on the list.
The Canoscan 9000f is not expensive by comparison to the V700, but is limited in size for scanning negatives to MF – 6 x 22 cm if I remember correctly.
If you really need a great scanner now – then have a look at this model. If Kodak comes out with something special, then I would switch without reservation. It may be limited to film only, so the Canon would be needed for scanning prints and other material.
There are several decent scanners for a budget and silver fast does provide serval control options that make it interesting… more on this soon…
I’ve WAS a Kodak user for over 40 years. I’ve changed formats to MF with Pentax 67’s, and shoot mostly slide films – by you know who.
Kodak E200 WAS the mainstay film for us astrophotographers for many, many years. It has incredible red response, good blue, and great reciprocity. Exposures of nebulae could easily run 45 to 180 minutes with this film. Sunsets – same deal. Kodak has dropped it in 120, and now in 135 size. Trust me – this has really ticked off a lot of astrophotographers, and not helped Kodaks cause.
Ektar – to me is a dead film with regards to the new Portra line, from what I see. I’m indifferent to it under various conditions.
If Kodak cares about niche markets, or would do runs of specific films once a year so we could stock up – even two years – then please – consider this. Films like E200 – Tech Pan. Would I put down a deposit with a commitment – yes.
Will Kodak give a flying pickle about these small groups? Maybe, if enough people talk the talk. Will I switch back to Kodak and Portra films? A definite maybe – depending if they decide to bring out a film scanner and really get back into the fray.
Harley Davidson was able to bring itself out of the ashes. I have no doubt that Kodak can do the same. Kodak – get your thumbs out – get back to basics – tell the bean counters to shut up and put someone back in charge that can and will do what’s best for US – the film shooters.
Kodak is consolidating like Fuji and everyone else to a line that can be maintained for the long run… they already do run some special films but he ones you are looking for I doubt… on a side note I have 20+ rolls of TechPan 120 frozen… I will ebay them soon… I also do not believe the scanner solution will come from Kodak and there are several smaller companies who have new options due out this fall which make fit the needs or help bridge the gap…
Indeed, a better scanning option would make all of this more worthwhile. While I do like my V700 a lot, it doesn’t do justice to the pro scans at NCPS, Richard, or other places like that. I don’t think any home scanner will. But it would be nice if the margin was smaller.
As for film, I am very much an on-again off-again photographer. I don’t shoot every day or every week. I’ll shoot for three straight days and not again for 6 weeks. Film fits my lifestyle perfectly because it’s amazing quality, and I don’t feel like I’ve shelled out $2k for a digital camera body that I really only use a handful of times before the next one comes out.
Joe… the V700 with proper workflow and setup will equal and in many cases go well beyond the quality of a lab roll scanner… Richards does a good job but a tweaked V700 is capable of a lot more than people realize… a true leap is on something like an Imacon…
Cheers-
Stephen
What do you mean by a tweaked V700? Is this a software or hardware tweak?
Software, some hardware maybe and workflow…
Steven, i don’t want to ask too much of you, but a top ten or even top five general scanning techs would be a great series of podcasts. Thanks for all the great info you’ve put out there thus far.
Dylan- I am actually writing a small hybird handbook right now that will be a FREE Pdf download and will outline everything from scanning to caffenol to metering and the future of photo… in 50 pages or less… this handbook is to go hand and hand with the Film is Fun workshops as well as the articles here on FR… should be done in a few weeks…
cheers-
Stephen
Hi Steven, whatever happened to this Hybrid Handbook? Being from across the Pond, I am unable to attend your workshops, so I have been looking forward to your tips on scanning in particular and workflow in general.
Everything possible has gotten in the way of he Hybrid Handbook and at this point it is not looking like anything that will come out soon….
I want to echo the call for documentation and support for prosumer scanners. I use a Nikon Coolscan V and Vuescan for 35mm scanning. I am a definite “prosumer amateur” who strives for quality but also shoots for the love of it, not to sell pictures.
Workflow is everything, but we amateurs are unable to write off equipment and materials as business expenses. Those of us who love to shoot film, have hybrid worflows and have to do so economically; need help.
I think the passionate prosumer amateur analog shooter is an important part of the equation for keeping film viable in the long run. There just are not enough pros to do it alone!
Also, as an educator, if we want to engage young student shooters into analog, then tell them they are going to have to buy an Imacon to get quality results, they are going to rush out and buy a DSLR.
~Steve
In the Hybrid Handbook I will outline suggestions on getting the most out of film and a scanner and yes on a budget and with no budget. For additional information and real hands on I sugget the Film Is Fun Scanning workshop… more soon.
Cheers-
Stephen
Exquisite color rendition and amazing detail. I’m getting back into film again and will most definitely try this film in medium format.
But I will agree with so many posters here, that the weak link these days is the scanning situation. Without an Imacon at home or in the studio, it would be hard to get the full potential out of this film. I grew up with Kodak and made a career using their films but something happened to them in the 90’s and its been sad to see them slip so far in our (photography) world.
If we want film to continue for us, we need a high end $1000 scanner that will do what an Imacon can for those of us with out deep pockets.
Thank so much for this review of a great looking new film, I’ll be buying some soon!
I’ve written a lot here about the scanner issue and all I can say is that there are some solutions coming and stay tuned…
For me I have a Lab that I can rent if I want to do high end scanning but I did buy a cheap epson flatbed scanner. I have found with this scanner I can get good results for proofs and sharing on the web especially with kodaks color negs. Its not a great scan by any means but I still enjoy the look of it. I am sooo si happy about kodaks commitment with film. A year ago I was a little on edge about the future of Film. Now I know it will be around for some time and I realize it really is the best time be shooting film.
Do you think 800 is likely to come next and as a point of interest do you know why all the really fast colour negative film is daylight balanced?
The 800 I expect will not be updated any time soon. As far as I know all negative material is daylight balanced and only tran material was available in both… 64T for example. With color negative material it is so easy to color balance in post production or just do a simple filter if you know the light source and then tweak the results again in post production.
Where can i find the new Portra 160 in 4×5? any suggestions
Thank you so much for all of these reviews/ They are very helpful.
Can not wait to try the 160.
my F5 is going to love this! sweeeeet!!!!!!
i guess this is one more proof that film is going to stay.
Great! Do you over expose your film and if so by how many stops? Were any of the samples overexposed?
Overexposure is not an issue with this film… one or two stops is fine… just be careful with too much underexposure as it is not as forgiving as Portra 400.
Steven, thanks for the review, this film looks great. Have you tried any long exposures with it, I’m curious about it’s performance with exposures of several minutes. Thanks.
Several minutes will require testing and def color correction as their will be a color shift…
Hi Steve,
Thank you so much for your detailed review. I just shot over 10 boxes of the new Kodak Portra 4″ x 5″. I am scanning the negatives with a Flextight x1 Imacon. Do you know if the film preset for this new film is released yet? I am new to this scanner and am trying to figure out how to download or install the new preset so I can start scanning. Do you have any advice on where to get the new film preset? Thank you!!!
I usually just use the generic RGB profile and go from there as I am only looking for a neutral scan…. making a profile is not hard but it is also not all that perfect for every lighting situation either…
Great review. I have an Epson V500 and that appears to be the weak link between film and scanned image. Are there any tips around on how to properly scan film to maximise the result?
The V500 and the V750M are both great scanners are could be considered “the missing link” in the affordable hybrid workflow.