There is a short story by Orson Scott Card about a beleaguered group of photographers sinking into depression as film becomes completely unavailable in a digital age. While that is a distant prospect, if it is ever to come about, I am nonetheless feeling some sympathy towards those hapless fellows. It seems that Kodak has decided to discontinue my favourite colour film: their High Definition series, formerly called Royal Gold. Impossible to find in England or Ireland, it is now no longer stocked by any of the Vancouver photography stores that I have dropped into to talk shop with the employees.
After a period of time, a film becomes very familiar to you – even friendly. You know what conditions are likely to make the sky blow out; you know when a portrait really needs a bit warmer light; you know how complex patterns will be rendered on the film grain. While I certainly cannot claim to have mastery of any film, HD100 and HD400 were certainly the colour emulsions I understood best. All my colour photos from the trip to Europe with Meghan Mathieson and company were shot on it; likewise, all my colour shots from the Arizona Road Trip, Prague, Malta, and many other places.
The High Definition films were versatile, reliable, and attractive. Their passing will be lamented by me, among many others.
UC400 portra is just as good as HD400 ever was, and is not actually more expensive, it’s just that it comes in rolls of 36 only. There are numorous other portra emultions of differing colour rendition that are worth trying. Also, I never heard of HD100? Perhaps you mean HD200?
Re: HD100
I can’t see any photos tagged with this film in my Photo.net archive, so I must have dreamed it. T-Max 100 is a great film, however.
As for UC400 Portra, I will seek it out in Oxford.
Portra will likely be very expensive in oxford, but likely available through a number of mail delivery services (which offer processing vouchers aswell). The cheapest place to get it is US walmart stores. 11$ for 3 rolls of 36.
did you take this photograph? It’s phenomenal
Tristan,
I did take it, up on Dam Mountain. I am glad you like it. It has a kind of calendar look to it, no?
Kodak Quietly Begins Directly Selling Kodak Gold and Ultramax Film Again
https://www.404media.co/kodak-quietly-begins-directly-selling-kodak-gold-and-ultramax-film-again/
Kodak quietly acknowledged Monday that it will begin selling two famous types of film stock—Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak Ultramax 400—directly to retailers and distributors in the U.S., another indication that the historic company is taking back control over how people buy its film.
The release comes on the heels of Kodak announcing that it would make and sell two new stocks of film called Kodacolor 100 and Kodacolor 200 in October. On Monday, both Kodak Gold and Kodak Ultramax showed back up on Kodak’s website as film stocks that it makes and sells. When asked by 404 Media, a company spokesperson said that it has “launched” these film stocks and will begin to “sell the films directly to distributors in the U.S. and Canada, giving Kodak greater control over our participation in the consumer film market.”