I remember you posting about your favorite film stock, but I don't remember if you went into more detail. Why is it your favorite?
My favorite film stock is Kodak Aerocolor IV.
Aerocolor is an aerial survey film, and is not sold directly by Kodak as consumer product, or even in its “professional” line.
Instead Kodak sells large “master rolls” that are several inches wide and a few hundred or thousand feet long.
But it’s very popular for what’s called “re-spooling,” which is when a company takes an extant film stock that’s already manufactured, cuts it down, sometimes re-perforates it, and sells it.
So Aerocolor IV is available from a wide variety of sellers. Flic Film calls it Elektra 100, Santa Film sells it as Santacolor 100. Catlabs insists their color 100 is a special emulsion for them only but it’s pretty demonstrably aerocolor.
As for why I like it, it’s got a very bright palette, with medium contrast, and fine grain. Because it’s designed as an aerial survey film, it has a slight boost to red and a slight cut in blue in order to compensate for large areas of green foliage and blue from atmospheric haze. The result is a very warm, soft, dreamlike color palette.
The other thing that draws me to aerocolor is its massive amount of exposure latitude. Latitude is related to, though somewhat distinct from dynamic range. It’s the tolerance a film has for incorrect exposure. This tolerance can translate to a large dynamic range depending on how the film is shot and developed.
Because it has such a wide latitude I can shoot it both indoors and outdoors with a good dynamic range, it doesn’t require precise metering. This is in contrast to some other films currently on the market (looking at you, Harman Phoenix!)
Lastly, when properly filtered, aerocolor can be used as an inexpensive slide film. Ektachrome, the most widely available slide film on the market, is about 18-20 dollars a roll. Aerocolor is available from various respoolers for 10-12 dollars per roll.
Thanks for asking! I hope you enjoyed my bullshit rambles ♥️
