If you're up for some low light color film photography, and you want to shoot at box speed, your options for high speed film stocks may be limited. My facts may not be right on this, but as far as I can tell, for film stock currently in production your only options will be Kodak Portra 800, CineStill 800, or the Lomography Color 800. Although these films are fantastic stocks to shoot with, I always move towards the cheaper Lomography 800. My affinity to it comes not only from its friendly cost, but also its unique colour characteristics and overall picture quality it provides.
The Lomography website has always been my goto when I need to see how shots from some particular camera looks like. For some inexplicable reason, I had really never bothered to look in detail at their shop. I thought all they sold were expensive cameras (which is not how I roll). But I should have known better. With most film manufacturers discontinuing films, it makes sense for a modern day film camera manufacturer—or even vendor—to provide the required consumables for their customers (rolls of film in this case). Well, as these things go, I somehow picked up from the Internet that Lomography makes films. I checked out their store, and I bought samples of their color 100 and color 800 out of curiousity.
I'll leave the discussion of the Color 100 (which is also fantastic by the way) for another day. But this post is for the Lomo 800: A film stock that led me into this wonderful world of low-light night photography. I kept wondering why I hadn't checked out Lomography's store.
I wish I had the words to describe the feelings the Color 800 evokes in me. All I can say for now is how beautiful pictures made with it are. Like most high speed film, the Color 800 is beautifully grainy, especially when underexposed. And when the exposure is right, it exposes all the details and washes the film in a beautiful, almost golden warm glow. Just as its speed suggests, it's ideal for low light shooting. But when you use it under normal lighting conditions, it just makes happy pictures.
Quite a number of Lomography 800 rolls have gone through my cameras. It's by no doubt my goto 800 ISO film. Judging by its availability on the Lomography store, I can tell I'm not the only one who loves it. Folks love it so much it's always almost out of stock. So, I make sure to keep one unopened box (containing a pack of three rolls) in my fridge at all times. That way I know I am covered when its out of stock, and I can have a few rolls to hold on to and cherish whenever Lomography decides to pull the plug.
