How does negative film compare to K40?

[prograin]

what is the negative film offered by kodak used for? Noone seems to ever talk about it. everyone seems to always be talking about kodachrome. I know that K40 has micro fine grain . But sometimes grain can be cool especially when working with music video production. Well I have heard that ektachrome has cool graininess
but alot of people talk bad about it. Can anyone give me opinions on the different types of films including the black and white kinds. Sorry I'm a little inexperienced.

[Greg Crawford]

Check out the post from August last year through December. Number of very good discussion about the negative films compared to Kodachrome and Ektachrome products. In fact I was one of the guys who started a thread that was quite a rousing debate. Since then I have tried the Negative stocks D-64 and T-200 and I agree with the general feeling that:

1. Have lower contrast than K-40. More forgiving on exposure.

2. Much more grain, even compared to D-64.

3. That Negative stocks have a more organic feel.
Some would call this the more contemporary look. others would argue that Super 8 Kodachrome can look like a 16 mm. camera original, when transferred to video.


POINT 3 started the most heated debate.

To really find out, buy a few rolls of each and run your own test. And read the older posts for fun.


Happy Shooting!

[jeromecain]

Be preare for expense on process. It will be about 230 dollars for 3 rolls of negative 200t. K40 got low price for process. Jerome, deaf filmmaker

[Matt Pacini]

A little grain can be cool, but shooting neg (or Ektachrome) in Super 8 is like shooting with a glass box in front of your camera with 400,000 gnats swarming in front of your lens!

I'm not kidding, it is hideous.
The "cool grain" effect you're visualising is most likely 16mm footage, or maybe the occasional S8 stuff in a music video or something.
Unless you really like your footage so grainy as to remove any possibility of sharpness in the image, stick with K-40.

You will never really know how grainy it really is until you see your footage projected in a theater.
Really embarrassing!
It looks great in a little AVI or Quicktime window on a computer, maybe, but anyone who's trying to anything remotely professional will gag at the grain of anything but Kodachrome 40 in Super 8.

Matt Pacini