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Shooting CineStill 800T | My Thoughts & First Impressions

The film stock with style….built in.

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9MomentScore

CineStill 800T thrives in challenging low-light conditions and is perfectly balanced for tungsten lighting. It naturally adds a soft glow to light sources in your photos, creating a beautiful warmth. While it’s ideal for nighttime and dim settings, this film is incredibly versatile and can be used in a range of scenarios to give your images a range of stunning looks.

To Know:

It comes with a touch of built-in halation, so the lights in your photos will shimmer with a cozy warmth. Originally made for the night and dim settings, this film is super flexible, allowing you to experiment in different environments and achieve various beautiful effects.

What We Love:

Light Halation

With this stock, the light sources in your images will transform. A normal-looking lightbulb will have a little extra OOMPH! Halation is essentially the spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries, causing fog around the edge.

A Refreshing Coolness

Unlike many film stocks, this stock is on the cooler end of the temperature scale, resulting in some of the most beautiful blues I’ve ever seen in my work. It’s a breath of fresh air and totally unique from any other film stock on the market.

Versatility

While this stock is incredibly niche and intended for specific situations, it can do much more. Of course, there are guidelines to metering (pushing/pulling) if you want to shoot this stock in an environment it’s not technically intended for. Check out CineStill’s tips for doing so!

The Details:

Brand: CineStill

Product Type: Film Stock (35mm & 120)

Best For: Color enthusiasts who are comfortable shooting film during low light scenes and nighttime.

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Unique Results, Every Time

I won’t lie, I was pretty intimidated when I first picked up the CineStill 800T. I’ve seen so many stunning images of it over the years and didn’t know if I could get such powerful results. It turns out that the stock does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. I realized that when I got the first roll of scans back. I honestly almost shed a tear, I was so relieved I saw proper exposures and that fabulous halation. Even I could shoot CineStill!? As a Kodak-almost-always kinda girl, I couldn’t believe how my world just opened up with this new look. I’m still ecstatic about it.

It’s very clear that this stock does its job well. My favorite shots with this stock are in conditions it was meant for — plenty of tungsten and fluorescent light sources. I decided to put my first roll to work on a rainy night in Portland as the neon signs turned on around the city. The wet ground made for lovely reflections and texture, giving the images that much more punch. I shot at box speed and am still amazed at the results.

Although this film is great for artificial lighting, it isn't strictly needed. I've used it in various settings, and it consistently delivers impressive results. It's surprisingly forgiving, more than I initially thought. However, you should meter it differently if you plan to shoot in daylight or under bright, harsh conditions. When using this film in daylight, there are a few techniques to reduce exposure and achieve warmer, more color-accurate images. CineStill recommends using an 85 or 81 filter for daylight shots with this film. Alternatively, you can shoot the film at an ISO of 400-500.

This 800-speed tungsten-balanced color-negative film is derived from the same motion picture film stock used by leading cinematographers worldwide. Designed for challenging low-light conditions, CineStill 800T is versatile enough to be used in various lighting scenarios to create a range of artistic scenes. Its unique aesthetic often makes it a preferred choice over Kodak Vision3 500T. While Kodak Vision3 500T is tailored for motion pictures, CineStill 800T is specifically designed for still cameras.

Comparing the two, it's important to focus on the distinct visual styles each offers. CineStill 800T lacks an anti-halation layer, which can result in a red glow around overexposed point light sources. This effect is unrelated to the lens used and can be minimized with diffusion, such as using CineBloom filters.

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What We Rate

  • Color Tones
    • Poor
    • Fair
    • Good
    • Near Perfect
  • Grain Level
    • None
    • Slight Texture
    • Just Enough
    • Pretty Hairy
  • Temperature
    • Pretty Cool
    • Fairly Cool
    • Fairly Warm
    • Pretty Warm
  • Budget
    • Around $5
    • Around $10
    • Around $15
    • Around $20
  • Dynamic Range
    • Poor
    • Fair
    • Good
    • Near Perfect

What It Has:

  • Tungsten balanced
  • C-41 processing

What It Does:

  • Color negative motion picture emulsion
  • 800 ISO
  • 3200K
  • Designed for low-light situations
  • Can be push-processed up to 3200 ISO

Ideal Exposure For Processing:

  • No push - EI 200-1000
  • 1 stop push - EI 800-2000
  • 2-stop push - EI 1250-3200
  • 3-stop push - EI 1600-3200 (added contrast)
  • An 85 filter is recommended when shot in daylight and/or shooting the film at 400-500 ISO.
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