What's old is new again. The increasingly digital world has spurred a major comeback of old-school ways of doing things. People are listening to music on vinyl records, talking to each other on flip phones, and taking photos on film cameras.
I am a decidedly amateur photographer. I would go so far as to say I'm not even a particularly well-versed amateur at that. That said, I'm certainly an enthusiast. Since picking up a point-and-shoot film camera for the first time a year ago, I try to bring it with me wherever I go. This has led to me buying, using, and developing many rolls of film. No type of film has led to more beautiful photos than CineStill 800T.
Film types have different purposes and light settings that determine the ideal conditions to use them. To say that the 800T is somehow better than any other type is a bit silly. That said, I keep gravitating back to it for clear reasons: the photos have a cinematic quality, the film works great at night, and it shows off an ethereal glow on artificial light sources.
Unlike other types of film which were originally meant for photography, CineStill 800T was actually first used for movies. While still used by some cinematographers, it has also been reformatted for photography and gained a popular following.
CineStill 800T is built for low light situations. With an ISO of 800, it's naturally more sensitive to light and will capture it well even when it isn't abundant. ISO refers to how quickly your film will react to a given amount of light. In short, lower numbers like 200 or 400 are better suited for sunny days or well-lit spaces while higher numbers work better at nighttime with fewer or dimmer light sources.
The biggest reason I love the 800T is that it is tungsten balanced. This essentially means that it is designed to photograph incandescent bulbs and neon lights. So, the shots you take of neon signs or old-school street lamps will have a glow about them.
In daylight, the photos have a cooler, blueish tint to them, which I've found to be quite beautiful as well. This has also made the film great for cloudy, overcast days.
I am still quite a distance away from snapping a genuinely great series of photos. That said, even without the skills, the photos I'm taking on CineStill 800T feel nostalgic and cinematic. They make me fonder of the memories I'm capturing and keep my eyes open for new buildings, signs, and locations.
It might be the film or might be the film prompting me to carry my camera more often, but when I've got a roll of 800T loaded in, I'm always more excited to shoot.
