*“You Imagined It Was You?”*
Cinestill 400D

The original plan was to meet with a friend and drive up Mt. Lemmon, but a temperature of 12 degrees and flurry of snow and ice meant the mountain was closed that morning. We instead opted to walk around downtown Tucson and do a bit of street architectural photography. This was my friend’s first roll of film and she was shooting Kono Moonstruck on a Konica T3 Autoreflex with a 28mm F/3.5 lens. As for myself, I opted for a roll of Cinestill 400D in my Nikon FM2/T with the Voightlander 58mm F/1.4 lens.

*400D proves itself to be every bit as clean as I excepted from Cinestill.*
Cinestill 400D

This was the second roll I shot of the new 400D stock, though the first through my SLR. The “D” is for “Dynaminc”, rather than daylight; and it shows in the range of color balance and lighting situations. Photographs remained consistent inside a coffee shop, in a dark underpass, and out in the sun. I love the color rendition and contrast of the film. The familiar halation present in these motion picture-based films reveals itself around highlights in a tasteful manner. I am impressed by the dynamic range, though it is to be expected. I suspect I will be shooting this over Portra 400 and Superia 400 in most given circumstances.

*“Catch the last of summer.”*
Cinestill 400D

I ordered this film just after the closing of pre-orders, unfortunately. It was several months before my order came in, but it turned out to be worth the wait. While I was waiting, I spoke with some who had early rolls and a few did not like how their rolls turned out. Considering my own results, many of the scans which I did not touch at all in Lightroom or other editing software, this comes as a surprise to me. As of this post (December 28th, 2022), Cinestill 400D is readily available both online and my local lab.

I hadn’t spent time in Tucson downtown area before this, but I found it worrisome that so many of the buildings were empty. “Space Available” and closed down business were more common than I would like to see in any city. There were some interesting areas, murals, and structures to be seen. The Rialto is a building I had seen pop up on the Fuji X Weekly publication and it was amusing to photograph on film what I had seen previously in film simulation - film wins over sims, by the way.

I believe landscape on Mt. Lemmon would have better fit my skillset and preference, but it was a great exercise shooting something unfamiliar. I found 400D to be remarkably sharp and clear; ready for whatever I may have found to shoot in Tucson. Perhaps I will develop an eye and taste for street photography in the future, but for now, I prefer to conceptualize and execute one on one shoots.

DT Tucson, AZ

British Muscle in the American Southwest

A Roll of Provia 100F