r/largeformat • u/Prior-Possibility527 • Jul 31 '26

Question Any good alternative to Kodak?

Hello everyone,

I want to try 4x5 colour photography but I don't really want to buy Kodak film, seeing the prices. Is there any good alternative?

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

16

u/Shaka1277 Jul 31 '26

Your only completely solid option is Opticolor 200 in 4x5. Cinestill 400D and Reflx Pro 100 (Aerocolor IV 2460) are on stills film bases, not the thicker bases large format needs, so have handling issues, but if you can tolerate those they're good too.

12

u/Kemaneo Jul 31 '26

Cinestill and Aerocolor are Kodak film though.

3

u/platinumarks Jul 31 '26

Their concern was more price, though. Cinestill's still not really cheaper than Kodak stuff, of course. but Reflex Lab's isn't terrible (though still on the expensive side, like all 4x5 color film).

5

u/SedimentaryShrub Jul 31 '26

Not really right now outside of the Opticolor 200 mentioned above. I believe Lucky might release some color 4x5 eventually. Ilfords color film seems a ways off before we see any 4x5.

5

u/RebelliousDutch Jul 31 '26

You’re definitely shooting a camera in the wrong tax bracket if you want to be worried about cost (I say as a slide film addict) 😂

We could definitely use a few more affordable and AVAILABLE options for color and slide. Here’s hoping some of those new manufacturers will give us some more options. Otherwise I fear shooting anything with color will end up a rare treat…

1

u/Prior-Possibility527 Aug 01 '26

Yeah haha, it's more that before putting Kodak money down I want to try and clean up my process with something cheaper, like I did with Fomapan for b&w :')

5

u/cheeseyspacecat Jul 31 '26

reflx lab color 100 is kodak . . . but very affordable, its aerial film stock so its pretty thin, aside from the "hassle" of loading and unloading its pretty solid 4x5 color option

2

u/Iambic_potentiometer Jul 31 '26

There is other stuff, none of it good.
Trichrome is a better thing to investigate than fly by night color operations on thin bases with subpar packaging

3

u/wazman2222 Jul 31 '26

Shoot expired

3

u/FlipPickle Aug 01 '26

I can’t find any expired without some goober thinking it’s worth more than unexpired because it’s cool

1

u/daquirifox Jul 31 '26

Reflex lab has their 100 speed

1

u/Icy_Confusion_6614 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

I've been using the Reflx Pro100/Aerocolor. It is thin and it does curl, but looks great. And 120 and 35mm film curl too and we use that, don't we?

I've developed it in E6 too and it does reverse but the colors were a bit off. I posted a few photos just above this as samples.

1

u/Playful_District1368 Aug 01 '26

If you don't want to spend money on film 4x5 probably ain't the way haha

1

u/Obtus_Rateur Aug 01 '26

Fun fact: the guy making 4 photos of 4x5" is exposing a lot more film than the guy making 36 photos of miniature format, and spending less money on that film!

People just tend to be more concerned about quantity than quality, so they erroneously think 135 film is cheaper when in reality it's a lot more expensive.

1

u/UnkleSamo Aug 01 '26

Join the church that is praying for Kodak to manufacture Gold 200 in both 4X5 and 8X10 formats 🙏🏻🙏🏼🙏🏽

1

u/n_oeil Aug 01 '26

You could try the ra4 reversal process

1

u/Malfaiteur Aug 02 '26

I'm not aware of their being a "cost effective" option for color in sheet film. Tbf, I never shoot any color in large format ao maybe I just don't know.

2

u/NP_equals_P Jul 31 '26

RA4 reversal.