I still don't know how to feel about cheap film

I find it all the time, like my life follows a treasure map that I am unsure of how I feel about the treasure underneath the "x". So often now are professional photographers clearing out their stash of film as they move to digital and finally give up on a tangible workflow. I many times have come in at the opportune moment to take advantage of some cheap 35mm, 120, and even some Polaroid film when I get lucky. But that's not all, I keep an eye out for sales as well. Walgreen's recently had put single 35mm rolls of their (it's actually just re branded Fuji) 200, 400 and 800 speed color films on sale for a buck a roll. I bought 15.



And as my fridge sits now I have around 60 or so rolls of 35mm film. A few 120 is still left over but as I find myself shooting less and less of it, I have little need to buy more. Regardless of the price. Also as I said before, a fourth of that belongs under the Walgreen's brand. I have been shooting a lot of black and white lately and with Vancouver's Sausage Fest coming up this past weekend (yes it is a real thing, and no there are an average number of guys there) I thought it may be a good time to try out some color in combination with some fast lenses. So I threw in a roll of Walgreen's 400 and one of 800 color 35mm film. I actually only got to the 400, and a few exposures of the 800.


Either way, a few days later I decided I wanted to see how they came out. The lighting at carnivals is always a whimsical one, dark shadows thrown about in the midst of bright colorful lights. Plus carnies make for very interesting subjects. But when I got the roll back, all I thought to myself was "meh". There were some shots that I enjoyed, yet I was never blown away. Even though the film has accurate color reproduction (and without getting into lines per mm resolution) a decent grain structure and good enough latitude. It's obvious counterpart in the world is Kodak Gold. Although there is something interesting about that film in general. I guess that can be said about all films though. Each has a very unique look to it, each one reacts differently as they start to go bad and each just wants to be shot.

Although in the end I think for now at least I'll skip the sale, walk past the Walgreen's and pay for Portra.