Two Rolls of Medium Format CineStill 400D shot in Brighton

I got a pretty decent deal on two medium format rolls of CineStill 400D. They were a few months expired (02/2024) so the shop gave a few pounds off. I really like these kinds of deals, since a few months of expiration won't matter at all in my experience. Anyway, let's talk about the film, my trip to Brighton and, most important, the photos.

I ordered these two rolls for an upcoming trip to Brighton. The OnlyFilms Project celebrated their second anniversary in Brighton and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for shooting CineStill 400D. From what I've seen about this film so far and my experience with shooting it in the 35mm format, 400D should be perfect for a sunny day at the seaside. The colours are pretty vibrant and the halation should be a great match. Btw., CineStill is a normal colour film that can be developed in standard C-41 chemistry.

I loaded the first roll into my Fujica GS645W on the Pier in Brighton. The GS645W is a 645 medium format camera with a 45mm f/5.6 lens. This focal length is equivalent to 28mm in 35mm camera terms.

I kicked off this roll with a photo of the seafront, and after that attempted to do a bit of street photography on the pier. With only 15 shots a roll, that is kinda challenging for me, but I think it actually worked out quite well.

From there we continued to the amusement park on the pier. Sam (@sam.wich.street) was kind enough to take a little video with his old school camcorder of me while taking photos around the rollercoaster.

From the Pier, we continued along the seafront, where I also loaded my second roll of 400D. I metered everything at box speed (ISO 400) with the built-in light meter of the Fuji GS645W. But since I noticed the built-in light meter tends to overexpose a bit, these shots were probably all overexposed by roughly one stop.

I'm super happy with how these photos turned out. The colours are on point and work very well for these kinds of scenes. I only edited the scans slightly in Lightroom. The grain looks nice and relatively fine for a 400 speed film. I had expected a few more halations in the highlights, but luckily, they are very subtle.

Overall, I'm pleased how all of these photos turned out, and I will definitely get a few more rolls of this stock!

Cheers! - Jan @jan.onfilm