One of my favorite things about newly shooting with film is seeing the scans of a certain brand of film for the first time. It's always surprising, and it always gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling.
I had mostly been shooting using Kodak Ultramax's and Fujifilm Superias when I decided to pick up a roll of Agfa Vista 400 from my go-to film lab. Although I heard from friends that these rolls had already stopped in production for years now, I didn't read up on it beforehand. I just blindly wanted to give it a try. It was also one of the lower priced rolls of film so I said, "What the heck! What will I lose if I try this one?"
Only that after I got the scans back from processing, my question suddenly became, "WHY did I try it just now?"
Priced at *S$6, I was floored with how good and different the colors came out. The blues and the greens were on the turquoise side of their color scale. It was beautiful and for me was a cool break from the usual colors I get with Kodak and Fujifilm.
*It was only six bucks when I first bought one. I don't know what happened but this roll is now pricier at S$7.50 per roll.
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| [Bottom L-R: Lissa Kahayon, Ron Cruz] |
Judging solely based on this one roll, I'd say the results were surprisingly good, at least for my newbie film eyes, and given the best lighting condition, the blues and greens are big standout winners. Come sunset time, the colors wash down and the details become less sharp, understandably, but still displays a distinct color from the rolls that I'm used to. (See bottom two frames above.)
Will I purchase Agfa Vista 400 rolls again? Yes!
Since these photos were taken, I have tried two more Agfa Vista rolls from my recent trip in Hong Kong. I just haven't returned to the lab to pick up the processed negatives and the scans yet. (And oh Hong Kong! I keep on talking about it in my recent blog posts, but I never get to write about it. Not that I've been writing a lot these days, too.)
Intermission Quick Update:
I am two weeks away from my project Go-Live, my best friend is currently here in Singapore until next week, and I have a non-work thing that I can't really talk about yet but is taking a lot of my time. It's hard to multitask everything and I've been sacrificing a lot of sleep. But as I say in Tagalog, ginusto ko 'to! I live for chaos like this. Makes me feel stronger. Makes me feel so alive.
And with that, I'll leave this post with the last Agfa Vista 400 photo collage with half of the photos with me in it. This is still my blog, after all! I can be vain and you won't be able to do anything about it. :p
Will I purchase Agfa Vista 400 rolls again? Yes!
Since these photos were taken, I have tried two more Agfa Vista rolls from my recent trip in Hong Kong. I just haven't returned to the lab to pick up the processed negatives and the scans yet. (And oh Hong Kong! I keep on talking about it in my recent blog posts, but I never get to write about it. Not that I've been writing a lot these days, too.)
Intermission Quick Update:
I am two weeks away from my project Go-Live, my best friend is currently here in Singapore until next week, and I have a non-work thing that I can't really talk about yet but is taking a lot of my time. It's hard to multitask everything and I've been sacrificing a lot of sleep. But as I say in Tagalog, ginusto ko 'to! I live for chaos like this. Makes me feel stronger. Makes me feel so alive.
And with that, I'll leave this post with the last Agfa Vista 400 photo collage with half of the photos with me in it. This is still my blog, after all! I can be vain and you won't be able to do anything about it. :p
