35mm film review: CineStill 50D

Greetings, I'm Andrew, a travel and wedding photographer specializing in film photography. I'm also a published author, with a focus on travel experiences and analog photography, which you can find here. Today, I'll be sharing my thoughts on CineStill 50D, a popular but pricey 35mm film. In a previous review, I discussed its larger medium format counterpart. However, this time, I had the opportunity to compare the two and share my findings.

This film is featured in my book, and while I wasn't initially a fan of its plain color palette and flat look, I decided to give it another chance by conducting a small lab test. I sent the film to two different labs to see how they would process it, and I'll share the results below. Despite its high cost, this film is reputed to have very little grain, and it's believed that additional color editing is required to achieve the desired cinematic look. Although I'm unsure whether this is true or simply a rumor among film photographers, I treated the film accordingly by editing the scans in Lightroom for added color and contrast.

You can check out the raw footage of CineStill 50D in the medium format review, where I found the colors to be too flat for my liking. However, I'm happy to report that this 35mm version produced some stunning shots in Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy, which I'm excited to share with you. So, sit back and enjoy!

And here you can see the comparison of two labs, maybe you will find it helpful. To me, it was quite interesting to see that some shots turned out to be better in the lab "A", and some - in the lab "B".

I guess, it all depends on the mood of the editor at the scanner...

LAB "A" LAB "B"

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