Film and Analog

Film Review: Lomography Color Negative 100 (120 and 35mm Formats)

Chris Gampat
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07/03/2017
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Lomography 100 Negative review images Amanda in the studio Fujifilm GW690 III

Last Updated on 07/03/2017 by Chris Gampat

“It’s Kodak Gold,” I’m often told by Lomography reps about Lomography Color Negative 100. The film is one of the offerings from Lomography that is also a more affordable option at times in both 35mm and 120. Now, some folks may scoff at the idea of shooting Kodak Gold since for years, it was designed for being shot by just consumers. But in truth, it’s capable of delivering some seriously lovely colors. To that end, so too is Lomography Color Negative 100. At times, I genuinely feel like Lomography Color Negative 100 sometimes just intensifies whatever scene is just in front of you. But either way, if you’re looking for a low ISO alternative because you don’t like Kodak Ektar’s colors, then Lomography Color Negative 100 is a very viable option.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • With a studio light, it can be exceptionally sharp.
  • Affordable
  • Nice colors in sunlight
  • In shade, it just intensifies the blue cast that you’re bound to get

Cons

  • If you’re in natural light, you’ll want to overexpose a bit; but that can be said for pretty much any negative film emulsion.

Gear Used

We tested Lomography Color Negative 100 with the Minolta a7, Sony 35mm f1.4, Pentax Spotmatic, Pentax 28mm f2.8, Pentax 50mm f1.4, Fujifilm GW690 III, Leica CL, Leica 40mm f2, and various ND filters. Additionally, studio tests were done using the Adorama Flashpoint Zoom Lion and the Phottix Luna Octabank.

All film in this post was gracious developed by Lomography NYC. Thanks guys!

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the product page.

Sunny outdoor photos call for a film that will bring out all the pretty colors. The Lomography Color Negative 100 35mm film offers fine-grained smoothness and knockout hues, resulting in fantastic photos beaming with vivid colors and remarkable sharpness!

Technical Specifications

Metering

Lomography Color Negative 100 is a negative film. So in most situations, you’re best off giving it a bit more light than a light meter tells you to do. This also goes for working in a studio. Because it’s a Kodak film, you may think to yourself that maybe you should expose for ISO 50 and develop for like ISO 75. But in all reality, that won’t matter much. Just shoot at ISO 100 and overexpose by around 1 stop or 1/3rd and you’ll be all set.

Ease of Use

Interestingly enough, when working in the studio and with studio lighting, Lomography Color Negative 100 will come up looking very warm. But in shade, it goes very blue–bluer than I’ve honestly seen before. In my opinion, where I found this film to truly succeed is with lots of natural light. During the Golden Hour it’s very beautiful. I strongly recommend shooting it then.

Image Quality

Lomography Color Negative 100 delivers the best results when you give it a bit more light. With that said, I honestly don’t recommend shooting it a lot in the shade. You’ll get some very blue colors you may not digg so much. Instead, shoot in scenes with a whole lot of light (daylight) or in a studio.

Extra Image Samples

These scans are right out of the scanner. Could I have warmed up the image quality? Yes, but then that wouldn’t be true to how the film actually works.

Conclusions

I personally like the feel of Lomography Color Negative 100. I’d prefer to use it in the studio and in 120 format. I truthfully don’t see it as a good general film though. It’s good for portraits and landscapes of all types. When you shoot those, you’ll truly have fun and enjoy the results.

Check out Lomography’s page listing to pick some of this film up, or check Amazon for prices.

120 35mm blues ektar image kodak kodak gold landscapes lomography Lomography Color Negative 100 metering portraits scan tones warm
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.