Film Emulsion Review: Lomography Color Negative 800 (35mm and 120)

Last Updated on 11/14/2017 by Chris Gampat

Of all the color negative films Lomography sells, my consistent favorite has to be Lomography Color Negative 800. As the company’s highest ISO color negative film, you should expect to get good colors and some amazingly warm skin tones if you’re into that sort of thing. The film is designed for photographers who need a fast film for a variety of reasons. In some ways, I find it to be in-between both Kodak Portra 800 and Fujifilm Superia 800. Where the latter was the bread and butter for photojournalists for years, Kodak Portra 800 is instead meant for portraits in low light–but I’ve seen it capture some stellar Northern Lights photos. Lomography Color Negative 800 on the other hand works pretty swimmingly for both.

I’ve been testing and using Lomography Color Negative 800 on and off for the past few years in a variety of cameras. I can say with all certainty that it’s probably my favorite alternative to CineStill 800T when shooting at night.

Gear Used

Lomography Color Negative 800 was tested with the Yashica GSN Electro 35, the Mamiya 6, Fujifilm GW690 III, and the Pentax 67. All film was graciously developed by Lomography NYC.

Tech Specs

Quick shutters, small apertures, fast subjects and low lights call for a fast film but the last thing you want is to sacrifice your Lomographic colors and effects for a little extra speed. To all of you plastic and multi-lensers, dusk-til-dawners and hi-speed Lomographers–we’ve got you covered with Lomography Color Negative 800 35mm film! It guarantees amazing results even in low-lighting situations.

Technical Specification

• For use with 35mm cameras
• ISO 800
• Color negative film

Additional Information

Ease of Use

Lomography Color Negative 800 is a variant of Kodak Gold to my knowledge. Unlike its 100 and 400 ISO siblings, I feel like this film is consistently warmer when it comes to color rendition. For portrait photographers, that’s a great advantage since many tend to really love those nice, warm skin tones. The color palette tends to be more muted as well–which is bound to appeal to those who shoot with Kodak Portra 800. What this results in is a pretty nice color palette at 35mm and one that perhaps comes into its absolute prime when shooting at the 6×9 format. Of any of the Lomography films, you can call Lomography Color Negative 800 a WYSWYG film–what you see is what you get.

In my experience, the film really likes to be rated at ISO 800. Overexposing the film just makes it even more mute and underexposing it can result in images that are a bit more muddy. The film also has a very nice grain to it overall through the frame.

Image Quality

Something that I’m really amazed at with Lomography Color Negative 800 is that it handles tungsten interior lighting and mixed lighting situations very well; perhaps even better than some digital cameras can. Here are a number of image samples shot over the years.

Fujifilm GW690 III

As you can see, the skin tones here are really nice. This photo was illuminated with low amounts of window lighting and the brightness of a laptop LCD screen. It’s still pretty awesome.

Yashica GSN Electro 35

One of my favorite cameras for years now. The softness and charm of the lens on the Yashica camera lend itself to really nice photos and possibilities with Lomography Color Negative 800.

Mamiya 6

When using the Lomography Color Negative 800 film with the Mamiya 6, I discovered how good it can be when working with interiors. We went to a restaurant with lots of tungsten lighting that was begging to be shot with CineStill. But the film handled the mixed lighting situation very well.

Pentax 67

Conclusions

Hands down, Lomography Color Negative 800 is my favorite of the trio of color negative films from Lomography. It’s versatile, has fine grain, great colors for most photographers, and has a look to it that isn’t quite replicable with digital cameras these days. So if you really want film photos that looks different from everything else out there, spring for Lomography Color Negative 800. You won’t regret it.