Which One Does What?by Jack and Sue Drafahl

ISO 200 color-nega-tive films have aunique purpose inthe photo environ-

ment. We find that they are generallyused by photographers who prefer asingle film for all situations. They wanta film that has excellent quality, but of-fers enough film speed to cover most ofthe photographic situations they en-counter. Film manufacturers realizethe importance of offering photogra-phers exactly what they want, and each66 PHOTOgraphic/July 1991

has developed their own version of anISO 200 color-negative film.

For this review, we took one roll ofeach ISO 200 film and photographed aMacbeth color chart in full sunlight. Asingle Nikon N8008S with a 105mmAF Nikkor Macro lens was mountedon a sturdy tripod. Using the specialfeature of the Nikon MF-21 back, wemade a 19-exposure bracket at .5-stopintervals. This film report is the resultof examining those negatives as well asothers that we made outdoors with

1 0»fi<i § fy~:A 24t»

AGFA1SffinmHini

AGF/l

13524 .

Agfacolor XRG 200 Fujicolor Super HG 200each of the films.

KODAK GOLD 200

Kodak Gold 200 film (which arrivedafter our color deadline—hence the boxof its predecessor, Kodacolor Gold200, in our color lead shot) has gonethrough a variety of changes beforereaching its present state. Usingadvanced DIAR technology, Kodakhas come up with a film that maintainsthe quality of its Gold 100 film, butadds that extra stop of speed. We foundthe contrast of Gold 100 to be slightlyabove normal, yet it produced an excel-lent reproduction of neutral tones.Photos taken in both shade and sun-light have good color renditionthroughout the image. Sharpness andgrain were very similar to Gold 100,making Gold 200 a good candidate foraction photos of your family, pets, orsporting activities. Gold 200 also worksvery well with flash, and has a closecolor balance between sun and flash infill-flash situations.

In the darkroom, we found Gold 200negatives easy to print with little varia-tion from one negative to the next. Us-ing our 19-bracket film test, we deter-mined that the exposure latitude insunlight was about -2 stops to +4stops (El 12 to El 800). Under tung-sten and fluorescent lighting we recom-mend No. 80A and CC30 magenta fil-ters for color correction, but found thatthese color shifts could be corrected inthe darkroom.

Kodak's Gold 200 is available in 12-,24-, and 36-exposure 35mm cassettes.Eastman Kodak Company, 343 StateSt., Rochester, NY 14650; telephone(716) 724-4000.

FUJICOLOR SUPER HG 200

Fuji's solution to the battle of theISO 200s is a sophisticated 14-layerKodak Gold 200 PHOiographic/July 1991 67

Polaroid OneFilm Agfacolor Professional XRS 200

ISO 200 FILMSemulsion that takes advantage of Fuji'snew RIR (Reactivated Inhibitor Re-leaser) coupler. A variation of the DI-AR coupler, this new RIR coupler mi-grates to the correct layer before beingactivated. The result is extremely sharpedges between adjacent colors. Fuji hasalso reduced the size of the silver-hal-ide crystal, using sensitivity-speck-for-mation technology. The shape of thecrystal has been changed so the emul-sion is thinner. The result is a very-fine-grain, high-resolution color-nega-tive film.

We found Super HG 200 to recordsaturated colors in almost all lightingsituations with little color shift, espe-cially in the shadows. The film worksextremely well with flash, fill-flash, andtungsten lighting. Our bracket test in-dicated that acceptable prints could bemade from exposures of-2 to +4 stops(El 12 to El 800).

Fuji's Super HG 200 is available in12-, 24-, and 36-exposure 35mm cas-settes. Fuji Photo film U.S.A., Inc., 555Taxter Rd., Elmsford, NY 10523; tele-phone (914) 789-8100.

SCOTCHCOLOR 200

3M throws its ISO 200 hat into thering via a new and improved version ofScotchColor 200 color-negative film.This film includes a new Super DIRcoupler that improves greens, and anew cyan coupler that corrects for cyanhighlights that occur in some process-ing labs. Contrast and color saturationfor this film are high, which makes itideal for shooting in overcast or shade.

Upon close examination of the testnegatives, we found the grain structureto be very close to that of ScotchColor68 PHOiographic/July 1991 ScotchColor 200

100. We also found that the film isslightly underrated, with an extra 1Astop of speed. We assume that this isdue to the fact that 3M packages thisfilm under 70 different labels, whichare available to all levels of amateurphotography. This extra 1A stop ensuresthat the user will get a high percentageof good exposures. Contrary to previ-ous tests on the exposure latitude ofthis film, we surmised that its exposurelatitude is 61A stops (4 stops over and2!/2 stops under). With this kind of lati-tude and the new autoexposure cam-eras, correct exposures should never bea problem.

ScotchColor 200 is available in 24-and 36-exposure 35mm cassettes. 3M,3M Center, St. Paul, MN 55144-1000;telephone 1-800-695-FILM.

AGFACOLOR XRG 200

Agfa's contribution to ISO 200 col-or-negative technology comes in theform of an improvement to its DIRcouplers. These improvements increasethe film's overall color saturation andprevent color contamination from onelayer to the next. Changes in the film'semulsion reduce light-scattering char-acteristics and intensify edge effects,giving this new film a much sharperlook. Agfa has also included a new cy-an coupler that improves stability inthe printing process, and a new protec-tive layer that helps keep the film frombeing scratched. All these new featuresare to counteract any abuse that mightcome from the photographer, and/orprocessing lab.

Looking at our 19 bracketed framesof Agfacolor XRG 200, we found expo-sure latitude to be from -21A stops to+4 stops. We found XRG 200 to bewell balanced under sun/flash combi-nations, as well as difficult tungsten-light situations. When the film is ex-posed under tungsten light, however,there is a slight loss of film speed. Thiscan be corrected by adding '/2-1 fullstop of exposure. Printing from onenegative to the next seemed to be veryconsistent, even when conditionschanged from sunlight to shade.

Agfacolor XRG 200 is available in12 + 3, 24+3, and 36-exposure 35mmcassettes. Agfa Corp., 100 ChallengerRd., Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660; tele-phone (201) 440-2500.

POLAROID ONEFILM

Polaroid feels so strongly about theuse of one film for all situations, thatthey offer only one conventional color-negative film, OneFilm. It is targetedtoward a variety of situations that mostpoint-and-shoot photographers wouldrun into. The contrast range of thisfilm has been lowered to accommodatethe many types of mixed-contrast light-

ISO 200 FILMSing amateur photographers seem to en-counter. Polaroid feels that these un-controlled lighting situations normallycause a loss of subject detail, especiallywhen sun and shade are involved.

Since the primary goal of most ama-teurs is to frequently record scenes forsentimental reasons, OneFilm keepsthe contrast lower and the color satura-tion down, so the picture has a betterchance of making it. The results areprints that hold detail in both shadeand sunlight. The ISO rating of One-Film is a true ISO 200, compared tomost of the competition, which tendsto rate its films lower. Polaroid is ableto do this because of its lower contrastrange. By rating OneFilm at its trueISO, its exposure latitude (-VA to +4stops) is slightly less than that of itscompetition.

Polaroid OneFilm is available in 12-,24-, and 36-exposure 35mm cassettes.Polaroid Corp., 549 TechnologySquare, Cambridge, MA 02139; tele-phone (617) 577-2000.

KONICA SUPER SR 200

Konica has concentrated its high-tech film efforts on reducing the thick-ness of the ISO 200 film. Using com-puter simulations and advanced crys-tallographic analysis, Konica was ableto design a multistructure crystal thatis smaller and more efficient than be-fore. In addition, Konica has developednew color couplers that have higher in-tensity and act faster. This, in turn, re-duces the amount of color couplers re-quired to make an image. The result isa film that has fine grain, high resolu-tion, and excellent color saturation.

Analysis of Super SR 200 negativesand prints showed us that the film hasless contrast than many of its counter-parts. We would assume that Konicahas gone for this level of contrast to en-sure that subjects photographed inboth sunlight and shade will be proper-ly recorded. We found the exposurelatitude of-2/4 stops to +4 stops, plusthe lower contrast, to be the insurancemost amateur photographers need.

Konica Super SR 200 film is avail-able in 12-, 24-, and 36-exposure 35mmcassettes. Konica U.S.A., Inc., 440 Syl-van Ave., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632;telephone (201) 568-3100.

AGFACOLORPROFESSIONAL XRS 200

For the professional photographer,Agfa offers XRS 200 color-negativefilm. This high-quality film emphasizesthe professional characteristics neededto make prints of the highest quality.70 PHOiographic/July 1991

very ugm production loierances areused to ensure uniformity of the emul-sion, a necessary ingredient for profes-sional photography. Studio photogra-phy, for example, requires consistencyfrom one photo shoot of a product tothe next, two months later. An ex-tremely balanced gradation curve foreach emulsion layer ensures no colorcrossovers in the final print. The reci-procity characteristics are impressive,with little effect on color or exposure,even with exposures over ten seconds.

Contrast and color saturation ofXRS 200 are almost identical to Agfa-color XRG 200 amateur color-negativefilm. Exposure latitude is also identicalat -21A stops to +4 stops. We foundthe printing pack and color balancevery similar to XRG 200, but the ren-dition of subtle colors to be a little bet-ter than with its amateur counterpart.

Agfacolor Professional XRS 200 isavailable in 24- and 36-exposure 35mmcassettes and 120. Agfa Corp., 100Challenger Rd., Ridgefield Park, NJ07660; telephone (201) 440-2500.

PRINTING THE ISO 200COLOR-NEGATIVE FILMS

When we laid all seven color-nega-tive tests down next to each other, thedifference in orange color masks be-came obvious. Agfacolor XRG 200,Agfacolor Professional XRS 200, andScotchColor 200 all had very similarcolor masks. These three film maskshad the least amount of orange tint.Polaroid OneFilm, Fujicolor Super HG200, and Konica Super SR 200 all hada very similar bright orange colormask. Kodak Gold 200 stood by itselfwith a color mask halfway between thetwo other groups of films. Printingtests demonstrated that these filmscould be grouped in this manner forstarting your color printing packs, ffl