I was one of the early Kickstarter backers and I just finished my first 5-roll batch of the 400D in medium format. We do not have a lot of CN options in 120 these days, so I welcome what Cinestill is doing. A few thoughts:
The orange mask is on a strong side, and the overall appearance of negatives has a purple tint. In that sense it's closer to Fuji 400h than to any of the Portras.
Before I comment on colors, I'll start with the mandatory disclaimer: just like any other CN film it does not have any practical "palette", you dial in the desired color during scanning. What I am sharing here is the starting point you'll be working with. It is warm. Not Gold level warm though. I have spent a few hours inverting 400D colors manually and I would rank it somewhere between Portra 400 (easy) and Fuji 400H (moderate) in terms of how challenging it is to get the colors you want. Ektar is somewhat similar, not in its default appearance but in the effort it requires to get the color you want. Superia and Ultramax are harder.
Two cinestillisms stand out:
- All rolls I've received had been pre-fogged on the edges a little. None of the images were affected though.
- The red halation is out of control. It is present on practically every daytime photo, so you better like it! I find it charming.
Sample:
View attachment 319447
I do not know what the retail pricing is going to be, but I would definitely be buying it again if it's priced similarly to Gold 200 in 120, i.e. much lower than Portra 400. It's nice to have a budget option for ISO 400 CN film.