Description: New Fujicolor Portrait NPZ 800 incorporates Fujifilm's proprietary 4th Color Layer Technology to ensure faithful, accurate and extremely natural color and skin tone reproduction under a wide range of light sources including fluorescent and mixed lighting with excellent gradation balance and broad exposure latitude.
Available in 35mm, 120, and 220 Formats
Summary: Very noticeable grain in 16x20 enlargements from 6x7 negatives shot at Fuji's recommended ISO of 800. At an EI of 600 there was no grain visible with the unaided eye. I really love the color palette! I rarely shoot without a tripod but when I do hand-hold I find this film a pleasure to use. When the wind is blowing I find the extra speed helps to freeze leaf or flower movement when I want to freeze the action. On the other hand, when I want to impart a sense of movement as with waterfalls and rivers I might find it hard to do on a sunny day because even at f/32 I can't expose at say a 1/8 sec. Because my light meter is reading 1/60. Even a polarizing filter doesn't work. A neutral density filter might just do the job. Otherwise a few rolls of a slower film as a backup for situations like this would work just fine. All films have their strengths and weaknesses but overall I think Fuji NPZ "800" is great. 400UC was sharper, for example, but not enough to make me switch.
Strengths: Color palette, speed, contrast, hand-holding options, competitive sharpness.
Weaknesses: Difficult to use on sunny days, not an 800 film despite what Fuji says, not the absolute sharpest compared to 400 films.
Summary: I had to shoot an outdoor wedding at dusk with no flash and was a bit worried. I am usually a Kodak gal all the way, but haven't been too crazy about the results I've gotten with Portra 800. I read a few reviews and decided to try the NPZ 800, and I am bowled over by how great the shots came out! I went ahead and rated it at 800 as I was shooting hand-held, and as the light progressively dimmed while I was shooting, the film adjusted beautifully! The shots are very sharp and lights are color balanced nicely (some tungsten lighting mixed with fading daylight). I also shot some Medium Format of this film on a tripod and the film is gorgeous---very little grain, I can't see any on a 5x5 proof! One thing that I think is important to note: it makes a big difference whether the lab you are using has experience working with this film. The folks at my lab do a great job on kodak films, but they all shoot with Fuji and do a great job of processing it. Not sure if I'd convert to fuji across the board, but when I need fast color film for people shooting I will use it again and again!
Strengths: Fast, low grain, great color. Nice skin tones, too!
Weaknesses: Don't know of any yet, but have only used it this once. Have read that it should be slightly over-exposed or rated at ISO 640 to get best exposure.
Rating Reviewed by: Robert (Unregistered User)
(Intermediate)
Review Date January 20, 2003
Overall Rating 2 of 5
Value Rating 2 of 5
Visitors rate this review 3.75 of 5,
4 votes
Review 3 of 16
Price Paid:
$0.00
Summary: I've been shooting competitive gymnastics, indoors, no flash, poor
lighting (a wide variety of poor lighting situations with a Nikon F100,
f2.8 zooms and a fixed f1.4 using Fuji NHGII 800 with amazing
results. Now it was my understanding that Fuji stopped manufacturing
NHGII 800 and that the alternative is the NPZ 800.
With about 30 rolls of NPZ 800 under my belt, I still cannot reproduce
the much higher quality, sharper, lower grain and better lit images of the
NHGII 800. The NPZ comparatively produces darker, more yellow
and much grainier images. It was acceptable for concert situations.
If NHGII 800 is still available somewhere, I'd sure like to know. Also,
I'm open to suggestions for other film options for flashless, fast action
gym photography
Strengths: Relatively fast.
Weaknesses: In poor lighting conditions is yellow and
grainy.
Similar Products Used: Fuji NHGII 800 (the best)
Fuji Xtra 800
Kodak Supra 800
Fuji Press 800
Summary: This film from a technical standpoint is unbelievable...I got all my prints of this film made at 5 x 7..and I seriously could not notice any grain at all! Skin tones were good, color accuracy is dead on!
I have yet to use more of this stuff; perhaps developed at different labs as well. The minor downfalls of this film is contrast and reds. Contrast seemed a bit harsher with on-camera flash than I would have liked, and while all colors are accurate, blood-red is overly saturated to the point where it 'sticks out' of the picture! (not a problem on ruddy skin tones though).
However, it was my first roll of this stuff; so far so good!
Strengths: - no grain visible at 5 x 7
- vivid color saturation
- good skin tones
Weaknesses: - on flash pictures, contrast was a bit harsh and had a distinctive cold hue, but it could be the processing
- blood red appears overly saturated
- indoor tungsten shots were orange (rather than yellow), again that could be the processing
Similar Products Used: Superia XTRA 800...relatively fine grained, ok skin tones, great sharpness, but overly blue (needs good processing!)
Rating Reviewed by: Stan M(Unregistered User)
(Professional)
Review Date November 26, 2002
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 4 of 5
Used product for 1 to 3 months
Review 5 of 16
Price Paid:
$0.00
Summary: I do wedding and some night travel photography. Until now, I used Fuji NGH II and Supra 800. I really liked both films. Now NGH is gone so I bought NPZ for my wedding and compared to Supra 800. With the sufficient amount of background light, Supra performed well in underexposed areas, however, the grain was very visible when the background was dark (I use slow synchronization and rate my films at 500).
When I looked at NPZ, there was no grain. Otherwise, everything else looked very similar to Supra. My conclusion? After a few years of using Supra 800, I am dropping it completely.
Yes, NPZ is a film for people's photography. Since I have not tested it yet in other situations, I do not know how it performs without the flash.
Strengths: Sharp, no grain, colors are natural, skin tones are great.
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