 What's Baxter gonna think when you die in the air because you've been drinking all that stuff? Yeah, remember me for creating a better world where Aerochrome is available at your local photography retailer Jason your doctor came in and literally broke down crying when he looked at your chart the other day. Don't drink that It's time to put it down Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace Well in my ongoing journey to review every film stock in existence Which will probably end in me dying from a mysterious curse 12 days after I finally review foam a pan I thought maybe it was time to do a review for Kodak gold 120 Which I wasn't invited to be an early tester for in case you haven't heard because you've been living under extreme Kodak ignorance Kodak gold a popular 35 millimeter budget friendly film stock has made its way back to medium format as a cheaper alternative to Portra 400 or a cheaper alternative to literally any 120 film because that expensive We heard murmurs for a long time that Kodak would be bringing back a stock that they once held in their inventory Which of course is super exciting because there's always a little bit of wiggle room for that to be interpreted as Aerochrome, but we got Kodak gold in 120 instead, which is also good. It's not really something I think people are going totally animal planet over because I think Gold was always available in 35. Think of it kind of like the person who invented chili dogs They didn't really do anything new They just put two things that people already love together into one massive ass bomb Anyway, I was forever committed to 35 millimeter Kodak gold ever since I shot a roll of it And it came back sexier than Centaur Adam driver from there It was pretty hard for me to even consider using any other film stock as my default option I was kind of like mr. Crabs. I made Kodak gold my entire existence So when the news got dropped earlier this year that Kodak gold be coming to 120 I nearly blacked out and had to go lay down for a little bit I'd probably literally die of exhaustion from partying if it ever made its way to large format But is this new version of gold just the 35 millimeter version scaled up for a larger negative? Maybe I have my doubts But we'll get into all that later, or I don't know. Maybe we won't sometimes I forget to cover some topics Anyway to test some gold 120 again not as part of the early testing program that I wasn't invited to but it's fine I've moved on and I'm in a better place now Emotionally I called up the keep it litty committee Which is just Caleb and we hit the unforgiving streets of Echo Park in our finest linens at least I think it was Echo Park It's wherever they did that Tesla jump video knowing that we'd have to climb some hills and get exercise in general I decided to bring my heavy-ass Pentax 6x7 to make my life extra difficult So first impressions of the new Kodak gold 120 I like it a lot, but it doesn't really remind me of the Kodak gold that I foolishly fell in love with for some reason I don't know what that reason is though. I think of Kodak gold and 35 I think of how brown and well gold the tones can be they act more of like an undertone and they don't slap you straight on It's just something that you feel inside like existential dread gold 120 seems to be a bit more neutral Like it lands somewhere in between Kodak gold and portrait 400 the color red certainly does pop a lot And the overall saturation is up quite a bit which is certainly spanktastic I have heard that the film bases between 35 and 120 are different somehow I don't really know if that's true though much less how that affects color rendering if it would at all I also took this shot, which I think is downright nasty, but in a good way However, you may also be seeing what I'm seeing which if you are is probably blurry double vision because I haven't eaten today And I've only chugged a flaming hot Mountain Dew But this shot definitely has some green flair or smudge or shrek themed stain I don't know a few of my shots actually had this problem And I don't really think it's a light leak because typically those are kind of red orange that and this green aurora borealis Didn't show up on any other roles Anyway, because we're lame irrelevant photographers using an outdated medium that barely anyone cares about anymore We had to lean hard into the old car trope But believe it or not, I actually really like this shot. I think that the colors really hit Especially this banger mix slammer. So surprise surprise. I had a roll of Kodak gold 100 Be good to me in 120 that I picked up from the folks over at hidden light in Flagstaff, Arizona when we did our 66 trip Mmm. Good year. It's the year Star Wars episode one a fan of menace came out You just have a lot of good trivia trivia knowledge. Yeah Mostly Star Wars really it's only Star Wars related kind of stupid I was saving the role for something special because who the f*** knew that Kodak gold would become back to 120 Certainly not I because again, I didn't get to test it early, which is fine. It doesn't bother me I was probably busy doing something totally cooler that day anyway But then gold fabulously exploded onto the scene in 120 and this relic became a little less relevant So I decided to shoot it for a comparison Here's a side-by-side on a fresh gold 200 and expired gold 100 which was rated at 80 ISO We soon found some more old cars and you already know what was going down We just can't help ourselves sometimes the heart wants with the heart wants But yeah, these shots are okay I kind of wish there wasn't a port-a-potty looming ominously in the background Maybe we should have tipped it over to get it out of the shot So after much thinking which gave me a headache that still hasn't gone away I would say that all versions of Kodak gold are similar, but not exactly the same This older gold 100 definitely delivers the warm brown tones that I look for a little bit more But it also leans into magenta a little bit more Which is actually something that I noticed in the highlights of the new fresh gold 120 to be fair though This gold 100 is expired and may not be producing results that are consistent with when it was fresh Anyway back in reality or what we perceive is reality Though it's truly a computer simulation akin to the sims on some omnipotent alien beings sticky laptop Caleb's camera itself again No, thank you, which will probably be a clip we end up using repeatedly for the years to come But like a good film shooting friend instead of comforting him by holding him gently and helping him diagnose the issue I left Caleb's ass behind to chase down some decent light on old film that probably won't do it justice Eventually I finished that role and put in some more fresh new gold So here's another comparison of the expired and unexpired That's done when Kodak announced gold and 120 earlier this year. They used the tagline if you don't like it We're just gonna give up. I'm just kidding. There was no tagline They were just presenting it as a more economical way to shoot 120 I actually really like that Kodak is taking this approach and I gotta give them credit words do trying to find a More economical way to shoot 120 is something that's been plaguing the film community for a long time now And it's nice that Kodak is at least trying to do their part I just wish that they could keep up with demand and make it for large format and it while I'm making a wishlist That'll never be fulfilled much less seen bring back ectochrome 1600. Yeah, that was a pretty wild film stock Jason you gotta stop Stop being so handsome. Okay Anyway, as the sun was doing its Irish goodbye. I started wishing I had a little more ISO to work with in low light 200 is fine I guess 100 is kind of where I draw the line numerous random people who are probably making it up Hold me that gold is actually a true 160 ISO film stock So do whatever you want with that info if it changes your life in some major way Then you probably didn't have much going for you I've actually seen some people push gold to 800 with varying amounts of success So it seems pretty versatile for a more economical film stock Anyway before I wrap up the video However, I'd like to quickly thank today's sponsor Squarespace Squarespace is an all-in-one website building platform that allows you to custom build your own website to the fullest capacity of your creativity With hundreds of professionally designed templates at your disposal getting started with a good foundation is easy with Squarespace's intuitive user interface You can simply add or subtract modules to design your own custom look that suits your creative vision For this reason, I've been personally using Squarespace for several years to host my online photography portfolio The ease of customization allows me to try out new arrangements and layouts for my work in a smooth and quick fashion In fact, I was able to renovate my entire website in under two hours a couple of weeks ago Plus if you have questions or need help building your site, you can contact Squarespace's award-winning 24 7 customer support portal So what are you waiting for? If you're ready to build a website, you can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainy days And if you use the code grainy days at checkout, you can get 10 off your first purchase In the end, what can I say about Kodak gold in 120? It's fine It's not really what I expected, but it can certainly deliver in the right conditions. I do personally enjoy it I think it's a better film stock than portrait 400 just for my own needs But I still don't think it's quite the same look as the 35 millimeter version for whatever reason The 35 millimeter version of gold oozes nice warm tones and the 120 version is a bit more neutrally balanced in my own findings So again, like mr. Krabs. I was a little bit disappointed there But it's based on a real treasure chest I kind of look at Kodak gold 120 now is more or less off-brand portrait 400 in that it's cheaper Almost as neutral in color and it's just one stop slower nearly the same thing But overall I think that we in the film community should be looking at the return of Kodak gold in medium format is a good thing After all more choices, more problems I mean more choices the better like how Kodak didn't choose me to test this film stock early Which is fine. It doesn't bother me at all. And I barely ever bring it up to my therapist