 Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Kodak, you know what to do. Fuji Presto 1600. Maybe you've heard of it before, but probably not. I don't know. How could I know? I'm just a guy talking to a camera in an office right now on a floating ball of rock in what's most likely a simulation. Based on its scarcity online, you would think that I'm making this film stock up. But nay, it is how it sounds. Fuji Neopan Presto 1600 is a black-and-white 1600 speed film from the good old days when Fuji's tagline wasn't Fujifilm. Ignore the film part of our name because we clearly don't give a rat's ass about that anymore. I received four rolls of Presto 1600 from somebody over in Japan. Expan Japan, in fact, which is their legal birth name. I recommend checking out some of their work. As you can imagine, it's mostly Expan stuff. Squished, squeezed, and compressed to fit on the best platform for panos. Instagram. Anyway, eager to see what all the hubbub about this stock was, I hopped in Caleb's brand new Porsche that he bought with his big-time Hollywood VFX producer money that's totally changed the kind of person that he used to be. I don't want to run this lady over because that would be murder. And headed down to LA's fashion district where low-life fashionistas like me live and die by the thread. Inspired by all things panoramic, I decided to only be fitting to shoot this roll on the Expan myself. So I loaded her up and decided to shoot these flaming hot power slappers at 1250 ISO to account for the expiration. Speaking of expiration, there are a lot of variables here. Black and white film generally holds up pretty well to the forces of time. Better than color negative and slide, actually. Ah, damn it. But also high ISO film degrades faster over time. But then again, supposedly this stuff has been kept very well over the course of its lifetime. So, in reality, your guess is just about as good as mine. After stepping out in our matching lightning McQueen Crocs and immediately getting standing salutes from everybody nearby, we tucked into fashion alley to hide out and look for some compositions that would work well on black-and-white panoramic. First impressions of Fuji Presto 1600. It's pretty contrasty, for sure. I guess you kind of have to expect it to be. High ISO film is really pushing the limits of what's achievable through the format. In my limited understanding, high ISO film requires specialized machinery. And oftentimes some film manufacturers would just get around this by using developing tricks. For example, Ilford 3200. That's about as fast as you can go these days. Unless you're this f***ing cat that I can't get off my feed. But a lot of speculation online will have you believing that Ilford 3200 film is actually a 1000 ISO film that uses specialized development to kind of fake its way to 3200. I don't know the specifics and you should take all this with a grain of days because I'm an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. But I can definitely see this being the case for Presto as well. My results were grainy and thin on shadow detail. Very thin on shadow detail to be honest with you. That could be a result of it being an expired film or that could just be how this film is. I don't really know. Either way, if you do shoot it, protect for the shadows. However, this film isn't all darkness and negativity. There is some good stuff. It still is high ISO, which means you can grab shots in super low light with a super slow camera. That doesn't mean it won't be grainy out the ass and back around, but it does allow you to stay away from those forbidden shutter speeds like 115th or 1 eighth while you're handheld. This shot is an unfortunate victim of shadow detail loss. This stock just doesn't hold on to them well. Our subject here gets lost to the shadow mush behind them. Here's an interior shot that was especially metered for the shadows and it held out pretty well. The highlights aren't too far gone either. Perhaps 800 ISO is the better speed for these roles at the moment. And look, if you get a few shots back that would have been absolute heat, but the darkness once again took over, just like the darkness within all of us, then just tell everyone that you intentionally exposed for the highlights and they'll most likely believe you. Anyway, after running into whatever's left of daft punk on the streets, I started thinking about Presto's natural competitor in the wild, HP5 pushed to 1600. I would personally say the look of HP5 pushed to stops at 1600 is a better overall move, but that's only because the Presto that I was using is in fact expired. Ilford 3200 shot at 1600 ISO could also be a good option, but I've never tried that one personally. Anyway, with the fashion police still hot on our trails for having more drift than anyone on earth, though I am excited to see what our new alien brethren are going to drop, I shot this and I consider it quite good. I'd love to have seen more info in the shadows, but hey, you know what they say, the living we learn and my doctor says I should be dead in about three and a half weeks. Anyways, we continued onward through fashion town, learning about all the different types of threads and phantoms I guess, I don't know, I never saw the movie. I took this of the UPS guy and the USPS guy, a forbidden love story. One of the unique characteristics of this film stock is that it was really made to be shot anywhere from 400 ISO to 3200 ISO. Apparently it featured decent push processing capability if you wanted to take things to the next level, not me though, based on what I've seen here. Apparently Presto is a stock that pulls very well too, definitely a less common practice these days, but still useful nonetheless. Based on my results, this film is very contrasty. I'd say pulling it one stop would even out the tones a little more nicely. We eventually came upon this vibrant and colorful neon sign, which was perfect for sterile, lifeless black and white. This is a shot I was looking forward to seeing the most from the role, a woman reading a book at the bus stop in front of the theater. Did it turn out how I expected? No, but maybe I put too much pressure on it in my head before I saw the final result. Maybe it's a good shot overall, but I just need to back away from it for a while. Being an artist is tough. I now understand what this guy was talking about with all of its unbridled complexity. Anyway, with one or two shots left in the role, I ignored the blatantly obvious shots that would have been good and took this instead. If there was any light or detail on the subject here, this shot would have worked out well, but I'm not that conscious as a photographer or lover. We can just throw that in there too. But speaking of love, you're going to fall right into it with today's sponsor, Squarespace. Are you an artist struggling to get your work out into the world and upon the eyes of the people? Aren't we all? Having a strong portfolio online is step number uno towards advancing your career in whatever line of work you're hoping to enter. Otherwise, where is everyone going to see your hard work? I use Squarespace to host my own photography portfolio because getting it set up was easier than pie, thanks to their simple drag and drop user interface. Start your website off with 100s of professionally designed templates that you can choose from and simply build from the ground up with ease. And if you know how to custom code, there are even modules for that. And if you run into any snags during the process, you can check out Squarespace's award-winning 24 seven customer support to get you back on track in no time. 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, who is this film stock made for? I don't know. But I do know one thing. Fuji used to dream big and this film stock was a product of that. Is it my favorite black and white film stock? I wouldn't say that, but it's a fun one. I might experiment with shooting it at 800 ISO in the future. I have three more roles of it, and I'll definitely be saving them for something special. Until then, I guess just hit that subscribe button for more makeup and beauty tips.