night shooting film stock choice

[gimlay]

I'm trying to some night shots with 'natural' light. It will be in the city with all those horrible orange sodium/mercury vapor lights- as well as whatever else is around. Im a little unsure of which film stocks to try (16mm). The final result will be telecined but Id like to get as close as possible in camera. Any suggestions?

[David Mullen ASC]

First of all, you'll need some good fast lenses. Second, it helps to have a camera that can undercrank when you can't tell what the real speed of objects are anyway.

 

I'd go with Kodak Vision-2 500T 7218. It even pushes one-stop very well. But expose accurately.

[Michael Nash]

The ballpark exposure I go by for available light urban night exteriors is T1.4 @640 ASA. That exposure figure can vary wildly of course, but it gives you a target to base your choices on. That means 500ASA film exposed at a T2 will still be 1-1/3 stop underexposed. But some brightly lit areas can give you a decent stop at 500 ASA.

 

I'll second the recommendation for 7218 pushed one stop.

[John Pytlak RIP]

Today, Kodak VISION2 500T Color Negative Film 7218 would be the obvious choice. Push-1 can help compensate for underexposure.

 

You will lose a bit of shadow detail with underexposure, and you will lose some "richness" of the blacks in a print. But for telecine, you can usually achieve a really good black, even with some underexposure.