Kodak Gold 200 Color Negative Film
I started photography with a Kodak Instamatic camera and analog film as a teenager. It was quite expensive for me and I had to optimise the costs. To keep the costs low I mostly choose an offering which included a new film. This was never a Kodak film, it was always a house brand with an unknown manufacturer.
Intro
Analog photography is not about sharpness, resolution, color accuracy and can never compete with modern digital solution. Analog photos are dreamy, full of emotions and imperfectness.
After my Kodak Instamatic time I upgraded to an SLR camera with several lenses and sometimes I used entry level Kodak films. In my memory it was also called Kodak Gold. Then I studied and had no money left for photography. Afterwards analog was in decline the new thing was digital. For me too. After ten year digital photography I was attracted to analog again. The initial event was a reasonable price medium format camera. So I started again with black and white and developing film in my bathroom.
Is film photography different?
Film photography is much slower. From pressing the shutter till the image on paper you wait several days. You see errors you made, e.g. framing, after film developing and enlarging. Often you cannot correct the mistake because the moment / the ceremony / the event is over. This fact teaches you photography craft the hard way.
Nowadays images often never leave the memory card. They are looked at on small displays, details not visible. It is hard to improve if you don’t see the details.
Film photography is expensive! One dollar for one print is realistic. It gets expensive if you shoot with the digital mindset.
With film photography not everyone is a photographer!
The soul of film photography
Film ist not perfect. Today the word for this is vintage. The colours have a dreamy and artistic quality. With film an experienced photographer creates art.
Since I do analog photography again I tryout almost every film I can buy. In this blog post I show two model shootings with a Mamiya 6.
Kodak Gold 200 reminds me to Kodak Portra. Nice skin tones and very nice vintage colours.
If you like the example images then Kodak Gold 200 is for you! At least if you do film photography.
Is film photography for you?
No, film photography is over! It’s slow and expensive, resolution and colour accuracy are not top.
If you are curious about your photography skills try film! If your results are satisfying you have mastered the craft.
My recommendations
To try out film photography my recommendation is the Kodak 35mm Disposable 800 Camera with Flash. For around $20, nice results.
For my professional work visit https://starphoto.world and https://sound-rolling.com. This is my personal site: http://waltergilgen.net
(c) Copyright 2025 photos and text Walter Gilgen. All rights reserved.