Kodak ColorPlus 200 film review: it's fine

Kodak ColorPlus 200 is Kodak’s budget color film… sort of. Even setting aside the fact that across-the-board price rises mean that no color films can really be called ‘budget’, ColorPlus also isn’t even notably cheap among Kodak’s range. It can be found for pretty much the same price as Kodak Gold 200, the famously warm-toned sunset-loving film with which it shares a lot of DNA, and it’s only a dollar or so cheaper than the high-speed Ultramax 400.

However, a dollar is a dollar, and ColorPlus’s relative affordability means it’s consistently one of the most popular color stocks around, and often sells out quickly. But does it have much to recommend it in its own right, or are people just sorting by price, low to high, and clicking ‘buy’?

I’ve shot ColorPlus 200 before, but it’s been a while, so I thought I’d refresh my memory, load up a fresh roll, and find out whether this quasi-budget stock has appeal beyond its low asking price.

Kodak ColorPlus 200: Specifications

Kodak ColorPlus 200: Price & Availability

Kodak ColorPlus 200 is available in 35mm format only. Generally, for a single roll you’re looking at paying around $8-9 or £9-10, and you might be able to shave a little off that by buying rolls in bulk (though honestly not much).

ColorPlus 200 is developed using the standard C41 process, so it’s nice and cheap to get your shots processed if you don’t have a home setup.

Kodak ColorPlus 200: Performance

When you first look at your ColorPlus 200 scans, you may feel a little disappointed. It’s a rather muted film, with soft colors and low saturation. There’s some warmth to it, but in dull light it is very easy to come away with drab images. However, once you get used to it, this lo-fi look can become part of ColorPlus’s charm. It has a real vintage feel, without the showy saturation of Ultramax. It likes plenty of light, but you can get pleasing results even on overcast days by embracing its softness.

It’s worth noting that unlike many of its other films, Kodak has not published a technical datasheet for ColorPlus 200, which lends it a bit of an air of mystery. Though there is one for Gold 200, which is clearly a very similar emulsion, so we can use that to make some inferences. Kodak uses a Print Grain Index scale from 0 to 100 to assess the graininess of its films, based on producing a 4x6” print from a 35mm frame. Gold 200 scores 44, which is slightly lower than Ultramax’s 46, and a lot higher than Ektar’s >25 (they don’t bother specifying below 25 as that’s judged to be the minimum level perceptible to the human eye). You’d expect ColorPlus to be about the same as Gold, and visual inspection of images bears this out. It offers nowhere near the detail level of professional films like Ektar, but is a little cleaner than 400 ISO films like Ultramax.

The ISO of 200 makes it a little less versatile in low light than Kodak’s Ultramax stock, and it’s also not particularly tolerant to exposure errors. Underexpose even a little and details will become muddy very quickly – details that weren’t particularly strong to begin with. Still, like all Kodak films, it is DX-coded, so if you have an electronic SLR with the ability to read DX coding, you can set the exposure to auto.

The sun came out in force when I shot my latest roll of ColorPlus, and this did help wash away some of that muted drabness to produce images with a bit more pop.

Kodak ColorPlus 200: Sample Images

I shot my most recent roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 on a Pentax ME Super SLR with a 50mm f/1.2 lens, and you can see the results below. I’ve also included a few images from a previous roll shot on a Canon EOS 500, using a 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Kodak ColorPlus 200: Verdict

I can’t honestly say that I find Kodak ColorPlus 200 to be terribly exciting when I load it up. Sure, its warm tones mean it looks great when you’re shooting a golden-hour sunset – but doesn’t everything?

Otherwise, the lo-fi vintage look imbued by its soft colors and noticeable grain can definitely be appealing, but can also make it difficult to produce images with much impact. Ultramax just pops more, and Ektar absolutely blows it out of the water in terms of detail. Sure, Ektar costs double, but an argument could be made (and I’m making it) that 36 tack-sharp and vibrant shots are worth more than 72 muddy and muted ones.

Still, for color film, ColorPlus 200 is cheap, and it’s a decent daily driver for family shots, days out and casual photography. You certainly won’t hate the results you get – but you might find it tough to love them.

Kodak ColorPlus 200 alternatives

If you’re looking for cheap film, there are tons of affordable black & white stocks out there. Kentmere 100 is well known as the most affordable, producing clean images with a nice, fine grain. It’ll be more expensive to develop though.

We’ve discussed it at length, but Kodak Ultramax 400 is a popular alternative, producing images that are more saturated and punchy, with a little more tangible grain from its higher ISO rating. I’d recommend it over ColorPlus for beginners.