Go Slow: CineStill 50Daylight, the most underrated film on Earth

It appears that everyone has the need for speed. The year is 2026 and a glance at the current lineup of film stocks will reveal that there are less than a handful of emulsions available with an ISO lower than 100…and only one in color: CineStill 50Daylight. Perhaps perceived impracticality has historically hampered its popularity. But fear not folks! We encourage you to go against the grain (see what I did there?), slow your roll, and give CineStill 50D a go this summer. It just might be the most underrated film on this beautiful blue marble. 

What is CineStill 50Daylight?

If you have watched “Interstellar”, “12 Years a Slave”, or “The Hateful Eight” and loved the look of those films, you’re pretty much already a fan of CineStill 50Daylight. Using the same motion picture technology as the film by the same name, it is then transformed using our proprietary “premoval” process to give the film its signature look. 

CineStill 50Daylight Features

CineStill 50Daylight is a daylight-balanced (5500K) color negative film stock, specially prepared for still photography use. Available in both 35mm and 120, it is rated at ISO 50/18° and designed to be processed in standard C-41 chemistry. It offers unrivaled highlight and shadow latitude, dynamic and accurate color rendition, and exceptionally high resolution with maximum sharpness. Factory spooled with self-adhesive labels, the film is remjet-free, creating its signature halation effect, while also delivering enhanced performance for scanning.

The Stigma of Slow

Shooting at 50 ISO gives a lot of people the impression that you either need to be photographing a supernova or have the steady hands of a brain surgeon. But if you will recall the good ole’ Sunny 16 Rule, on a sunny day you can achieve good exposures by setting your aperture to f/16 and your shutter speed to the reciprocal of your film speed. 

For CineStill 50D, that equates to f/16 and 1/30s (it’s usually best to err on the side of over-exposure with color negative film). Equivalent exposures include f/8 and 1/125s, f/4 and 1/500s, and so on. Even on an overcast day, you’ll do fine at f/5.6 and 1/30s, f/2.8 and 1/125s, or f/1.4 and 1/500s, all of which which are totally feasible for handheld photography.

The Benefits of Slow

In fact, slow speed films have some significant benefits. Aside from boasting very fine grain, they allow you to take full advantage of fast lenses and medium format cameras with relatively slow maximum shutter speeds on bright, sunny days. 

We tend to spend quite a bit of money on these pieces of gear to unlock that beautiful shallow depth of field look. However, faster films at around ISO 400 or higher often mean that we can’t actually shoot at the maximum aperture of our lens without massively overexposing the film. And while many color films can handle a fair bit of overexposure, colors do tend to change and inky black shadows become difficult to achieve. 

The problem is only exacerbated with most medium format cameras, whose maximum shutter speeds rarely exceed 1/500s.

Candidly Wide Open

“f/8 and be there” is a photographic adage often thrown about as gospel. It is true that f/8 can provide forgiving depth of field so you can focus on the moment. While that may be great for some genres like street photography, opening up your aperture has its own distinct advantages.

One day after work I decided to go for a little walk around Echo Park Lake and spied this young couple on a bench. It was quite a cinematic scene reminiscent of mid-90’s romantic dramas. I think the foreground-background separation I got with using a wider aperture works better in this case than if I had stopped down for more depth of field. The following are more examples of scenes where I found shooting wide open gave a more subtle sense of depth. 

f1.7 1/500th

f1.7 1/60th

f1.7 1/30th. With good window light, 50D can even be used for indoor portraits

Daylight-balanced film tends to result in cooler tones on overcast days but CineStill 50D handles it well as displayed in the cloudy scene below. 

f1.7 1/125th

As impressive as the results are in less than ideal light, CineStill 50D is truly at its best when used in full sun, where all its beautiful colors are able to shine. Not as punchy as Kodak Ektar, CineStill 50D provides a more pastel and neutral palette somewhere between that and Portra to my eyes, which is great for landscapes and portraits. 

Landscapes & Portraits

I was gifted free tickets to the Huntington Library this summer, which was an excellent excuse to pop on over with some CineStill 50D in tow. On top of being an incredible library and art museum, the Huntington also boasts beautiful botanical gardens, with a variety of desert, European, and Japanese designs. I found it a boon to be able to open up my aperture to its max on a bright day and emphasize certain elements of a scene. 

CineStill 50D in 120 200% crop

CineStill 50Daylight features arguably the finest grain of all color negative film stocks. To help illustrate this, the following are some samples with 200% crops. 

CineStill 50D in 135 200% crop

Even in 35mm, a 200% crop shows off impressively fine grain. So if your compositions aren't exactly to your liking, don't worry too much. 

Pushed +2

Because of its wide dynamic range and flexibility in post-processing, CineStill 50Daylight is quite forgiving of over- or under-exposure. It also push processes very capably. Here are examples of pushing 50D two stops to ISO 200. As usual, you can expect increased grain and contrast. 

CineStill 50D at Night

While the “D” in 50D stands for “daylight,” don’t let that moniker fool you into believing it can't handle low-light scenes. Being a slower film, your exposures will of course have to be longer (a tripod would come in very handy), but the finer grain compared to its nocturnal sibling 800Tungsten could be exactly what you're looking for to capture your favorite neon signs. 

Conclusion

Living in the Golden State, I'm well aware that we are quite spoiled with plentiful gorgeous light pretty much year round, and that many people reside in more luminously-challenged locales on this spinning rock. Nevertheless, there is a difference between a factor and an excuse. With a few of the common myths debunked, I hope you can appreciate the value that 50D’s existence brings and I believe you won’t be disappointed if you give it a try. On the contrary, it just might prove itself an indispensable arrow in your analog quiver.