Street Savvy and Other 400-Speed Cryptids, Old and New

In my last post, I talked about how I loved Street Savvy’s colors and level of detail more than enough to forgive clipped highlights. But what actually is Street Savvy?

From the blurred-out but familiar yellow logo on the box FlicFilm posted when they introduced it on social media, we can be pretty certain it’s a Kodak film. I’ve seen speculation that it’s either Ultramax 400, Portra 400, or Royal Gold 400.

I’ll be honest: I am not going to be the person to solve this mystery.

First of all, I’ve never shot Portra 400. Or any Portra. I’m a complete poser that way. Secondly, I’ve shot Ultramax a number of times, but rarely in a way that makes for a great comparison. I mostly use it for double exposure experiments these days. But here are a couple normal photos, just to prove I’ve actually shot it:

By the way, I’ve never shot Aurora 400, another FlicFilm stock, either, so I won’t be using that as a comparison. But just knowing it exists definitely adds another layer of mystery here.

Do I buy that Street Savvy is Ultramax? Not quite, but I admit the evidence is against me there. Especially since the negatives are the exact same orangey-pink color.

The thing is, I definitely don’t buy that Kodak would let someone resell Portra for significantly less per roll. So I don’t feel the need to pay Portra prices just to find that out. Royal Gold is another story. I knew next to nothing about that film.

Before I knew it, I found myself on the Wikipedia page for discontinued Kodak film stocks. I came across one other film stock that seemed to have the same qualities as Royal Gold 400: Kodak High Definition 400. In fact, the data sheets for each film both boast: very fine grain, excellent sharpness, excellent color reproduction, and natural-looking skin tones.

Royal Gold was produced from 1996-2004, when it was apparently replaced by High Definition 400. Was it the same film with new branding, or just something similar?

HD400 is listed as running from “2003-?” The implication that it could still be out there piqued my interest. Are they still making it, and selling it to respoolers rather than marketing it themselves?

I ordered a few rolls each of expired Royal Gold 400 and High Definition 400 off of Ebay- knowing full way that the only way to do a real comparison would be to get a time machine, age a roll of Street Savvy by 20+ years, and then shoot it at ISO 100 like I did the two rolls of expired film.

In my defense, I’d gone too long without shooting expired film, and I was having a craving.

Since I had multiple rolls of each, I did a handful of bracketed shoots between ASA 25-400 for each, and then shot the rest of the roll at 100. 100 turned out to be a pretty good choice for both of them, luckily.

Though both had some color shifts- as you’d expect from expired color film- Royal Gold wound up looking much warmer.

The detail is definitely still there, though.

These are the unedited scans, by the way.

The High Definition scans came back very soft and muted, but there was a dreamy quality to them that I really liked. Expired film, how I missed you.

A few minutes in Darktable with this roll and I fell absolutely in love.

I can really see how it got its name- and why it was a worthy successor to Royal Gold.

I also don’t hate the idea of it being Street Savvy’s origin. Now, do I actually think they have measurable qualities in common? Maybe. Am I being influenced by the certain unquantifiable pull I feel towards both films that seems to defy all reason? Almost certainly.

Of course, it would be a huge stretch of the imagination for me to try and extrapolate what either of these films would have looked like fresh. They held up fairly well though, given their age. Maybe the rolls I had were stored well. All I know is I’m already eying up those two rolls of HD I have left in my fridge.

Of course, when I got my negatives back of these films, all three were completely different hues.

Street Savvy was that same orangey-pink color as Ultramax, of course. Royal Gold was a kind of muted pink-brown. High Definition was a greenish-brown.

Would age change the color of the negatives? I have no idea. If not, there goes my theory about Street Savvy being High Def 400.

There’s no real conclusion here. I shot three films, and I loved them, and I had fun. Film’s mysteries can be frustrating at times. Am I wasting my money buying upcharged Ultramax with cooler branding? Am I wasting my money buying expired film for an absolutely worthless comparison?

Am I wasting money by shooting film in the first place?

Yes, almost certainly. We do crazy things for love.