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Olympus OM-2n | Los Angeles | Cinestill 800T | Zuiko 50mm F1.4 & Tokina 24mm F2.8

My first experience with Cinestill 800T ("T" for Tungsten) film was shooting a music video in a barber shop, the music video would be composed wholly of one roll of film images. I've shuffled the pictures around a bit so don't worry if the story doesn't make sense.

I was using an Olympus Om-2n with an Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.4 and a Tokina 24mm f2.8 wide-angle lens. There is a possibility I shot a few images with the Olympus Zuiko 100mm 2.8 as well. I shot everything according to the built-in camera meter, though it's possible I had set the exposure compensation to -1.

As far as I can tell or recall, the barber shop had fluorescent lighting all throughout. It looks great on Cinestill 800T but it's in fact somewhat opposite of what the film is meant for. Cinestill 800T is a tungsten balanced color negative film, so shooting in tungsten light will yield the best results.

One image really shines on this roll and gives a the cinematic look that drew me to choosing this film for the job in the first place. I'm happy with all of them but that one just stood out from the rest. It's the image above, and it had just the right exposure and dynamic range. There is plenty of articifial lighting that set the look for the roll as well as a nice strong warm natural light from the sunset outside. As much as I liked the film, I would not shoot another roll of Cinestill 800T until three years later in Amsterdam.