Optik Oldschool SantaColor 800 - 35mm Colour Negative Film

Santa in a new coat. This one was made for cameras rather than aeroplanes.

The name is shared with the aerial stock. Almost nothing else is.

Optik Oldschool SantaColor 800 35mm Film is an ISO 800 daylight-balanced colour negative film made in the USA. It offers high sharpness, medium grain and natural skin tones at a speed built for low light and moving subjects. Optik Oldschool recommend Portra 800 guidelines. Standard C-41, 36 exposures.

What Makes Optik Oldschool SantaColor 800 Habit-Forming

Not the Aerial One

Worth clearing up first, because the shared name causes genuine confusion. SantaColor 800 is not respooled movie film and not repurposed surveillance stock. Optik Oldschool are explicit that it is film made for use in still cameras, which puts it in a different category entirely from SantaColor 100 despite the family resemblance on the box.

ISO 800 Without the Usual Compromises

Speed normally costs you something. Here the grain stays medium rather than coarse, sharpness holds up, and colour reproduction stays true rather than drifting as the light fails. That combination is the reason to reach for this instead of pushing something slower and living with the consequences.

Natural Skin Tones

Fast colour film has a habit of turning complexions ruddy or sallow. This one renders skin naturally, which makes it considerably more useful for photographing people in dim rooms than the speed alone would suggest.

Shoot It Like Portra 800

Optik Oldschool recommend using Kodak Portra 800 guidelines for both exposure and processing. If you have already worked that film out, you have effectively worked this one out. That is unusually specific advice from a manufacturer and worth taking at face value.

Built for Moving Subjects

The speed buys you shutter time. Concerts, markets, children, dogs, anything that refuses to hold still long enough for an ISO 200 film to cope. It also earns its place in bright daylight, where ISO 800 buys back the depth of field you would otherwise have to give up.

Standard C-41 Processing

Developed in standard C-41 chemistry at any colour lab, including here at Chemical Dependency Lab. No remjet, no special handling, no awkward conversation with your lab.

36 Exposures

A full 36-exposure roll in standard 35mm format. No 120 version exists.

Is SantaColor 800 the same as Kodak Portra 800?

Optik Oldschool have not said. They confirm it is made in the USA and recommend Portra 800 exposure and processing guidelines, which is suggestive but not a statement of origin. Photographers running side by side comparisons have found the two render very closely. Nobody in a position to confirm the emulsion has done so. But it could be the Kodak 800 Gold loaded into Kodak disposable cameras.

Is SantaColor 800 the same emulsion as SantaColor 100?

No. They share a brand and nothing else. SantaColor 100 is Kodak Aerocolor IV, an aerial survey film hand spooled into cassettes. SantaColor 800 is a purpose-made still camera film. Different speeds, different origins, different behaviour. Buying one expecting the other will disappoint you.

Best For Available light photography, indoor events, evening streets, and any situation where a slower film would leave you at a shutter speed you cannot hold steady. It suits documentary and reportage work particularly well, where the light does what it likes and you have to keep shooting regardless. It sits alongside the rest of our low light and high speed film for exactly those conditions. C-41 development, scanning and printing are available here if you would rather not deal with the chemistry yourself.

Perfect for: Photographers who shoot indoors and after dark, anyone tired of pushing 400 speed film and living with the results, portrait shooters who need speed without wrecking skin tones, and anyone whose dependency does not observe daylight hours.

Fast colour film has become an awkward category, with most of the interesting options being cine stocks that bring their own complications. SantaColor 800 is refreshingly ordinary in the best sense: a proper still film, made for cameras, that goes through standard chemistry and does what it says at the speed it claims. Load it when the light goes and stop worrying about it.

If you want the aerial one instead, that is SantaColor 100, and the rest of the range sits in colour negative film.