Film stocks
Portra, Gold, CineStill: three films on iPhone.
Kodak Portra 400 for skin, Kodak Gold for warm summers, CineStill 800T for city nights. What the three films really are, and what their looks do to the colors of an iPhone photo.
Portra 400: made for skin.
Kodak’s portrait film, built on motion picture technology.
Kodak launched the Portra line in 1998. Today’s Portra 400 arrived in 2010 and replaced the earlier 400NC and 400VC. Kodak’s data sheet calls it the “world’s finest-grain 400-speed color negative film”, built on its VISION motion picture film technology, and recommends it for “spectacular skin tones” in portrait and fashion work.
You can see that intent in the IIWII look. Skin keeps its hue but loses saturation, so faces come out soft rather than orange. Yellows calm down, foliage turns a deeper, cooler green, and pure white drops slightly and picks up a cool tint, like a scanned negative.
Sources Kodak, Portra 400 technical data E-4050 (February 2016); Kodak Portra on Wikipedia. Checked in October 2026.
Kodak Gold: warm and forgiving.
The consumer film that made summer photos look like summer.
Gold 200 descends from Kodacolor VR 200, introduced in 1982. Kodak describes it as an “outstanding combination of color saturation, fine grain, and high sharpness”, and gives it wide latitude: two stops under to three stops over still print well. It has stayed one of the cheaper color films. Analog.Cafe’s 2026 price watch puts a 36-exposure roll at about $10.
The IIWII look is the warmest of the three. Skin shifts toward gold and gains saturation. Reds deepen, yellows push to full strength, and a blue sky turns toward cyan. Shadows pick up a warm brown instead of going neutral black.
Sources Kodak, Gold 200 technical data E-7022 (June 2023); Kodacolor on Wikipedia; PetaPixel on film prices in 2026 (July 9, 2026). Checked in October 2026.
Grain, by the numbers.
Kodak measures grain on a print, not on the film.
Kodak rates grain with its Print Grain Index. It describes how grainy a print looks to the eye, and Kodak notes that it replaces the older RMS granularity. A value around 25 is where grain starts to become visible. Lower numbers mean finer grain.
IIWII adds the same fine digital grain to every look, and you can switch it off per look. It does not try to reproduce a film’s exact grain index.
CineStill 800T: a movie film, unwrapped.
Tungsten balance and a red glow nobody planned.
CineStill has served photographers since 2012. Its 800T is “originally based on a 500-speed motion picture film”: Kodak Vision3 500T, which Kodak balances for 3200 K tungsten light. Motion picture film carries a black backing called rem-jet. CineStill removes it so the film can be developed in ordinary C-41 labs, and rates it at 800 under tungsten light.
Removing the backing also removes the film’s protection against halation. That is where the famous red glow around street lights and neon comes from.
In 2025, Kodak started replacing rem-jet on its Vision3 films with a new anti-halation undercoat, which changes how the base film behaves for anyone who strips it.
The IIWII look reproduces the colors, not the glow. Shadows turn blue-teal, highlights warm up slightly, greens shift strongly toward teal, and a warm lamp is cooled down, just as a tungsten film does with warm light. IIWII’s optional Soft Light adds a gentle glow to highlights on every look, but it is not red halation.
Sources CineStill, FAQ and About; Kodak, Vision3 500T technical data and AHU announcement; Kosmo Foto, Kodak replacing rem-jet (June 2025); Analog.Cafe, Halation in film photography (July 23, 2025). Checked in October 2026.
Why 800T turns blue in daylight.
A tungsten film expects warm light, and corrects for it.
Kodak rates Vision3 500T at EI 500 under tungsten and at EI 320 in daylight with an orange 85 filter, which warms the light back. Without the filter, daylight scenes turn cool and teal, which is the look many people now want from CineStill on purpose.
Which one to shoot.
Pick by light, not by name.
- Portra 400 for people, overcast days and soft window light. It forgives skin and calms busy colors.
- Kodak Gold for sun, beaches and anything that should feel warm and nostalgic. Avoid it when skin is already red.
- CineStill 800T for evenings, streets, neon and tungsten-lit rooms. In daylight it turns cool and cinematic.
In IIWII, every look shows live in the viewfinder, so you can switch while you frame. Each one goes from 0 to 120 percent intensity, and on iOS 18 and later the Look Manager adjusts light, color and white balance on top. Real film is still the real thing; these looks are interpretations, built so an iPhone photo feels closer to it.
Sources Kodak Vision3 500T data sheet; IIWII 5.2 look definitions, checked October 19, 2026.
Questions and answers
Which film has finer grain, Portra 400 or Gold 200?
Portra 400, although it is a stop faster. Kodak gives a Print Grain Index of 37 for Portra 400 and 44 for Gold 200, both for a 4 × 6 inch print from 35mm film. Lower means finer.
Why does CineStill 800T glow red around lights?
CineStill is made without an anti-halation layer. Bright light passes through the emulsion, reflects at the back of the film base and exposes the deepest, red-sensitive layer a second time. That shows up as a red halo.
Does IIWII simulate halation?
No. IIWII’s CineStill 800T look changes colors, not how light spreads. Its optional Soft Light adds a gentle glow to highlights on every look, but it is not a red halation effect.
Is CineStill 800T a daylight film?
No. It is balanced for tungsten light, like the Kodak Vision3 500T motion picture film it is based on, which Kodak balances for 3200 K. In daylight it turns cool unless you filter or correct it.
Can I adjust these looks in IIWII?
Yes. Each look has an intensity from 0 to 120 percent, and the Look Manager on iOS 18 and later lets you change light, color and white balance on top of it.
Try it on your iPhone.
IIWII costs $2 once. No subscription, no account, no ads. Runs on iOS 15 and later.
Kodak, Portra, Kodak Gold and Vision3 are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company. CineStill is a trademark of CineStill Film. Fujifilm is a trademark of FUJIFILM Corporation. IIWII is not affiliated with or endorsed by them; its looks are interpretations, not the films themselves.