Kodak Reviews

This is a decent and relatively flexible fast b&w with horrible tonal range. There is not enough detail in highlights or shadows with this film as compared to Ilford and other company's offerings. It is all around just not very impressive. Yes, it is true that it is can be pushed, pulled and do the hokey pokey, but whatever you use it for, the negatives produced are flat and without the kind of range that other 400 speed 35mm b&w films are capable of. It is also not the most flexible film in its category. While some companies are continually improving their film and paper products, Kodak is apparently content to offer the same poor quality film they've been offering for at least 10 years now.

I have used this film in a B & W photo class. I really like it because you can expose it as ISO 200 and it gives you a well-exposed negative in daylight. With reciprocity correction (needing to over-expose when indicated exposure falls higher than 1 second) it also gives excellent night time pictures. Best of all as a B & W film it is pretty uniform in its response to different colors of light. It is quite fine-grained and it is easy to make a crisp eight by ten enlargement without getting grainy.

I am a professional fine art photographer and almost exclusivly use kodak film. I have found that TMax film is the best you can get for a slightly more grainy, mystical art look. On the other hand the Plus-X seems to give a finer grained sharper image. Either way you decide to go, both films are great. For best results develop this film on your own in a darkroom, or have a lab process it on black and white paper. Because this is true black and white film, not C-41 process, it cannot be developed with color film or printed on color paper. The negatives are thicker, giving you a much wider range of tones and greater contrast. The blacks are black and the whites are white.
I highly recommend this great film if you are looking into fine are photography. It is also great when using a soft focus effect.

As a professional photographer for 20 yrs., I can honestly say I have had alot of experience with this film....This is what I buy when quality really counts!..Its high contrast extremely valuable when necessary for publication...would definitely recommend.

T-Max 100 is a good film to use if you develop and process your own film and print your own photos. Out of other B&W film such as Ilford and AGFA, T-Max emphasizes the most contrast but that also means that it doesn't have a high tonal effect. In other words, you will get good sharp black and white but not a wide range of shades of gray.

Even though this is a relatively cheap lens, I still think it could be a little bit better. There is quite a bit of distortion (barreling) which I guess is to be expected considering it is a cheap lens (nice wide angle lenses can cost [much, much more]). The barreling I can live with considering the price and what I use it for, but the chromatic aberrations are really really bad. If you want to see rainbows then this camera is great--taking a picture of the stars reveals them to be giant rainbows... Yeah, not nice. Under normal uses (i.e. non point light sources like the stars), this will usually manifest itself in blue and red outlines around objects. If I take off this lens and just use the camera's internal lens I don't have these problems, so it is definitly the wide angle lens causing the problems.

While this lens isnt bad, a nikon lens is much more functional.

...Without the lens I wouldn't have been able to get the tops in of buildings and clock towers in the photographs I've taken. I've used the lens in conjunction with 360 degree panoramic photography, whereby 18 or so individual photos are taken at twenty degree angles and then stitched together to make one wrap-around image.

In some shots a little distortion is present around the edges of the image, but this effect is common when using super wide angle lens.

In some shots I got no noticeable distortion at all - but they tended to be the lower res ones.

All in all I think this is a cool product and a must have for landscape and panoramic photography.

If you have a Kodak DC290 camera you will need a lens adapter as well...

Although the frame and the orginal Storybox concept was excellent, it is just another orphan product by Kodak. I own one and am looking to begin a class action suit against Kodak for misrepresentation of the product. As a long time user of Kodak products, this is the third time that this company has left me with a nearly worthless product, and I will never again purchase anything that has the Kodak label or is manufactured, merchandised, or supported by Kodak. I would strongly recommend against purchasing anything from this company, including film. I have even switched to all Fuji film in hopes that they will sell enough to continue products. I certainly would not count on Kodak!

I also found the StoryBox service contract for the Kodak Smart Picture Frame to be confusing. You can transfer pictures to the frame using one of two methods: 1) Compact Flash Card, or 2) Via the Internet using the "StoryBox Network" - the frame uses a built-in modem to dial into StoryBox and retrieve pictures that you (or others) uploaded to the StoryBox Network.

It stated on the box that a one-year subscription was required for the frame to work. It also states this in the StoryBox terms of service agreement. The agreement specifies that a subscription to the service is necessary for the frame to work. The agreement also states that the frame needs to dial into the service every 10 days or the frame will stop working. I found this to be very unreasonable, as the recipient of this gift (my wife) owns a Kodak digital camera (that uses a compact flash card) and has no need to use the StoryBox service to get pictures to the Smart Picture Frame.

I spoke extensively with Kodak and StoryBox about this. Both admitted that, after my initial 6-month subscription (provided free with the Smart Picture Frame) to the StoryBox Network expires I could discontinue service and continue to use the frame by transferring pictures using ONLY my compact flash card.

The StoryBox website is VERY misleading with regard to this fact, while the Kodak website is very truthful and states that a subscription to the StoryBox network is only needed to share pictures to or from your frame, print pictures from the frame, and receive news, sports, etc.

Bottom line: If you have the ability to transfer pictures using a CF card, you won't need to continue to subscribe to the StoryBox service (Note: you will need to subscribe for the first free six months to activate the frame - after the free six months you can cancel with no early termination fee).

I have yet to actually use the frame (Christmas gift) but gave it three stars based upon the headache I had to go through to figure out how this thing works!

Kodak has done a terrible job marketing its Smart Picture Frame because it is the only one currently on the market that allows the user to insert a Compact Flash card filled with images and display literally hundreds of images as a slide show (time for each slide adjustable by user) which is a fact Kodak really doesn't play up in its ads for this frame. This is a great way for you and your family to have the opportunity to see all the vacation or holiday pictures without limiting the number of images to 20-24 pictures as do the other digital frames and without the time-consuming need of first uploading your images to the internet and then downloading them sometime later that night to your frame. After all, isn't one of the reasons to have a digital camera to take (and be able to see) lots and lots of pictures? The frame does not have to be connected to your computer and can be placed anywhere in the house, but does need an electrical outlet and a phone jack nearby. To send images to someone else who has a Smart Frame does require the use of the internet, as do all of the others in this category, but its operation is simple, if not time-consuming, over a dial-up connection. There is a monthly fee for the use of the frame, but I believe all of the others in this category also require such a fee. Unlike the others, the frame is made of wood which gives it a classier look. It is not the least expensive of the digital frames, but no one who comes to our house (as well as us) fails to be fascinated by the scores of ever-changing pictures.
If your primary goal is to send pictures to Grandma, any of the frames in this group will do. But if your primary goal is for you and your family to get to see all 150 of last summer's vacation pictures again, this is the best frame for that purpose.