Kodak UltraMax 400 .

Kodak UltraMax 400 is an all-rounder. It’s a wonderful film to take on holidays. It’s good outdoors or indoors and can handle images that are over or under exposed. Under exposure is less forgiving, but for a film where you don’t want to fuss over exposure in social gatherings this is a solid choice.

What makes it a good holiday film is how well it does when shooting different subjects — people, buildings, landscapes — it captures them all faithfully. The contrast is crisp, the colours warmish, but this is a daylight balanced film. It’s this balance that makes it a good film for portraiture, architecture and nature.

UltraMax has a strong lineage. Kodacolor VR-G 400 was first released in 1986 rebranded as Kodacolor Gold 400 then as Kodak Gold 400 and has been known as UltraMax since about 2007. It has the same T-GRAIN emulsion technology as Kodak T-Max — the result is grain that is almost identical to its slower sibling — Kodak Gold 200. Genuinely impressive.

Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned photographer, UltraMax deserves its place in your fridge — one day you might want to shoot a roll without fussing over which roll to take around town. UltraMax could be that film.