I used to shoot a lot of Tura black and white film, back in the 90’s. Cheap and reliable enough, I always thought this is a repackaged Pan-something. The main reason I kept buying it was that it was cheap, and because I was buying it from the Isles, I got it even cheaper for it was priced without the blasted taxes. So, I always had a brick or two in my fridge, which was great; always had a backup stash, in case I was too skint to get more Kodak, Agfa or whatever film I needed at the time. Cheap, available and somewhat reliable, what more could I ask for?
However, when processed in ID11 or D76, to me it resembled to Jessops Pan 100 somehow: the same greys and tonalities, sharp-ish of a sort, pretty good for travel with an open mind to results, if you get my meaning. This film was fickle and prone to overexposure. Had my fair share of fails with it, and at some point I gave up, with no major regrets; by that time I learned that 4 rolls of good film are always better than 10 rolls of cheapo.
Although I was shooting mainly b&w, I was purchasing Tura color film too; not a big fan of it, but the reason on buying it was the same as above: have something in reserve, just in case. I do not remember notable or stellar results with this film,, just your average street or architectural photographs.
A roll of this Tura Life Color 200 ended up in a photographic accessories box in my garage, must’ve been one of the last rolls bought of this brand in the very early 2000’s. Put it somewhere in a box and forgot about it. Found it in 2012 or 2013, and I have used it to shoot a few places while traveling in the Balkans that year, I believe. Processed it in a nearby lab, and had the results scanned. These here a a few frames from this roll, and while not bad, improper storage added to the failures of a colour film negative kept so many years in bad conditions.
Not much colour shift, although there are some photographs where it can be easily seen that the colour goes through an entire spectrum across the length of the frame. The shadows are getting screwed up, and sharpness suffers of well, not being sharp enough as it should. Grain wise, it’s all right, although some of it can be seen in underexposed areas of the negative. As said, not bad; remember what I said about “a film for the open minded” ?
