Cinestill 800T Film vs Dehancer: A London Street Photography Experiment
London Street Photography with Cinestill 800T and Dehancer Film Emulation Software
As a landscape photographer, I don’t often step into the world of street photography, but sometimes it’s refreshing to explore a new challenge. Recently, I spent an evening in London testing Cinestill 800T, a legendary film, alongside Dehancer film emulation software to see how digital and analogue compared in real-world shooting conditions.
To start us off, here are a few images from the night, initially taken with the digital Canon EOS R5 camera and a Canon 35mm RF f1.8 STM lens
(If you’d like to try Dehancer yourself, you can use my discount code FASTFOX for 10% off all products. I should point out that I did get the software for free from Dehancer in return for the YouTube review.)
Now it was time to shoot with the real Cinestill 800T analogue film in London
The look of 35mm Cinestill film is fantastic, it creates real atmosphere for the streets of London, in particular theatre-land and Soho in the centre of the city. So, once I had seen some samples, I just had to give it a go myself.
Cinestill 800T began life as a motion picture film, originally used in the movie industry before being adapted for still photographers. Its hallmark is the unique way it handles artificial light, neon signs, strip lighting, and night-time city scenes glow with a red halation that gives images an ethereal quality. This 35mm film has a layer of emulsion removed which previously prevented halation. It is this previously unwanted halation that makes Cinestill so retro and unique for shooting in a city at night. It is a tungsten film and so not that good for daytime.
I loaded a roll into my Canon EOS 30 analogue film camera. This camera was last manufactured in 2004 when finally film succumbed to the digital era.
At ISO 800 the film is just fast enough for handheld night shooting with a bright lens. However, the drawback is that when dealing with moving subjects the film is just a bit too slow, resulting in softer and slightly blurred images. A tripod is impractical, and I think pushing it to the faster speed of ISO 1600 looks a bit naff.
Here are some images straight from the Cinestill film, which I developed and then scanned at home. As you will see, they are generally lacking in sharpness due to the low camera speed.
While I loved the retro feel of shooting analogue, the results weren’t flawless. Some frames suffered from softness and camera shake, and of course, with film you don’t know what you’ve captured until it’s developed. Add in the cost of around £18.50 a roll and increasing to £38 per roll once you factor in film, postage, and development and the limitations become clear.
Comparing Digital and Dehancer
To provide a fair comparison, I also shot the London street scenes on my Canon EOS R5, then used Dehancer film emulation software to recreate the Cinestill 800T look.
This was not that scientific, because as you will see it was a constant changing scene unfolding around me. I was also hindered by the fact that I like getting low for the reflections and without a digital flip screen for the analogue camera, similar to a digital camera, I was struggling to get low road reflection angles on the film camera. Dehancer Film Emulation software offers film profiles, grain, halation, and bloom effects that mimic analogue film with remarkable accuracy.
Applying the Cinestill 800T emulation profile in Dehancer, I was able to fine-tune contrast, halation glow, and grain directly in the digital file. The results were strikingly close to the real film look but sharper, more controllable, and far more reliable.
Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London.
Here is a direct comparison between Cinestill, Digital and Dehancer: I prefer the Dehancer film emulation version, but the Cinestill 800 film is not bad really. Probably down to personal taste.
Here are my favourite images from the evening, created from the digital camera using the Dehancer Emulation software in post production:
This video below shows how I edited the images using Dehancer software.
For me, the Dehancer emulation of Cinestill 800T often looked better than the actual scanned negatives, especially when handheld shooting was less than perfect. Using Dehancer in combination with Adobe Photoshop masking and blending can provide some staggeringly good results.
Cost and Practicality
The choice between real film and digital emulation often comes down to cost and control. Of quality Four rolls of Cinestill 800T a year could easily cost £150 or more, with only a fraction of the shots turning out exactly as intended. By contrast, Dehancer’s annual photo subscription is around £98 and provides unlimited access to a wide range of film profiles, not just Cinestill 800T.
For personal projects, experimenting with film is fun, tactile, and nostalgic. But for consistency, client work, or building a professional portfolio, Dehancer film emulation software paired with digital capture makes far more sense.
Final Thoughts
Exploring London street photography with both Cinestill 800T and Dehancer highlighted the best of both worlds: the magic glow of analogue film and the control and flexibility of digital emulation. While I’ll still shoot the occasional roll of film for the experience, Dehancer has become my go-to solution for recreating the look of classic films with modern convenience.
If you’d like to try Dehancer yourself, you can use my discount code FASTFOX for 10% off all products. ( I should point out that I did get the software for free from Dehancer in return for the YouTube review.)