Night Tungsten
Here is where the Film Pack 07 is a little different. Unlike previous film packs where the multiple sections were just alterations of the films in other sections within the same film pack, the Night Tungsten films were developed separately. These films were developed specifically for night photography, using them on photographs during the day will give them odd color casts.
There are some more noticeable differences between the different film presets under the “Night Tungsten” umbrella. The image above was shot at ISO 6400 on the Fuji X100T, there was no post processing other than image upright and adding the VSCO preset. What do you think?
Value
I’ll keep this short and sweet… If you do a lot of night shooting then this film pack may be worth it. If you don’t own any other VSCO Film Packs then this is the first one I’d start with. It’s got enough to get your teeth wet without overwhelming you with needless presets that need manual tweaking to be useful. If you own all the other film packs and don’t do a lot of night shooting I’d recommend passing on this one. Even if you do shoot a lot of night photography the presets are only useful when the white balance is just right (around 3500) so the images you’ll want to use this on are few and far between. I would not pay $119 or even $89 for this film pack (I got it for 50% off because I own the others and they were running a promo until June 19th, 2015).
Ease Of Use
Film pack 06 lost a point or two in my book because all of the different choices were a mess and there was no rhyme or reason to it. Film 07 fixes this issue and everything is laid out neatly. If you are familiar with VSCO then using 07 is a breeze. If you are unfamiliar with 07, just like anything, there will be a learning curve but it’s not difficult and you’ll pick it up in a few minutes.
Variety
This is where 07 loses its value proposition for me. VSCO’s business model is unsustainable in my eyes, I can’t see how they will continue to come up with new presets and I can already see that they are churning out more of the same. As I said earlier, if you don’t own any other film packs this is the one I’d start with. Otherwise, I’d skip this one.
Quality
This is as much about Film Pack 007 as it is VSCO 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, and 06… VSCO manages to create software that manipulates your photography a great deal without leaving digital artifacts or banding of any sort (provided you shoot in RAW or NEF). The tools that come with VSCO that allow you to fine tune each photograph are incredibly useful, even when you aren’t using VSCO. I can’t tell you how many times I popped over to tools to reduce my highlights, sharpen an image, or just add a little fade.
Film Pack 07 suffers a little from “more of the same” but if you don’t own any of the previous film packs this one is the one to start with. For those of you that already own the other film packs, the differences between these film presets is so subtle that I’d recommend saving your money and enjoying the film packs you already own.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below (if I haven’t already read them…). If you have any questions about any of the film packs you can ask in the comments as well and I will answer to the best of my ability.
