What brand & speed of 35mm slide film to use??

Back in the day - I used Fuji 50 color slide film in my Nikonos III. Have there been any breakthroughs in film technology in the last 10 years that would drive me to switch??

Only the Velvia 100:

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/epartn...oductVelvia.jsp

I used it a few times before completely switching to digital, and its quality is comparable to the Velvia 50, with the added bonus of being ISO 100. But it's hard to find and the price is going up too these digital days...

Luiz

P.S.: I moved the topic to the Film area...

Back in the day - I used Fuji 50 color slide film in my Nikonos III. Have there been any breakthroughs in film technology in the last 10 years that would drive me to switch??

Depends if you are shooting with the slide as your final product (say for projection) or if you're wanting to have a piece of film that you can scan to create a digital file for digital projection, display on screen, printing etc.

If the latter is your goal, you might want to consider Fuji's Astia 100. It is far lower contrast than velvia or provia, and the colour reproduction is very accurate, and it scans very nicely on consumer scanners which aren't known for their abilty to handle high contrast. Astia's blue reproduction is particularly nice, not the magenta-blue of the other fuji films. Its very nice for natural light/clear water/big blue images.

So you can shoot Astia, make a nice scan with lots of information and add your contrast and saturation enhancements in Photoshop. It's a lot like shooting RAW digital files and adding your preffered characteristics to images as required.

darren

do they still make Velvia 50? i thought that was stopped and only 100 available now. I could be wrong

Velvia 100 is ok, but i prefer Provia 100

Hi,

I was told Fuji is going to reproduce NEW type of Velvia 50......really hope they do. I use mixture of Velvia, Provia & Kodak ES.

Sam

Hi,

I was told Fuji is going to reproduce NEW type of Velvia 50......really hope they do.

Sam

I also understand this is the case.

As one who has shot film underwater for over 25 years and still does with 5 working systems-the statement back in the day is really about kodacrome 64-now that was hot back in the day

The newer trend 90's to recent was Velvia 50 for macro work as well as w/a. Now thats thats gone for most ( still have a bunch in fridge) the Velvia 100 seems the best bet. Film has been kicked down here a bit but still when it works well nothing is better than film for those super snappy shots. Glad to see others using it. Remember they made a trillion or so of film cameras for about 100+ years and those new dig ones are only a few years old so film will be around awhile more I feel.

Film is less forgiving and is more costly to work with but hey quality sometimes costs more. Mark

As one who has shot film underwater for over 25 years and still does with 5 working systems-the statement back in the day is really about kodacrome 64-now that was hot back in the day. Mark

Kodachrome was great u/w. Astia is the closest thing to kodachrome as far as blue repro goes.

Kodachrome was great u/w. Astia is the closest thing to kodachrome as far as blue repro goes.

I prefer Asita on land. I use it in the 120 format and found it is the best for scanning. When I start shooting underwater, I will continue to shoot Astia due to the extra exposure latitude.

Also, there are two types of Velvia 100. The new Velvia 100 and the older Velvia 100 F. I never liked the 100 F, not near as nice as the Velvia 50. stay away from the 100 F

Depends if you are shooting with the slide as your final product (say for projection) or if you're wanting to have a piece of film that you can scan to create a digital file for digital projection, display on screen, printing etc.

 

If the latter is your goal, you might want to consider Fuji's Astia 100. It is far lower contrast than velvia or provia, and the colour reproduction is very accurate, and it scans very nicely on consumer scanners which aren't known for their abilty to handle high contrast. Astia's blue reproduction is particularly nice, not the magenta-blue of the other fuji films. Its very nice for natural light/clear water/big blue images.

 

So you can shoot Astia, make a nice scan with lots of information and add your contrast and saturation enhancements in Photoshop. It's a lot like shooting RAW digital files and adding your preffered characteristics to images as required.

 

darren

Is there an Astia 100 and Astia 100F? If so, is there any difference between them?

How do print enlargements turn out (8x10, 11x16) using these films for u/w photos?

astia 100 is the previous generation of the current astia 100F film. same color balance just a generation better. This is the film i use in the studio as it renders skin-tones the best. I havent used it underwater but i would expect it to have a nice neutral color balance without any extra contrast or saturation like velvia. This neutral balance will make it easier to scan to make prints.

As for enlargements i have made prints from wallets to 24x36 prints off astia slides it just comes down to the scan that was done and how well its prepared before printing, if its a good slide it should be pretty easy but if its not it could be a major challenge and require alot of photoshop work to get it to print. I personally shoot it right in camera so that my post is minimal if at all, and save the voodoo, and tricks to save a shot that i need.

Overall this is a pretty good film i would use it or provia (color balance is alittle more blue which is good underwater when properly exposed) as a slide film to start with underwater.

FWIW

Tooth

When I was still shooting film I used Velvia 50 for all my macro shots & Provia 100 for my w/a shots. You can still get both from several sources.

Something else to think about is AGFA Scalla for black and white. As far as I know it is the only B&W 35mm slide film on the market. For a while there was a problem with getting it processed, but I found a place that is still processing it.

YMMV

fisheyeview

Just adding my vote for Fuji Velvia! I have tried lots of film over the years and will only shoot on Velvia now. When I'm shooting film.

Velvia 100 is the best

Any places in Australia still selling Velvia 50 and 100??

Before I went over to shooting a digital camera, I changed to shooting colour negative film that scanned very nicely. Of course, it was a temporary phase as digital cameras quickly improved.

I get Velvia 100 in five packs on Amazon. It's not especially pricey, but nobody local process E-6 anymore, so I had to send it to SoCal (The Darkroom) at $13.00/roll plus another five bucks for high quality scans and five more for shipping-about twenty four dollars a roll total. Ack.