Best colour negative film for enlargement

[StoneNYC]

So far I only have experience with Ektar 100 in 35mm but I've shot about 20 rolls of it so I'll go ahead and give my .02cents. I have some shots of Ektar 100 that are cleaner looking than digital when examined on my computer with scans of equal res, its not the norm but its possible, the stuff is scary fine grain. Was my first roll of 35mm film I used and 8x10's of 35mm Ektar 100 look as clean as my digital shots when printed. Portra 400 is also very impressive, it looks better than most consumer 200 speed film allot of the time, so if you needed 400 ISO stuff it'd be a good choice. Reala is also a good choice, although I have not shot it myself, only seen negs and scans. The other day I was entertaining the thought of renting large format and looked into 4x5 Ektar 100 and it was remarkably cheaper than stuff like Velvia and Provia and honestly Ektar 100 is right on par with Velvia and Provia (don't shoot me chrome fans!), of course you don't get lovely chrome positives to look at on a light table but for optical printing and high res scans I really think its the best Color Negative film if you need that E100VS or Velvia look. For large prints viewing distance is key though, I honestly wouldn't worry about going insane with large format and the best resolving film if the average viewer is a more than a dozen feet away, I'm a resolution Nazi but I'm also a realist.

Look at the box count... Ektar100 and Velvia100 are more similar in price per sheet... (Ektar100-$3.30/Velvia100-$3.90) Though JUST recently B&H upped the Velvia from 68 to 77 so it's a bit wider now...

So it's not REMARKABLY cheaper.... But it is cheaper... Currently... Though kodak will raises prices soon, but then so will Fuji... So... Who knows! It's a race to see who will price themselves out first!

 

[nateo200]

Look at the box count... Ektar100 and Velvia100 are more similar in price per sheet... (Ektar100-$3.30/Velvia100-$3.90) Though JUST recently B&H upped the Velvia from 68 to 77 so it's a bit wider now...

So it's not REMARKABLY cheaper.... But it is cheaper... Currently... Though kodak will raises prices soon, but then so will Fuji... So... Who knows! It's a race to see who will price themselves out first!

Well if that applies to 120 or 135 thats good enough of an excuse for me to drop more cash in a month than I'm willing to admit on more film :crazy::crazy:

Side note: B&H is freaking me out lately, they put a number of discontinued signs up over "out of stock" on all of their Velvia 100F (no surprise there but after I bought 1 roll of 120 it all magically disapeared) and then a few 4x5 Velvia 100 boxes went "discontinued" but it might have just been a price hike since I didn't read another dreaded announcement.

 

[StoneNYC]

Well if that applies to 120 or 135 thats good enough of an excuse for me to drop more cash in a month than I'm willing to admit on more film :crazy::crazy:

Side note: B&H is freaking me out lately, they put a number of discontinued signs up over "out of stock" on all of their Velvia 100F (no surprise there but after I bought 1 roll of 120 it all magically disapeared) and then a few 4x5 Velvia 100 boxes went "discontinued" but it might have just been a price hike since I didn't read another dreaded announcement.

Velvia 100f has been discontinued for a long while... So what remained was the last stock, it's gone, permanently.

Velvia 100 was not, but the buyer at B&H didn't realize it was different and I had to harass him multiple times and show him that Adorama was selling it, and then he found a way to get more.

But what is discontinued is the "old box" style, the new box comes at a higher price, but is fresher of course as it's a new run...

Velvia50 exists in all sizes but is only sold as sheet in Japan...so the cost is high for shipping if you want it you have to buy direct from Japan.

 

[nateo200]

Velvia 100f has been discontinued for a long while... So what remained was the last stock, it's gone, permanently.

Velvia 100 was not, but the buyer at B&H didn't realize it was different and I had to harass him multiple times and show him that Adorama was selling it, and then he found a way to get more.

But what is discontinued is the "old box" style, the new box comes at a higher price, but is fresher of course as it's a new run...

Velvia50 exists in all sizes but is only sold as sheet in Japan...so the cost is high for shipping if you want it you have to buy direct from Japan.

That explains allot. I would have been really upset if Velvia 100 was discontinued, transparency film is starting to become a unicorn lately.

I knew Velvia 100F was discontinued it was just strange that I grabbed one roll of it and seconds later it all disappears :O Allot of people didn't really like Velvia 100F but I actually thought the colors were excellent, I saw some shots of the night sky with V100F and thought it rendered out much better than Provia and the other Velvia's (there was a comparison). Velvia 50 is allot a bit too intense for certain things and on 135 with 36 exposures thats allot of shots to waste just to throw in some milder...Also pretty sure Velvia 50 sheet film has been discontinued, there was an article about some guy buying the last batch from Fuji, of course its still on the shelves but not for long, personally I find Velvia 100 to be the sweet spot. Provia is good too, I just wish they still made Provia 400X :/ Actually I wish they still made Ektachrome 200, just to have a nice normal decent speed slide film.

Back to the topic though, Ektar 100 is great and if I didn't mention it before it scans like a boss, I haven't had any drum scans of Ektar 100 yet but I would imagine you could drum scan Ektar 100 negs of any size really and be able to go pretty big. Its one of those films where I see the limits of optics before the limits of the film if I stop down and take a super sharp shot. Someone even said it was like "digital in a roll of film" haha.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Anything printed this big will be a bit mushy if closely examined. There are a lot of tricks to optimizing and printing something this big. I rather
frequently shoot 8x10 Ektar, and would stongly recommend that combination as the most realistic option if detail and saturation are what you
have in mind. You'd need a vaccuum or adhesive filmholder, and top-notch lenses and focus technique. The bigger problem is HOW you're going
to print and mount it. Digital printing of any variety will create a bit of detail loss from full 8x10 film. Any format smaller than 8x10, well, just
expect a big blob of mush anyway - essentially a billboard, ya' know ... that "normal viewing distance" nonsense... it will look perfect sharp from
a hundred yards away to anyone nearsighted to begin with. But in the real world of printing, Ektar will deliver a more detailed image than Velvia.

 

[StoneNYC]

That explains allot. I would have been really upset if Velvia 100 was discontinued, transparency film is starting to become a unicorn lately.

I knew Velvia 100F was discontinued it was just strange that I grabbed one roll of it and seconds later it all disappears :O Allot of people didn't really like Velvia 100F but I actually thought the colors were excellent, I saw some shots of the night sky with V100F and thought it rendered out much better than Provia and the other Velvia's (there was a comparison). Velvia 50 is allot a bit too intense for certain things and on 135 with 36 exposures thats allot of shots to waste just to throw in some milder...Also pretty sure Velvia 50 sheet film has been discontinued, there was an article about some guy buying the last batch from Fuji, of course its still on the shelves but not for long, personally I find Velvia 100 to be the sweet spot. Provia is good too, I just wish they still made Provia 400X :/ Actually I wish they still made Ektachrome 200, just to have a nice normal decent speed slide film.

Back to the topic though, Ektar 100 is great and if I didn't mention it before it scans like a boss, I haven't had any drum scans of Ektar 100 yet but I would imagine you could drum scan Ektar 100 negs of any size really and be able to go pretty big. Its one of those films where I see the limits of optics before the limits of the film if I stop down and take a super sharp shot. Someone even said it was like "digital in a roll of film" haha.

Nope, Velvia50 is just only available to the Japanese market...
That guy with the fridge was just being cautious since who knows if the Japanese market can solely sustain it...

 

[DREW WILEY]

Since this is going to be a medium format shoot anyway, there's no reason really to split hairs over fineness of the film resolution. It's not going
to hold detail suitable for close scrutiny under any circumstances. It would make far more sense to pick the film based upon the lighting and
color characteristics of the scene itself, or perhaps on how well it scans. At this kind of enlargement, in this respect, nobody will know or care whether its Velvia or Ektar or Portra, whatever.

 

[nateo200]

Since this is going to be a medium format shoot anyway, there's no reason really to split hairs over fineness of the film resolution. It's not going
to hold detail suitable for close scrutiny under any circumstances. It would make far more sense to pick the film based upon the lighting and
color characteristics of the scene itself, or perhaps on how well it scans. At this kind of enlargement, in this respect, nobody will know or care whether its Velvia or Ektar or Portra, whatever.

Yeah but it doesn't hurt to be picky But I'm inclined to agree Velvia, Ektar, or Portra 160 would all do an excellent job, just depends on what he's shooting now, Portra for people makes a hell of allot more sense than say Velvia 50 :O Unless your a dermatologist of course Portra is pretty much designed for scanning and if you needed to make some adjustments to the contrast, colors, etc. IMO Portra has a much more neutral profile to start with...of course if everything is going to be optical/photochemical then I suppose have a film that gives you the colors and contrast off the bat would be better. I'd recommend Astia 100F but they don't make it anymore.... *Sigh*

 

[DREW WILEY]

As far as I'm concerned, Astia died when Cibachrome died; and Ciba died when Astia did. Side by side graves. Them was the good ole days.

 

[razocaine_07]

Sorry for not replying to all the messages though I appreciate all of the input. The images ended being drum scanned and printed 8ft square made up of 2 x 8x4ft panels on 5mm foamex, and the others were 1metre square. The image quality was amazing considering the enlargement size, and as mentioned, your not going to get complete sharpness as compared with LF prints. The budget which I was payed to produce the work was not going to allow for LF, even on a shoestring. The commissioners had a seperate pot of money to cover the printing costs.
I bracketed between 100ISO and 80ISO and noted improved saturation qualities, especially in the blue tones when exposing for the later.

 

[polyglot]

but, er, which film did you use? Ektar?

 

[razocaine_07]

Yes Ektar ISO100