Fuji Natura/Superia 1600

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Feb 10, 2010
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I'm going to a motorcycle hillclimb next weekend and shooting with my F5. Don't have a fast telephoto will be using a 70-210 F4 Nikon for the most part. If you don't know hillclimbing is drag racing up a steep hill with 200 horsepower mutant motorcycles. Needless to say it moves pretty fast. It will likely be a sunny day so shutter speeds will need to be fast as well. Is Fuji 1600 color negative film a good choice here? I've read the reviews and haven't found a similar situation where it was used but many glowing reports on performance. Anyone use it in a daylight scenario?
 

railwayman3

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I've used 1600 Fuji color neg (and the old Konica version) for outdoor shots when fast speeds were needed, with reasonable results. Grain is, of course, evident, and I would definitely avoid any under-exposure with these films, as shadow areas can go very clogged and yucky ! If you have time I'd definitely run a test film before the weekend, just make sure that you're happy with the results.......remembering the old-and-tested advice to "never use an unknown film on an important assignment" .
 

Les Sarile

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I have used Fuji Natura a few times and can work with it's grain easily. Color and contrast is on the low side similar to the Kodak Portra but of course this greatly depends on how you will get the image from the film.


Full res -> http://www.fototime.com/44755C7C15E364F/orig.jpg

However, if it is a sunny day with not much shade/shadows, maybe you don't need all that speed particularly since Fuji Natura is not readily available. The shot below is using Fuji Provia 400 - sunny Las Vegas day, and I was achieving 1/8000 shutter speed on my Canon EOS3 and managed to catch the ball in flight.



BTW, I have found Fuji Natura to be slightly less grainy then either Fuji Press 1600 and Superia 1600,
 

John Koehrer

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Practice panning with the subject. A type B film is going to be VERY blue outdoors. If you filter to correct it you're back to 400,
may as well start with the 400.
 
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