Fuji Provia 400X VS Kodachrome 200...

[PKM-25]

I am looking at shooting a couple of small projects in the future on my stash of 35mm Fuji 400X, mostly in a Leica M3 with a 50mm 1.4 aspheric and some in my Xpan. I have shot a few hundred rolls of Kodachrome 200 in both cameras and miss it's rich color palate immensely, so I am hoping if I nail the exposure I can get close to what KL200 gave me.

Anyone have experience in using *both* films? I am mostly thinking in terms of dmax, sharpness, grain and color cast. Obviously with just 40 rolls, I am not going to be able to experiment too much...

 

[PKM-25]

Well I did quite the search on Flickr in the group dedicated to the film and also read up on it a bit on here. It looks like it can be a bit muted in the wrong light but I did see some work shot with Leica glass in more third world places where the light can be quite rich in how it bounces and it looked very reminiscent of KL200, a good thing. It sounds like the grain is much tighter though which could work against the incredible edge effect that Kodachrome 200 gave, might be a reason Alex Webb stuck with it over using other fast chrome.

So I said to heck with it and loaded a roll in my F100 to shoot with the amazingly saturated and sharp 35mm 1.4 AF-S G. I will take my time with it, try to work in the same kind of light I expect to shoot these projects in...

 

[Rudeofus]

My experience with Provia 400X is that it looks beautiful if shot in sunlight, but I didn't like the colors in shaded areas. Since not every subject matter lends itself to F/1.4, these ISO 400 can come in handy.

 

[Nuff]

In shade use 81a filter otherwise it comes out very blue. That's what recommended in fuji pdf. I haven't shot it with that filter yet since I just got one, but photos with provia 400x and 81a on Flickr look good to me.

 

[PKM-25]

Like I said I will just have to take it for a spin. If it tends to blue in shade then that effect could work amazingly well if there is a person in say, a bakery window with really warm light on to contrast it, make the blue look even deeper, sort of a "Pete Turner" look...

Chrome is always *really* tough to judge on the web due to the factor of both over zealous corrections in the post scanning stage and largely due to lack of mastery and talent in the general populous using it. Of course it all depends on the desired effect too which in this case is very reminiscent of Webb's work in Cuba and Turkey. I'll pair the shots I make with my X100S set at 5,200K to get a really good baseline of variances.

Right now it is not much more expensive than PKR was at discontinuation, I'm hoping to source another 20-30 rolls.

 

[Roger Cole]

Bear in mind it has been discontinued, though still available, so stock up on ever how much you need.

I really like Provia 400X and have a stock (about a year's worth, I don't expect 400 to keep that well even frozen) in the freezer.

 

[PKM-25]

Bear in mind it has been discontinued, though still available, so stock up on ever how much you need.

I really like Provia 400X and have a stock (about a year's worth, I don't expect 400 to keep that well even frozen) in the freezer.

Although most of the stuff I have expires next year, 10 rolls including the roll I loaded to test expired last month. I had about 60 rolls of the last batch of Kodachrome 200 frozen until I used it all in 2010-2011, it looked flawless.

I expect to get a bit more 400X and have it used up before 2017.

 

[GarageBoy]

400X is a beautiful film, especially with blue things and people

 

[Sirius Glass]

I prefer almost anything over Kodachrome.

 

[Rudeofus]

I prefer almost anything over Kodachrome.

Well, you won !

 

[railwayman3]

I prefer almost anything over Kodachrome.

If many more films are discontinued, we'll not have much left to prefer, and probably finish up being grateful for anything-at-all which we can find. (And probably all this will be outdated and from Ebay at exorbitant prices.)