How much gear to lug on my (hopefully) upcoming vacation

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

don't have access to a light table at the moment

 

[koraks]

Yeah, many of those are on the underexposed side. Of course, it's generally better to lean towards underexposure with slides, but deep shadows will still just render as a dark and muddy mess in the end.

Still, slides never quite lose their magic when viewed like that, do they?

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Even with the bad artifacting and low res. The colors are still absolutely stunning

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

vs say this 1982 expire (127) Ektachrome 64...

 

[koraks]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Lucca, Italy, 2016

Pisa, Italy, 2016

Both Velvia 100, which was expired by a couple of years by then. It had already shifted to magenta quite a bit, but with the colors of Tuscany, this worked out quite well.

These were the last rolls of slide film I shot. Most likely forever.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

yeah, that was my last Velvia 100 as well- Maybe I'll get a chance to get some more some day, but I wanted to use this last one for something special.

 

[runswithsizzers]

Next problem...
I don't think Velvia 100 is supposed to look this crispy. I'm guessing it's because the lab scanned it at too low of a resolution...?

I've seen similar oversharpened digital artifacts on lab scans of C41 - from several different labs. I did eventually find a lab that provides good scans, but for more control, I decided to build a diy film-copy rig based on a mirrorless digital camera. The only way to have complete control over the scanning process is to do it yourself. But if you prefer the considerable convenience of having your film digitized by a lab, then keep searching until you find a lab that produces scans you are happy with.

Of the few labs I have tried for C41 processing and scans, the only one I was happy with was Photrio member Adrian Bacon in Petaluma California, doing business as Simple Photography Services. BTW, I believe Adrian uses a digital camera to produce the scans, and his own propritary software for the color inversion. Obviously, slides should be easier to digitize, colorwise, but some scanners have trouble with the higher D-max of transparency film. My digital camera is able to record details in the deep shadows of underexposed slides that my ancient Minolta film scanner could not.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Labs often provide different resolutions of scans of course at different price points.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

the camera store I use has been sending out their films for processing and scanning due to staffing issues. the partner store they're using has done 35mm scans at a reasonable resolution, other times, not so much. Yet I never have scan problems with my 120s

 

[Sirius Glass]

and for reference, the raw scans

There are no ghosting shadows on the raw scans, the ghost shadows are from digital artifacts. Stop over doing the enhancement work and the ghost shadows will disappear.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

There are no ghosting shadows on the raw scans, the ghost shadows are from digital artifacts. Stop over doing the enhancement work and the ghost shadows will disappear.

thinking the problem is too much sharpening. I don't even like excessive post processing as it is.

 

[BMbikerider]

May/June(ish), I've decided to take my first real vacation since 2020- and it's an ambitious one: finally making my first trip to a foreign country. but here's the thing... I'm getting hung up on how many cameras and rolls of film to bring. hear me out:
it hasn't been uncommon for me to bring several different cameras on vacations, but this time, I want to keep it light. My obvious choices are my ricoh xr2s and my canon gl2. I'm thinking maybe buying and bringing a 116 camera to finally use a 1946 expired Verichrome for what I really wanted: brand new architecture. I don't want to lug my mamiya c220, but at the same time I want to show it to my friend. probably won't bring my d3300, I can just use my phone to take pictures and assure my parents I'm not going to get murdered or something. and maybe I'll bring a lomokino if I buy one, as I did have a discussion with my friend about the camera.
also, I'm torn on how many 35mm rolls to bring, I'm stuck between 5 color and 5 bw, or just 5 total. I want to discipline myself, but I don't know how crazy I'm going to go once I get there.

I don't know... what are your camera setups for vacations?

(also, bonus cool points to the first person to guess which country I'm planning on visiting).

earing in mind you will have to carry it around and that will count towards you flight baggage allowanced Take as little as you can get away with. one camera body one zoom lens (wide range) and film colour or B&W but not both but at least twice what you are taking. Spare batteries and if need be a charger.

 

[koraks]

Take as little as you can get away with.

I agree. But he packed way more than I would have, and apparently has done fine, as he's back with photos

 

[notoriousLT]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Lucca, Italy, 2016

Pisa, Italy, 2016

Both Velvia 100, which was expired by a couple of years by then. It had already shifted to magenta quite a bit, but with the colors of Tuscany, this worked out quite well.

These were the last rolls of slide film I shot. Most likely forever.

Yeah the colors are just perfect with these *chefs kiss*

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

for reference, a different low res scan of my p30 roll, both with and without sharpening

 

[koraks]

Yeah, there's the same thing about those. Low resolution, excessive contrast, and excessive unsharp masking. In both versions, actually!

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Well, I want high contrast, especially if I'm using P30. however, maybe I also shouldn't be using clarity and dehaze in camera raw...?

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

three variants-
a- no texture, dehaze or clarity
b- added the above
c- added sharpening

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

vs this raw apx 100 that was scanned on a different day

 

[koraks]

Are these scans you made yourself? Without wanting to be offensive, I think there is some room for improvement. I'm not sure if you've followed some of the recent threads in the Scanning forum, but it may be worthwhile to scavenge it for advise/tips on how to optimize a DSLR scanning setup. You find the forum here: https://www.photrio.com/forum/forums/scanning-and-scanners.361/ It has been attracting some more traffic recently, specifically in the domain of DSLR scanning, so there's plenty of useful info to be found.

clarity and dehaze

Those sound like 'magic tools' to me that may easily do more harm than good.

a- no texture, dehaze or clarity
b- added the above
c- added sharpening

In (a), there are already heavily pixelated edges, see e.g. the lantern bottom right in the image. This suggests that even before this stage, there's a structural problem with image quality. Could there be an issue with motion blur during digitization? And do you up- or downsample the image?
In (b) and (c) things get progressively worse, but that's my personal opinion.

vs this raw apx 100 that was scanned on a different day

That looks a lot better to my eyes.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

And no, I did not scan these myself. I don't think I have enough room in my apartment to setup dslr scanning anyway.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

not sure if the apx was scanned in house or at the partner store

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

And, just to keep things sort of relevant- some of my CN frames that were the first to be dropped off and I know were processed and scanned at the partner store

 

[Sirius Glass]

three variants-
a- no texture, dehaze or clarity
b- added the above
c- added sharpening

vs this raw apx 100 that was scanned on a different day

For your G.A.S. list on next lens to buy add a PC lens to stop the buildings from leaning back.

 

[GregY]

Koraks, great photo of the 3 bicycles. Chapeau!