MF slides/Transparencies/Chromes

[digiconvert]

Just got my first MF dlides back from the developer, WOW. They are stunning (not my work just the beauty of the slides themselves).
I can never imagine getting as much pleasure from any digital print, no matter what the resolution.

Just as an aside I have posted to the gallery at (there was a url link here which no longer exists) and asked for some advice. Anyone care to contribute I'd be grateful but this thread is really in praise of transparency film .

 

[rbarker]

Just wait until you see an 8x10 transparency.

What you're seeing in the image you uploaded is the limited dynamic range of transparency films. Scenes with extremes in scene brightness ranges (SBRs) tend not to work well with chromes. Thus, it's often better to compose accordingly, so the scene fits within what the film is capable of recording. For example, had you turned the camera to the left, capturing the trees and the shadow area of the water, opened up the exposure a bit, it probably would have worked well. Or, expose for the highlight areas, and let the rest go black.

 

[metod]

I am big fan of chromes for about 3 years now. Granted, they are more expensive and less forgiving in tricky situations. But boy, when you line them up on the light table or watch them thought the projector, nothing really can beat that. I see them also as a great learning tool because as with no other film media, “what you see is what you get”. If you willingly under/overexpose the chromes or use certain color filter, you should expect the same results once they are back from the lab. I also love the enlargement from slides; to me they look sharper and match the original.
The main thing to remember when shooting with slides is that you tend to expose for the highlights, as you don’t want them to be washed out. Is better to underexpose slightly, as the details will be better preserved. Once the slide is overexposed, you loose all the details in bright areas. But this is just a rough guide, you’ll learn more with the practice, and only practice.
You MF slides must look stunning. I’m hoping one day I’ll try them with my 8x10.
Good luck on your new discovery.

 

[benjiboy]

I usually use an incidental light reading to calculate exposure for transparency films, and adjust my film speed to give the density to the projected image to suit the lamp in my projector, and the throw of the projector in the room I view them in, I find with 6x6 I need to mount them in anti-newton glass mounts to keep them flat, and stop them popping.

 

[Laurence]

Bentley, I have a lot of medium format transparencies, and enjoy them on the light table.

I know medium format projectors are expensive, but I would like to know...are the slides quite dramatic from the projector? It seems that they would be quite nice.

 

[naturephoto1]

Bentley, I have a lot of medium format transparencies, and enjoy them on the light table.

I know medium format projectors are expensive, but I would like to know...are the slides quite dramatic from the projector? It seems that they would be quite nice.

Laurence,

Yes, with a good medium format projector the images are extremely dramatic and the sharpness and color are outstanding.

Rich

 

[benjiboy]

Try it.

Bentley, I have a lot of medium format transparencies, and enjoy them on the light table.

I know medium format projectors are expensive, but I would like to know...are the slides quite dramatic from the projector? It seems that they would be quite nice.

Laurence, Hi, try to get to see your M/F slides projected, they'll blow your sox off, yes the projectors are expensive, but there's always Ebay, and as an investment in my photographic pleasure, over many years has been one of the best I ever made.

 

[jonathanbennett120]

Hi Everyone. I just got my first roll of Velvia 100 processed and now, well, I'm hooked! They really look outrageous (again, like the person who began this thread, the Film, not the images so much.) I'm comparing them to the prints I got along with the processing and the slides are MUCH sharper. There was a 16 second exposure at night from my rooftop of manhattan with a boat drifting across the frame, in the print, the boat lights came out as long soft streaks, as expected, but with a loup on the light table with the actual film, the streaks are much more crisp, and you can clearly see the up and down wiggle of the lights as they bounced over the small waves of the river! That's just one example of the detail the film is holding that doesn't make it to the machine prints. Anyway:

Here's my question. What are a few decent MF slide projectors. Are real old ones on ebay for 30 dollars going to be any good, or do you need to spend 1800 dollars on a Rollei multiformat projector. Any tips or buying hints would be great.

Thank you.

 

[Cattrall]

I found an old single slide projector for $15 I think and got out the old chromes that I took in the early 70's and they were great, much better than the 35mm from the same time. My 35mm projector is a Rollei but the 6x6 slides win hands down, even through the old no name projector. So try it, you don't have a lot to loose and I think a lot to gain.
Bill

 

[copake_ham]

I started a thread the other night extolling (and lamenting the future of) chrome that fell into the abyss of boredom.

These are two of the pics I was scanning at the time. These were shot with Fuji Velvia 50 (35mm).

I wonder what film the OP was shooting? The lugubrious, almost oily. nature of the water catches my eye in all of them.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've been experimenting with projecting using an old Beseler Slide King, which handles a variety of formats up to Magic Lantern size. I'm still working things out, trying different lenses (it's hard to find short lenses for small rooms--they're designed for auditoriums) and carriers and trying to figure out a convenient method for mounting 6x7 and 6x6 slides, but they look FANTASTIC projected.