Ok, Now I Did It

Ricardo41 · Jun 5, 2006

For some years I have been toying with the idea to buy a high end 35 mm film camera (to add to my existing digital as well as low/medium level film bodies).

Last night I finally did it and bought a Nikon F 100.

"Back in the days" I used to shoot exclusively slide film, but have lost touch with what, if anything, is still available in this market. I've heard good things about the Fuji Chrome Provia 100F but would also be interested in recommendations for color slide film in the 200/400 ISO range.

thanks
ricardo

titrisol · Jun 5, 2006

Fuji Provia and Sensia used to be really good in 100 and 400 flavors.
Haven;t used them in a long time though, so you'll have to experiment yourself.

IIRC overridign the auto-ISO (DX) and underexposing by 1/3 stop gives beautiful saturation.

Markok765 · Jun 5, 2006

you have a digital?!?!? BANISH HIM!!

Christopher Walrath · Jun 5, 2006

And, um, that's 'Back in the day'. Gotta be PC. Wait, not personal computer. Don't, wait. Put that . . . MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DBP · Jun 5, 2006

I still use a fair amount of Kodachrome 200 (and lots of 64), in part for the color rendition and in part so the processing lines will stay open. You may want to look at the survey Shutterbug did last September http://www.shutterbug.net/test_reports/0905picks/index.html. They reviewed 15 films, of which I believe all but the three Agfa products are still available.

Ricardo41 · Jun 7, 2006

thanks for the tips. Will check those out.

ricardo

HerrBremerhaven · Jun 8, 2006

I shoot tons of Kodak E200. Works great for a slight push. Somewhat medium to low contrast, and nice blue rendition. Lower cost EliteChrome is an alternative, but push performance suffers. Anyway, you might want to try a roll. Nikon F100 is quite nice, and a camera I have rented a few times . . .nice choice.

Ciao!

Gordon

sanderx1 · Jun 8, 2006

Ricardo41 said:
"Back in the days" I used to shoot exclusively slide film, but have lost touch with what, if anything, is still available in this market. I've heard good things about the Fuji Chrome Provia 100F but would also be interested in recommendations for color slide film in the 200/400 ISO range.

thanks
ricardo

If you like Provia just get Provia 400F (or Provia 400X when it comes out in the autumn).

copake_ham · Jun 9, 2006

One thing you may want to do is reconsider whether you want to continue using slide film.

Pre-scanner days I was almost exclusively a slide film user becuase I liked using a projector for viewing pics. But now that I scan all my film I'm switching over to color and b&w negative. If you're still intending to use a slide projector for viewing then by all means stick with slide film of course. But if your intention is to go "hybrid" and digitize your film shots for monitor-type display or digital projection you may want to switch to film negative. Opens up a whole new realm of choices.

tony lockerbie · Jun 11, 2006

I find that my F100 seems to err on the side of underexposure, I always crank it up when using negative film. I say this because you may not need to underexpose you trannie film as maybe the Nikon is set up for it already.
Cheers, Tony

Ricardo41 · Jun 11, 2006

copake_ham said:
One thing you may want to do is reconsider whether you want to continue using slide film.
But if your intention is to go "hybrid" and digitize your film shots for monitor-type display or digital projection you may want to switch to film negative. Opens up a whole new realm of choices.

I plan to (and have to) digitize my film shots. What would be the advantage of film negative? (just post a link or something, since I'm sure this has been beaten to death already).

ricardo

roteague · Jun 11, 2006

Ricardo41 said:
I plan to (and have to) digitize my film shots. What would be the advantage of film negative? (just post a link or something, since I'm sure this has been beaten to death already).

ricardo

Let the subject matter decide your film choice, not the final medium. You can just as easily make hybrid prints from slides as with negatives.

copake_ham · Jun 12, 2006

Ricardo41 said:
I plan to (and have to) digitize my film shots. What would be the advantage of film negative? (just post a link or something, since I'm sure this has been beaten to death already).

ricardo

Ricardo,

Others here can give you better technical explanations but, as I understand it, print film has signifcantly wider latitude. Also, there is a wider range of choices both among manufacturers and within each manufacturer's product line.

Another plus too is the availability of chromogenic B&W (e.g. XP-2 by Ilford and TCN-400 by Kodak - not sure of Fuji's product name). C-B&W uses standard C-41 color processing even though it is a B&W film. This means you can get it readily developed at any 1-hour photo lab.

It doesn't offer the same richness and range of tonality of true B&W films (e.g. Tri-X) but once you scan it and bring it into Photoshop (or similar) you can do a lot of "tweaking" for highlights and contrasts and get some very nice images.

Ok, Now I Did It

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