Slide Film Other Than Kodachrome?

[snegron]

I'd like to hear thoughts on other slide films out there other than Kodachrome. Any particular brand, speed? What do you like about that particular slide film?

The reason I have excluded Kodachrome is because of the difficulty in getting it processed. I still have a couple of rolls of Kodachrome I shot a few weeks ago sitting on my kitchen countertop. I can find a million things to do instead of the tedious act of driving to the post office, standing in line, sending the rolls out, and waiting a week to have them developed. I thought my local pro lab would develop them, but I found out they didn't. I have to rely on sending them out to Dwayne's.

 

[Markok765]

your pro lab could send them to dwaynes.. mine does.
i like fuji velvia for its saturation and sharpness. nothing beats kodacrone though

 

[Dave Parker]

Most of us that have done this for a while have been shooting E-6 films, such at Velvia, Provia, E100-Vs and a host of others for a long time now....this is a film that can be processed in about an hour at most labs that don't try to BS you that it is hard, alternatives to Kodachorme have been around for about 3 decades + now...

Dave

 

[dmr]

I've just tried a couple rolls of Fuji Velvia 100. Very brilliant colors, much different than Kodachrome. I will most likely try Astia next. I want to get more of an idea what the other slide films will do. They tell me that this is closer to Kodachrome in tonality than is Velvia.

I'm kind of having a final fling with Kodachrome. I really don't think Duane's in inconvenient at all. I mail it out at the office. If I get it out on Monday, I get slides back on Saturday usually, sometimes Friday.

Of course with Velvia (and Astia) I can get same-day processing locally.

 

[Lopaka]

Of course nothing is going to look like Kodachrome, but the E-6 films provide a good selection of options. There are still a number of labs that process it, and although a bit finicky, you can process yourself with good results if you choose.

Velvia 100 is the most saturated, preferred by many landscape photographers. Astia is a lower saturated, lower contrast disigned more for skin tones and Provia is in between. I haven't tried the current Kodak offerings so I can't comment on them, but they will give good results with a slightly different look and color pallette than Fuji. Jump in and try some different ones and see what you like for the type of shooting you do.

Bob

 

[snegron]

Most of us that have done this for a while have been shooting E-6 films, such at Velvia, Provia, E100-Vs and a host of others for a long time now....this is a film that can be processed in about an hour at most labs that don't try to BS you that it is hard, alternatives to Kodachorme have been around for about 3 decades + now...

Dave

I don't have much experience with slide film, I might have shot three rolls in the past 30 years! Negative film has been what I have always shot, both BW and color. I think it would be a nice idea to experiment (have fun, try something diffrent for a change) with slide film.

 

[naturephoto1]

You will be in for a treat for the color. But, remember to expose to hold the highlights, not the dark areas as for negatives.

Rich

 

[snegron]

I've just tried a couple rolls of Fuji Velvia 100. Very brilliant colors, much different than Kodachrome. I will most likely try Astia next. I want to get more of an idea what the other slide films will do. They tell me that this is closer to Kodachrome in tonality than is Velvia.

I'm kind of having a final fling with Kodachrome. I really don't think Duane's in inconvenient at all. I mail it out at the office. If I get it out on Monday, I get slides back on Saturday usually, sometimes Friday.

Of course with Velvia (and Astia) I can get same-day processing locally.

I'm curious about the colors of Velvia 100. Are the colors more on the warmer side (reds, yellows) or do the blues and greens stand out more?

 

[snegron]

You will be in for a treat for the color. But, remember to expose to hold the highlights, not the dark areas as for negatives.

Rich

I have heard several people recommend this. If I expose for the highlights, will I lose detail in my shadows? Will there be more grain in the shadow areas?

 

[copake_ham]

I'm curious about the colors of Velvia 100. Are the colors more on the warmer side (reds, yellows) or do the blues and greens stand out more?

FWIW, I've been burning off the last of a box of Velvia 50 (now discontinued I think). If 100 is anything like it - it will favor the greens and blues - but does a decent job with reds and yellows.

But it isn't K-chrome. I don't know if there is anything quite like K-chrome!

 

[snegron]

Of course nothing is going to look like Kodachrome, but the E-6 films provide a good selection of options. There are still a number of labs that process it, and although a bit finicky, you can process yourself with good results if you choose.

Velvia 100 is the most saturated, preferred by many landscape photographers. Astia is a lower saturated, lower contrast disigned more for skin tones and Provia is in between. I haven't tried the current Kodak offerings so I can't comment on them, but they will give good results with a slightly different look and color pallette than Fuji. Jump in and try some different ones and see what you like for the type of shooting you do.

Bob

I think I am going to try all three to see how they work!

 

[naturephoto1]

I have heard several people recommend this. If I expose for the highlights, will I lose detail in my shadows? Will there be more grain in the shadow areas?

Yes, you may well lose details in the shadow areas. You can really only count on transparencies recording 3 1/2 to 4 stops comfortably. Going 5 stops will generally result in going from clear to black. That is part of the reason for careful metering and composition and the usage of Grad ND when needed.

Rich

 

[HerrBremerhaven]

Many different choices, though none exactly like the various Kodachrome flavours of the past. There are very fine grain films such as Fuji Astia 100F, Kodak E100G and E100GX. Of those three, the Astia 100F is the most neutral in colour, Kodak E100G is slightly more favorable to rendering green areas, and E100GX is a bit warmer.

In saturated E-6 films, there are Fuji Velvia 100 and 100F, and Kodak E100VS. Both Fuji choices do a little better heavily saturating blue and green tones, while the Kodak E100VS seems to really pop red and yellow tones. I tend to use E100VS when shooting Italian sports cars. All of these are much more saturated than Kodachrome and are slightly more to much more contrasty.

There is also Kodak E200, which is medium to low contrast, nice with skins tones and has excellent push characteristics. This favours blue and cooler tones more than Kodachrome 200, which to me seems like a slightly warmer film. Maybe not as sharp as Kodachrome 200, but very versatile and flexible to use film. The lower cost EliteChrome 200 is slightly different, and has a colour shift when push processing, and seems a little more contrasty than E200.

Older E-6 films like Kodak Ektachrome 64 and two types of Ektachrome 100 are other choices. Generally a bit more grain than the newer E films. Ektachrome 100 Professional is supposedly the most true to life colours, though I think Fuji Astia 100F is an excellent substitute with less grain. Not really like Kodachrome 64, but if you like fine grain, then Astia 100F would be a good choice.

The ones I have not mentioned much are the Fuji Provia films. I don't generally like their results over Kodak choices, but you might want to try them. The soon to appear (I hope) Provia 400X might be an interesting ISO 400 choice, if you want to try that.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

 

[Tom Hicks]

Might look at this,

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/technical/E100G/E100G.html

 

[c6h6o3]

I have heard several people recommend this. If I expose for the highlights, will I lose detail in my shadows? Will there be more grain in the shadow areas?

If you use Ektachrome 64T, a tungsten balanced film, you can expose for the shadows and apply zone system controls during development to make sure that you don't blow the highlights. In this way you can get at least 6 zones of detail out of it. The tungsten balanced Fujichrome 64 is also good for this, although I don't like the color balance nearly as much. The Fuji is also finer grained than the Kodak film.

 

[dmr]

I'm curious about the colors of Velvia 100. Are the colors more on the warmer side (reds, yellows) or do the blues and greens stand out more?

My first impression was that it was on the cool side, compared to Kodachrome it was kind of like shooting the 70's vintage Ektachrome I shot a lot of back then, but more saturated. However, I've also found that yes, it can produce brilliant and rich warm tones as well. See attached.

 

[MattKing]

You can get a reasonable idea of how Ektachrome E100GX handles blues and greens if you take a look at the photo in my APUG gallery titled "Mossy Tree". The original transparency has a fair bit more detail in the shadows (the gallery image suffers from the scanning and uploading process) but I think the general "feel" of the film is accurately portrayed.

Matt

 

[Confusion Circle]

Fuji Provia is my current favourite. The colours are not as saturated as Velvia, but still punchy.