Slide sharpness

[bishy]

Hello,

I gather Velvia 50 is the sharpest available slide film on the market. Could anyone please advise on the sharpest 100 speed slide film available?

Thank you.

 

[keithwms]

That would probably be Astia 100f. I don't know whether it's the sharpest, but it is arguably the best in terms of colour rendition, grain and tonality.

 

[benjiboy]

What's wrong with Velvia 100F ?

 

[keithwms]

I prefer v100 among the velvias... but astia is tops in my opinion.

 

[keithwms]

P.S. If you go through Fuji's charts you can look for "resolving power".... that plus RMS grain are the things to look for.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Then compare that to EKTAR 100.

PE

 

[keithwms]

I dunno Ron, when I project ektar, something doesn't look right

 

[Photo Engineer]

Maybe you have a negative impression!

PE

 

[Pupfish]

As a practical matter I find Astia to be equivalent or even sharper than Velvia because it enables shooting in higher contrast ratio lighting than Velvia 50. (Also true of Ektar and Pro 160S.)

 

[keithwms]

Maybe you have a negative impression!

PE

I find that when I project it and stare really hard at it for, oh, 20 minutes, and then close my eyes, then it looks like something.

 

[TareqPhoto]

Velvia 100, my favorite is Velvia 50 but i did shoot one roll of V100 and it came out........ WOW WOW WOW

 

[timparkin]

I gather Velvia 50 is the sharpest available slide film on the market. Could anyone please advise on the sharpest 100 speed slide film available?

It appears according to this that Provia 100 is your sharpest 100. I'm also quite surprised that the sharpest film is Pro160NS which is sharper than Ektar. I think people beleive Ektar to be the sharpest when actually it just has the finest grain. The sharpest Kodak neg films are the Portras.

 

[polyglot]

That graph looks kind of normalised. Ektar for example has much higher contrast than Pro160S or Portra 160 (and hell, they differ in contrast but get one line!). Once you move the Ektar and Provia lines upwards to account for the higher contrast, I would expect the Provia 100F or Velvia 100 (not F) to be about the sharpest(-looking) ISO100 chrome currently around.

Sure, Astia may have a lot of resolution, but that doesn't mean it's got a lot of acutance; in fact its low contrast will hurt apparent sharpness.

 

[timparkin]

I've only reproduced the information supplied (and taken the best curves for the kodak stuff).

I imagine that the results were taken from a typical print but won't it be possible to increase the contrast of the negative material more than the transparency? I don't know how they calculate MTF for neg is the problem.. Having scanned astia and portra 400 shot of the same subject, I have to say that the Portra 400 held a lot more sharp detail - anecdotal evidence caveats apply.

 

[Stephen Schoof]

If you can handle the increased grain and contrast, Velvia 50 pushed to 100 looks sharper than the 100 Velvias to me. I tested all three side-by-side once and there were several situations where 50 pushed looked better than the 100s to my taste.

 

[bishy]

Thank you for the advice everyone.

Being fairly inexperienced to reversal shooting,i debated mentioning this subject. The reason i ask is, i have become attached to shooting Velvia 50,which i have been shooting the odd portrait lately in a landscape background. However in overcast and maybe subdued light situations,how the film records skin tones does concern me. I didn't want to sacrifice the sharpness i gain with Velvia 50 too much.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I would be inclined to say that you can compare all Kodak films or all Fuji films, but to cross compare might be difficult due to the testing methods used. There is (AFAIK) no ANSI standard for sharpness tests that rigidly define things well enough for cross comparisons. For example, the tests may involve a positive chart or a negative chart or both. These tests give different results.

PE

 

[keithwms]

how the film records skin tones does concern me. I didn't want to sacrifice the sharpness i gain with Velvia 50 too much.

(my underline)

...again I say Astia!

Regarding sharpness etc., far too much is made of that. With the modern crop of films, your viewer will never miss whatever fine detail isn't there.

Bear in mind that most of the slide films project beautifully to very large screens. The business of scanning and pixel peeping is another story, but I can report that proper drum scans from all the usual slide films mentioned in this thread are quite spectacular. You have to enlarge a lot before missing any detail or seeing any granularity from 35mm slides.

Medium format slides, well, the detail is endless.

 

[benjiboy]

All the Fuji Pro slide film are more than adequately sharp.

 

[bishy]

I did wish to try Astia 100F a year or so back, but i could find no supplies in the UK or a wish to shoot a discountinued film. I think maybe Provia 100F is the logical film to shoot,however there's something about Velvia 50 which is different to the other's i've viewed. When i look at the emulsion side of the image it seems to be so defined and sharper than the other films ive used.

 

[Rudeofus]

Fuji Astia is a beautiful film, but it has been discontinued (35mm is hard to get by now) and you will be disappointed if you want high saturation. Velvia has a lot of compelling qualities for landscape shots as long as you do not include people in the shot. If you want to include people in the shot and still aim for high saturation, give Kodak E100VS a try.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

"Sharpness" of slides is incorrect. Resolving power (interpreted through individual film RMS charts)is a more accurate descriptor. However, a lot depends on the quality of the lens you are using. A poor quality optic will not exactly do the clearest Velvia any favours.

Velvia 100F is my choice for detail in the 100 range, otherwise RVP 50.

 

[bishy]

"Sharpness" of slides is incorrect. Resolving power (interpreted through individual film RMS charts)is a more accurate descriptor. However, a lot depends on the quality of the lens you are using. A poor quality optic will not exactly do the clearest Velvia any favours.

Velvia 100F is my choice for detail in the 100 range, otherwise RVP 50.

Yes thank you. I was a little unsure if sharpness was the correct wording for the thread. However i'm finding it difficult to accept Velvia 100F into my shooting plans just yet,i like the fact the predicted archival life has improved greatly to other Fuji slide films. However 50 speed has this unique quailty which the other films seem to lack.

I think it's time for a few more test shoot's and to stock up on various 100 speed films.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

bishy, the palette characteristics of 100F are poles apart from the Darling of Disneychrome, RVP 50. The intensity of the primaries, and their clarity, is what sets 50 apart from 100F. The flashy, avant garden 100F has a peculiar palette (reds tend toward brown and greens look very flat while yellows can be rendered a bit like mustard!), which has long niggled long-time devotees of 50. It definitely has its use though in landscape (not during the day though when it can look just awful in bright sun) and I use it ahead of 50 for that purpose (morning, evening), but retain 50 as the prime 'gold standard'. You might want to take Provia 100 for a spin; it has less brutal contrast than the Velvias.

 

[benjiboy]

I can't see what the O.P's problem is, none of the current range of Fuji Professional slide films 50, 100,400 or 800 ISO are lacking in resolving power, contrast or apparent sharpness, indeed are probably the the best range of colour transparency film currently manufactured, if he likes the propertys of Velvia 50 and would like a 100 ISO film with the same propertys, Use Velvia 100F.