Tips for shooting Fujichrome Provia 400X

[ted_smith]

Hi

I've just bought my first pack of Fujichrome Provia 400X to go with my shiny new Hasselblad 501CM, having being told by many at APUG that I should get some chrome through it and be amazed by how it looks.

So I toyed with Fujichrome Provia 100F and Fujichrome Provia 400X and decided that, given most of my shots will be in the next few winter months and most probably of my young children, speed is of the essence (otherwise I would have gone with 100F). (PS - for those UK photographrs who are interested, I bought it from http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/fuji-colour-reversal-slide-film-77-c.asp who seem to be a great shop and have reasonable P&P costs).

I have done an APUG search for the film and note many of the threads are old, dating back to 2007 mostly. So, not wanting to bump old threads that are not directly related to what I am asking, I want to ask for any advice or tips based on the experience of others with regards to shooting with this film? With regard to development, do any of you give instruction to your lab? If so, what?

Ta

Ted

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

This should be an interesting thread, Ted.
I have shot just one roll of 400X a fortnight ago — accidentally grrabbing it assuming it was Provia 100F (but in hindsight, providently 400X!) and now awaiting the results back. Something here on APUG mentioned that it could easily be bumped up to EI800 with no ill-effect. I'm sure I've read this someplace on APUG, possibly even EI1600 with a push? I exposed it at box speed, mostly as the proverbial litmus test of meter exposure of my 67 at 'chrome tolerance. I plan to get more 400X and expose at EI800, with no push processing.

 

[keithwms]

Great stuff! Buy plenty while you can. You can find good push examples on rangefinderforum- it can go to 1600 quite well, with good colour. Good contrast tolerance, not as good as astia, but still good. I feel that it is somewhat better with mixed / non-5000K light than provia 100F (of which I am not such a fan).

No special dev required, standard E6 will do.

400x rocks, buy many bricks of it!

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

So there! I must have read something from Keith W somewhere here!
My plan in future is to use 400X for those times when I must use my 67 handheld rather than tripod. I need to check other things though from the first roll. Prodding it to EI1600 sounds exciting and enticing enough to me to buy more of it.

 

[keithwms]

Here's the RFF thread. Quite impressive, I think.

And (there was a url link here which no longer exists) on a mamiya 6. I think it rendered the bizarre colorings of Death Valley quite nicely and with good contrast. The frame can be enlarged enough to clearly see the license plates on the cars.

Please buy lots of it! I am going to be sad when it's gone.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

The pallete in those representative images on RFF is very strange, Keith, but the overall push results appeal to me. The hues are almost aged film-like in their soft luminance and quaint colouring. This is to say I like that too, so now I'm taking notes of future use for this film. Not so keen on the EI3200 push images.

 

[Tim Gray]

I only ever shot a roll or two of it. Didn't do anything special (I'm not even a chrome shooter) and they all came out great. It's a great film.

 

[keithwms]

C41 cross-processed 400x also yields some "interesting" results...

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/...ge-look-with-cross-processed-fuji-provia-400x

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Provia 400X is $27.00 per 120 roll here in Australia (as is commonly observed here, all films are strangely more expensive). What's the going price up there in the US?

EDIT: Never mind, never mind. Found from Freestyle's web some alarming comparisons: $7.29 a roll!? Sh—...!!
AND, here, 5 rolls of 400X are $146.50 (!). What the hell's going on!? Even at parity, this pricing is extreme.

 

[keithwms]

You might check JapanExposures (Megaperls)... I don't know how the yen/A$ rate is, but maybe it's not too bad...

http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/index.php?cPath=28

I get stuff from there every now and then. 8x10 astia even.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Most interesting.
A quick conversion ( Provia 400X / 120 5-pack ) v.i.z.: 5,369.00 JPY = $67.9919 AUD : still a vast saving on what is being charged here!
I suspect price gouging. What else would it be.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Here's the UK price for it: http://www.fujilab.co.uk/catalog/reversal-provia-400x-c-30_32_71.html

120 5 pack is 29.05AUD

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Thanks perkeleellinen. It goes from bad to worse to unspeakable.
I think we are being screwed down here. Fair dinkum, I mean it!!

 

[MichaelT72]

That explains why my cousins from Sydney when visiting here in the States bring two empty suitcases and a change of clothes. The next time I visit Sydney I'm told to have a credit card with a high limit.

 

[Rudeofus]

Provia 400X is beautiful slide film stock if treated properly. It hates shades or overcast weather and turns them into awful garish blue, but give it sunlight (even the weak one in winter) and it seriously rocks. I use it as my goto 135 film in winter and have pushed 120 film stock to ISO 1600 with beautiful colours and no visible grain.

 

[polyglot]

I've only shot the one roll of RXP and that was under overcast in southern china (RZ, day trip on bus, no tripod, box speed). Can't say it came out unnaturally blue, just the usual overcast blue-grey. It's grainier than the ISO100 emulsions but what do you expect?

Edit: lots and lots of highlight headroom compared to Velvia. Probably not as much as Astia.

 

[ted_smith]

it hates shades or overcast weather and turns them into awful garish blue

Darn! I bought it for use in fairly poor light. What is it like with indoor window light and\or under normal bulb lighting such as a 100W bulb?

 

[Rudeofus]

Darn! I bought it for use in fairly poor light. What is it like with indoor window light and\or under normal bulb lighting such as a 100W bulb?

Indoor window light should be fine as long as there is enough of it but watch out for incandescent light. Without color correcting filter you are so far off the map that not even a hybrid work flow can save you. Keep in mind that an 80A filter eats two stops of light.

 

[brucemuir]

Darn! I bought it for use in fairly poor light. What is it like with indoor window light and\or under normal bulb lighting such as a 100W bulb?

My experiences are with the 100 speed and yes, I would AVOID any tungsten/flouro lighting.

 

[Stephen Schoof]

Darn! I bought it for use in fairly poor light. What is it like with indoor window light and\or under normal bulb lighting such as a 100W bulb?

Under incandescent bulbs I like the look of mixed flash and ambient (AKA dragging the shutter). It retains a warm, natural background while keeping your subject (person or whatever) from going orange and blurry. Note that under compact flourescent bulbs your background will be greenish and not too pleasant.

In shade, an 81A eliminates enough blue shadowed light for me, but then I have a pretty high tolerance for moody, cool tones.

 

[Tim Gray]

Darn! I bought it for use in fairly poor light. What is it like with indoor window light and\or under normal bulb lighting such as a 100W bulb?

If it's window light, it should be fine (was in my experience). Fluorescents and tungsten are correctible if you are scanning. If not, then it can get a bit ugly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgray1/3797097478/

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

My use of 400X was outdoor in evening sun with shadows. The RangeFinder Forum images referred to by KeithW yesterday had a peculiar, not entirely unpleasant colouring about them from the light (with a progressively less impressive overall result from EI800 to EI3200), so I think 400X is more of a natural light film for the best result, I don't know for sure. Getting more to continue tests.

 

[keithwms]

Yes I have never tried 400x except in natural light. Never even occurred to me to try- I use other films for that.

For most applications with 400x (and any slide film for that matter), I would simply aim not to mix color temps or you're probably going to get a mess. So... if you have nice ambient incandescent and want to make that dominant, then you'd use a flash gelled for 3200K or whatever. Then at least you get a slide which can be generally cooled or warmed.... I don't know, maybe there's even some way to amend the development to effect overall warming or cooling. If you're projecting then you could put a warming or cooling filter on the projector If you're scanning, well we won't discuss that here....

If you use 400x with fluorescent lighting then beware that Fuji-san may send a band of ninjas to take you out. Some things just shouldn't be done. This is an issue of respect and recognition that it is a high privilege to use this film.

 

[ME Super]

I've seen "daylight" balanced compact fluorescent bulbs in the store. There are some with a color temperature of 3500 K and some with a color temp of 6500 K. My guess is the 3500 K bulbs would be too red for 400X. Has anyone tried 400X with the 6500 K bulbs? They have a CI rating of 82.

ME Super

 

[Tim Gray]

Low CRI ratings can get pretty green on film. I'd stick with a CRI > 90 if I could find one.