Velvia 100

[roteague]

Has anyone actually seen the new Velvia 100 (not F) yet? I checked with Adorama, saw they had it in stock (4x5 QuickLoads), ordered it, then was told it was on backorder. Calumet and B&H both say they don't have it yet.

 

[Dave Parker]

I shot a roll of the 35mm the other day, and found it to be close on grain to the 50, but still am undecided about the contrast and color saturation, I still need to do some more comparing.

Dave

 

[roteague]

I walked into several camera shops locally, and not one of them even knew Fuji had a new Velvia - even one store that doesn't sell anything digital. The Fuji reps here aren't doing a very good job, and I am beginning to wonder what Fuji is doing in the rest of the country. FWIW, I am a bit "pissed" that Adorama took my order, only to later tell me it was on "backorder".

 

[Dave Parker]

That is odd, they were advertising the new velvia on ebay about a week ago, I knew that B&H did not have the 4x5 in stock, but was able to get some rolls of 35 from them and our local store here in town also has the 35 in stock...


Dave

 

[Daniel Lawton]

Yeah the counter person at my local camera shop gave a confused look when I asked if they had any of the new velvia. One thing that has me concerned is the $7.25 per roll price on B+H which should translate to about 9 dollars a roll at a local shop. I seriously hope this price only reflects an initial cost of a new product that will go down after time. If not I think alot of this stuff will be going bad on the shelf. Slide film sales are on pretty shaky ground as it is. Overblown prices won't do anything to stimulate them.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

There is no rush to spend your money on RVP100 or see what it does, if you like RVP50.

The small number of sheets I have used haven't been much of a success. All UK landscape photographers are pretty much banging the same drum. Whilst offering saturation, it lacks warmth and does unpredictable things with the colours of skies. In discussing this tendency, the feeling is that the problem is dynamic, so cannot be filtered out.

Whilst it is early days, such a groundswell may encourage Fuji to rethink and make the appropriate adjustments. After all, the RVP100 was brought out in response to the fact that the 100F version was not seen to be a tremendous success.

Excusing the fogging in bottom left, here is the same scene in RVP100 and then RVP50. Due to the volume of film I shot in Tuscany, and that I was scrounging the new film from another photographer, I cannot remember exact details, but think that the RVP100 has a 0.6 grad and the RVP50 had a 0.9, but were in pretty quick succession. The scans are low res and haven't had any photoshop processing, just same scanner settings after establishing true black from the rebate.

I have some more RVP100 and will be doing more controlled testing in the coming weeks.

 

[roteague]

There is no rush to spend your money on RVP100 or see what it does, if you like RVP50.

Big difference in the two; I'm looking forward to seeing more of your tests. I'm just trying to get the film so I can do my own tests, prior to my October trip to New Zealand/Australia.

 

[John McCallum]

Interesting results Baxter. Thanks for posting. On my monitor it looks as if the iso100 has had proportionately more exposure and consequently a little less contrast & saturation than the rvp50. But of course this is a guess. I was wondering, at what ISO do you rate rvp50? It would be interesting to see your further test results.
We're not due to see the RVP100 in NZ for a few weeks yet.

Robert may I suggest stocking up with more film than you imagine you will use in Aust and NZ! We're planning some really good weather and locations for you .

 

[Baxter Bradford]

John
I was hoping to give them the same effective exposure, so I rated the RVP50 at ISO 40 and the RVP100 at ISO 80. They look so different on the lightbox in terms of colour and to a lesser extent contrast, that it is hard to assess relative exposure. Using the foreground and tree (ignoring sky, due to uncertainty over ND grad) they are pretty similar. Opinions differed in the Outdoor Photogaphy mag test about rating, but you shouln't be too far out with ISO 80.

One of the things I want to try is using it pushed one stop since I have found this beneficial for RVP100F.

I now have RVP100 in both sheet and QL, so future tests will enable more details to be written to aid learning.

 

[John McCallum]

Thanks Baxter. I suspected the rvp50 had been given a bit more exposure. Yes, the colours really are very different aren't they. Keen to see the results of more of your tests. best, John.

 

[roteague]

Looking forward to the results. I hope to do some test myself in the coming weeks; I've heard that RVP100 is spot on at 100, yours is the first report I've seen otherwise.

I've got to get busy and shoot some more 4x5; I've been playing with my new Nikon F5 (I got it used) all week.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

Here are the latest results of my tests. As you can see, I spent a bit of time placing side by side and labelling. Have had to resize to meet upload requirements. Still you should be able to see what is going on. Shots were taken one after the other in stable lighting conditions.

Scans were dome at same settings, except that I used the shadow dropper tool in the rebate for each image in order to determine a true black. The images look about right on my monitor (D50 and gamma 2.2), but in any case you can do a comparison.

ISO 80 seems a bit light, so ISO 100 would be better. For the 1 stop push, I used ISO 200, whereas ISO 160 would have been better!

Am very concerned about the unpredictability of the treatment of skies. The red-ness also comes into the shot of the cliff in the warm dawn sunlight. More so in some tonal areas than others.

I have now uploaded these to the Technical gallery
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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I shot early afternoon yesterday in a comparison with RVP100F. Will see how the sky is rendered in the colder light.

 

[mark]

DO you think you did not give enough exposure to the new Velvia? Not questioning your methods but my use of the old velvia is reddish when I underexpose too much. If you nailed it then these are two widely different films.

 

[BruceN]

Hey Robert, have you had a chance to play with this stuff yet? If so, what do you think?

Bruce

 

[roteague]

Sorry Bruce, I've been shooting some, but I just haven't shot enough yet to be able to send to the processor - I usually wait until I've got about 100 sheets or so. I will send a batch by the end of the month though; I've got a lot of Velvia 100 (and 50) for my trip to New Zealand/Australia in October.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

Sorry Bruce, I've been shooting some, but I just haven't shot enough yet to be able to send to the processor - I usually wait until I've got about 100 sheets or so. I will send a batch by the end of the month though; I've got a lot of Velvia 100 (and 50) for my trip to New Zealand/Australia in October.

Robert

I would suggest that you send a couple of sheets of the RVP100 ahead of the batch to see if it is behaving as you would want. I know this sounds pedantic, but performance of RVP when shooting at either end of the day, as you do, is not as what many would wish, especially in the skies. Here it produces incredible (ie not credible) results. There are many UK LF shooters who, like myself having tested the new film, are less than enamoured.

My photo library is not relishing the postproduction work incurred in Photoshop removing reds/magentas from those who supply trannies only to them. They love images shot on RVP50.

As for the NZ trip, you will want to be certain that you are obtaining the results you desire.

On my recent 2 week trip to Cornwall, I shot just 1 sheet of RVP100 and over 80 RVP50! Am seriously looking at using colour neg film as an alternative and shot 15 sheets of this in readiness.

 

[roteague]

Thanks Baxter,

I will be getting a batch off for processing soon. I've been waiting to finish off the box when David Goldfarb gets here; we are going off shooting somewhere - wherever he wants to go.

This batch I have represents tests with the 100, as well as tests with my new Schneider Super Symar XL 80mm lens - with and without the center filter. That center filter takes such a huge outside filter that I would like to see how usuable the images I get without it are.

I've actually got an equal amount of 50 and 100 Velvia for the trip, except in 35mm which is all 100 (I shoot very little 35mm thest days). I've also found a local source for film in Christchurch that has the 50 in stock, so I think I am set. Sean and John on the North Island will have other sources I'm sure.

BTW, I've completely replace my Cokin kit with an equivalent Lee kit - except I can't find a hard grad .3 (so I settled for the soft grad). I am a bit concerned with the standard hood I bought (I shot some test with the 80 and this hood to be processed in the next batch).

 

[Woolliscroft]

In the UK there is a comparative review in this weeks Amateur Photographer. It seems positive, but detects a slight red tinge in the new film and says there is a little less contrast than Velvia 50.

David.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Looking at Baxter's test results above, I'd describe it as more than a slight red tinge.

 

[benjiboy]

What's in a name ?

In the UK there is a comparative review in this weeks Amateur Photographer. It seems positive, but detects a slight red tinge in the new film and says there is a little less contrast than Velvia 50.

David.

I read this comparison , and called into my local so called "professional dealer" yesterday who sold me a roll of Velvia 100 F, saying it was the only velvia 100 made,and anyway it's the same thing, I couldn't bother arguing and bought it. How many Fuji Velvias are they? I know it's only one roll, and I'll use it, but it appears there are two Velvia 100 emulsions so take care you get the right one.

 

[mark]

Your dealer is not very professional. 100F is way different than 100. There are two types of velvia. In two speeds. There is velvia in 100 and 50-100 is supposed to replace fifty-and 100F

 

[benjiboy]

Thanks Mark, I agree, I don't know if it's lack of product knowledge or because they want to sell the 100F first, probably the former I think knowing them, unfortunately they're the only pro dealer in the area within a reasonable distance from my home ( I don't drive) and I only wanted one roll to try, I normally buy my film in tens or twentys mail order.

 

[roteague]

How many Fuji Velvias are they? I know it's only one roll, and I'll use it, but it appears there are two Velvia 100 emulsions so take care you get the right one.

There are actually three Velvia's made: the traditional 50, replacement 100 and the 100F. I have heard of two more Velvia emulsions that are sold only in Japan as well.

Here is an article on the new 100 that you may find interesting: http://www.kenrockwell.com/fuji/velvia100.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/velvia100f.htm