Why do you shoot colour reversal film?

Ivo Stunga · Jul 20, 2025

Psst.
Fuji exists and it isn't a scarcity in Europe and Asia.

In another dimension Harman could make a slide film with strong lomo-esque character and improve it over the years.

ChrisGalway · Jul 20, 2025

runswithsizzers said:
I would be very interested in learning more about exactly how you take medium format stereo slides and also interested in learning more about your mediium format stereo viewer.

It could be a long story, but basically you need a camera, slide mounts and a viewer. I've attached three photos as examples. (I'd be happy to expand if you message me!). Whilst most people who shoot stereo use digital, it's still accepted by most that the most realistic immersive results are still obtained using medium format film ... at least right now, digital displays are improving all the time..

ChrisGalway · Jul 20, 2025

A great range of responses! More welcome.

It seems there is consensus (more of less) that you can't beat viewing slides, either in a viewer or projected. (That's certainly my view.)

There seems to be some differing views on scanning ... and I'm not qualified to comment, as I get no joy at all out of scanning, then spending ages fiddling around with the digital files. I realise that for some people this is easy, or pure bliss, or both!

As for E6 film availability into the future, I hope neither Fuji or Kodak pull the plug but surely its inevitable one day? Kodachrome? Dream on.

1957ExaktaVarexIIa · Jul 20, 2025

In the first moment I used slide films - back in early 80s, I did it because you didn't get reliable results when you asked a "normal" professional laboratory to make prints from C41 films. Some were too bright, others were too dark, others had unpleasant colours...

With slide film, I always knew that I myself could try to do anything to get good pictures (or mess them up ).
After some years, when I had found my favourite films, I didn't change until I stopped photography for many years in 2007: Kodachrome 25 , Ektachrome 400HC and Ektachrome P800/1600 .
I still miss all the three of them. Especially Kodachrome 25's are among the best coloured slides in my collection and much better than any coloured print I have ever seen.

And from those years on until today...

ChrisGalway said:
Are you viewing the slides in an optical viewer or projector? (The best viewing experience in my opinion, but "selfish" as you can only show others in person.)

Yes, I have always been loving to use the projector.

For that reason I have stopped to work in the black-and-white darkroom many years ago and have since been doing slides in black-and-white also. It's a real pleasure.

Ivo Stunga · Jul 20, 2025

It'd be interesting to know how many of us - BW Slide shooters and shooters + reversal madmen - are out there currently.
Somehow I suspect that the number could be higher than current E-6 shooters and DIY processing afficionados due to pricing, ever shrinking number of competent labs, and availability of film and E6 chemistry.

The best E6 kit for the job might be restricted to ship to your destination, and so on.

Chan Tran · Jul 20, 2025

Ivo Stunga said:
It'd be interesting to know how many of us - BW Slide shooters and shooters + reversal madmen - are out there currently.
Somehow I suspect that the number could be higher than current E-6 shooters and DIY processing afficionados due to pricing, ever shrinking number of competent labs, and availability of film and E6 chemistry.

The best E6 kit for the job might be restricted to ship to your destination, and so on.

I have done C41 and E6 processing at home before I worked in a lab that process them. I never can do as good of a job or as cheap as the lab can. So if there is no lab I won't be shooting film.

ChrisGalway · Jul 20, 2025

Ivo Stunga said:
It'd be interesting to know how many of us - BW Slide shooters and shooters + reversal madmen - are out there currently.
Somehow I suspect that the number could be higher than current E-6 shooters and DIY processing afficionados due to pricing, ever shrinking number of competent labs, and availability of film and E6 chemistry.

The best E6 kit for the job might be restricted to ship to your destination, and so on.

I've never seen any believable numbers for film users ... let alone a breakdown by type of film. I suspect there are fewer people shooting B&W slides than colour slides, because there are very few labs left who will process B&W reversal (2 or 3 in Europe?) whereas finding a lab to process E6 is easier.

Suppose 1 in 200,000 (of the whole population) shoot some colour (or B&W) slide film, that would equate to 9 people in Latvia ... how does that sound Ivo? It would be around 25 in Ireland ... that sounds way too many! I fear the real numbers might be closer to 1 in 500,000 or even 1 in a million!

In the absence of data we are just guessing of course. Kodak, Fujifilm and Harman surely have a good grasp of the numbers. As must retailers like B&H in the US and FotoImpex in Germany. Does anyone care to spill the beans?

runswithsizzers · Jul 20, 2025

ChrisGalway said:
I suspect there are fewer people shooting B&W slides than colour slides, because there are very few labs left who will process B&W reversal (2 or 3 in Europe?) whereas finding a lab to process E6 is easier.

... and, as far as I know, there are NO labs offering reversal processing for 135/120 B&W still film in North America(?) Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Back in 2018-2020 I was sending various b&w negative films to DR5 for reversal processing. The results were good, but turn-around times were very slow, often several months. Also, the owner was very rude and unpleasant. After DR5 failed as a business, I was unable to find a lab in the US doing b&w reversal processing.

I am still studying my options for doing b&w reversal processing at home, but it seems like availability of any b&w reversal processing kits is very sporadic in the US.

AZD · Jul 20, 2025

- While my experience is limited, I have never seen a C print or electronic display look so good. I still believe that viewing a slide directly is as close to being there as it gets. Projection is a close second.

- A slide that has been composed and exposed competently is magic. It’s like a tiny portal to another dimension.

- I fondly remember Grandpa’s slide shows. I have many of those slides today.

- Family color prints, on the other hand, were desecrated and mutilated to the point of losing value and context as historical records during the scrapbooking craze of the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the negatives have disappeared. Me being me, this is one of the few things that will get my blood boiling even today. Warning: your mother’s neighborhood friends are terrible graphic designers. Fortunately they don’t care about slides.

- Transparency film captures subtle changes in color and light intensity in a way I haven’t often seen in C41 films, at least not 35mm.

- I suppose that unless you had/have some cash and access to a pro lab, C41 was/is often a bit of a quality crapshoot. For me, it was only in the early 2000s that I started getting really good and predictable results using the local Inkley’s (and an N80 set to auto everything…) Digital killed that, even though the C41 to RA4 prints were from a digital intermediate scan you never saw.

- Lab scans today are a quality crapshoot. Example: I took a snapshot of some sharks from below in one of those fancy aquariums. The blue LED lights above made a neat silhouette. The scan came back awful with a heavy-handed attempt at color correction to neutral resulting in a very ugly image.

- The gap between what I want vs what I’ll get with C41 is too wide unless I begin optically printing myself. I don’t have the time or desire to do this.

- A while back I bought an 8x10 Kodachrome on eBay. It’s a Hollywood studio headshot of Gloria DeHaven apparently taken by Clarence Bull. Must be late 1940s or very early 1950s as Kodachrome sheets weren’t around long. The colors are perfect, the lighting is perfect, the exposure is perfect. I bought it because I wanted to see in person what a good transparency looks like and I’m not disappointed.

Ivo Stunga · Jul 20, 2025

ChrisGalway said:
Suppose 1 in 200,000 (of the whole population) shoot some colour (or B&W) slide film, that would equate to 9 people in Latvia ... how does that sound Ivo?

This actually might be in the ballpark, because we have Baltic Analog Lab here in LV that does BW Reversal of 8 and 16mm films and educates young, experimental shooters and offers student residency Take that lab away and I know only of 1 acquaintance that does BW reversal.

And there probably are some shooting E6 and processing in a local lab. This lab services mailorders from other two Baltic states too!

destroya · Jul 20, 2025

I very much prefer to shoot slide film over negative film. for B&W when i did print optically, i shot negative. but because of my love for projection, I shoot 95% slide film now. I develop myself, both color and black and white. its not really that hard, just time consuming and for color, the chems have gotten very expensive. I think its money well spent, so i keep doing it. but now that I have to pay more in shipping than the chems cost, i am rethinking doing color slides at home. I have 2 great local labs, blue moon and citizens camera that develop slides and do so at a reasonable cost, so I will use those when i decide the cost of doing it at home is too much. It doesn't hurt (or help) that i have a freezer full of slide film. I bought it to shoot, not to sell. but at the current prices people are getting, I might change my mind. black and white reversal is not hard and gives great results.

I also find that slide film scans for me. I do have a very good dig camera and have been using that more, but its not the same. Im old school, tube amps, vinyl over digital music, piano over synth. I like the tangible physical aspect of slides. I can open the binders and hold them up to a light or window and have a glimpse back into my world from long ago or a few weeks ago. I also dont have to worry about my son ruining my hard disc again

john

1957ExaktaVarexIIa · Jul 22, 2025

runswithsizzers said:
I am still studying my options for doing b&w reversal processing at home, but it seems like availability of any b&w reversal processing kits is very sporadic in the US.

Meanwhile I have developed about 60 b&w slide films at home, using this DIY process (Dokumol/Eukobrom can be replaced by Ilford PQ Universal for example, first developing time might be a bit shorter) with pleasant results .

Prest_400 · Jul 23, 2025

Slide film is what took me into film. First by discovering and seeing my dad's Agfachromes from the 80s which despite being snapshots, were a beautiful window of life.
2009 I get to even try Kodachrome thanks to an APUGer here in one of the groups with a "now or never". It is what you see is what you get and there is a certain rendition of colors.
C41 on the other hand using a hybrid workflow has a lot of interpretative variability; I have however gotten scans that looked like slide film off Portra 400 but then other times it was just frustrating. I have been procastinating to do my own scanning for color but slowly will get there.

Also Slide film is what brought me to 6x9 medium format first because of how glorious it looks; I did however start appreciating the flexibility of negative, and when I moved to Scandinavia basically felt like halving my "color" time. Despite much more casual use of slide, I have always been able to keep some frozen rolls of Provia.
Did a trip to Asia with the Fuji 6x9 and about 15 rolls of Provia were exposed, with the bonus of fast development by a HK lab. Went a bit for the color vacation cliché but had some good results. I thought I would ramp down film use, but this trip pushed me to invest into more and long term film shooting (as if I had not the last decade).

Do regret not stocking up on some Velvia 50 back when it was available (120) widely in Europe but lately I have had some thoughts to ask a fellow local photographer who often travels to Japan to source some...

ChrisGalway · Jul 23, 2025

Prest_400 said:
Slide film is what took me into film. .....It is what you see is what you get and there is a certain rendition of colors.
C41 on the other hand using a hybrid workflow has a lot of interpretative variability; I have however gotten scans that looked like slide film off Portra 400 but then other times it was just frustrating. I have been procastinating to do my own scanning for color but slowly will get there.

I think several people have mentioned this. With slide film, once you have done the processing (home or lab), that's it, you're finished, you have the photos. Whereas, in the modern era, with CN film, there is all the pain and tedium of scanning and seemingly endless fiddling around with some SW like Lightroom or whatever. I know some people love manipulating those digital files, but some of us don't ... as Prest_400 says, with slides, "what you see is what you get and there is a certain rendition of colors"

Prest_400 said:
Do regret not stocking up on some Velvia 50 back when it was available (120) widely in Europe but lately I have had some thoughts to ask a fellow local photographer who often travels to Japan to source some...

I add my email address to the "when in stock" alerting service that most EU mail order shops offer, and wait, and wait, and wait ... but usually end up with some (Provia in my case) film after a few, or many, months.

Chan Tran · Jul 23, 2025

ChrisGalway said:
I think several people have mentioned this. With slide film, once you have done the processing (home or lab), that's it, you're finished, you have the photos. Whereas, in the modern era, with CN film, there is all the pain and tedium of scanning and seemingly endless fiddling around with some SW like Lightroom or whatever. I know some people love manipulating those digital files, but some of us don't ... as Prest_400 says, with slides, "what you see is what you get and there is a certain rendition of colors"

I add my email address to the "when in stock" alerting service that most EU mail order shops offer, and wait, and wait, and wait ... but usually end up with some (Provia in my case) film after a few, or many, months.

I don't mind working on the negatives to get the prints I want when I have the darkroom. When I don't it's out of my control so I shoot slide film. I don't shoot film to digitize. If I want digital image I have my digital cameras.

Prest_400 · Jul 23, 2025

And I keep saying, when many mention that Slide film or T-Grain B&W is like digital... no? Surely about grainlessness but I see quite some difference between the primary color renditions; plus sometimes 35mm slides have a bit of "blooming" which despite modern films like Ektachrome or Provia still have a certain "vintage" aspect to it.
As of scanning, rarely scans look as good as the slide itself, not merely approching but mostly it is with drum scanners. As good as meaning to have that oomph which a slide has over the light table, as the scan can transmit through a screen. However, as some mention, I have less of a need to Scan when shooting in slide and am happy for own light table use. On the other hand, when Color Neg scans are nice, it is also beautiful.

Ektachrome has always been quite premium priced, but sometime I should just get some rolls and have it for select use. Then it's the different look of different films; it was a bit overwhelming to travel and time the scene with the desired film stock.
As of select use I had a single roll of Ektachrome amongst the Provias I took to Asia... and it travelled back unexposed; shot it in April and it's just awaiting my next batch to the lab.
I think I have almost 10 rolls of Kodak C41 in the fridge and will get them Dev only. At 6€ for that, it's not that bad and I actually do not have much fun self developing C41 or E6 really with the effort involved. Did a batch with Bellini E6 a year ago and something went awry, so I gained some distancing again to DIY color development.

By the way, Ektar can do beautifully and approaches the look of slide film. It actually was this film what kicked me back into shooting more color back in 2022 after a mostly B&W and darkroom stint (pandemic didn't help the mood). Also, ironically, I don't shoot Ektar that much but like to have it around for select subjects.

It also is that the box speed of chromes is ISO 100. C41 and B&W has more ISO 400 availability which helps for handheld medium format use.

PolyFilmLabs · Jul 23, 2025

Slide film is magical. I was a heavy ECN2 shooter until I shot my first Ektachrome - it floored me.

My photography is my Art and for me there is something about seeing my art on the film as a positive image without the gubbins of darkroom printing or scanning it. It's just magical.

From a Cine perspective, I shoot slide colour and BW because I like to edit and cut it as it would have been done back in the day. On a steenbeck and projected.

There is something just way more tactile and hands on with this film format vs the neg/scan workflow.

Also as we shoot Cine and photo, we respool our 35mm which drops the raw cost from £26 down to £8 per 36exp - half the price of Portra!! Lol

Alan Edward Klein · Jul 23, 2025

Prest_400 said:
Slide film is what took me into film. First by discovering and seeing my dad's Agfachromes from the 80s which despite being snapshots, were a beautiful window of life.
2009 I get to even try Kodachrome thanks to an APUGer here in one of the groups with a "now or never". It is what you see is what you get and there is a certain rendition of colors.
C41 on the other hand using a hybrid workflow has a lot of interpretative variability; I have however gotten scans that looked like slide film off Portra 400 but then other times it was just frustrating. I have been procastinating to do my own scanning for color but slowly will get there.

Also Slide film is what brought me to 6x9 medium format first because of how glorious it looks; I did however start appreciating the flexibility of negative, and when I moved to Scandinavia basically felt like halving my "color" time. Despite much more casual use of slide, I have always been able to keep some frozen rolls of Provia.
Did a trip to Asia with the Fuji 6x9 and about 15 rolls of Provia were exposed, with the bonus of fast development by a HK lab. Went a bit for the color vacation cliché but had some good results. I thought I would ramp down film use, but this trip pushed me to invest into more and long term film shooting (as if I had not the last decade).

Do regret not stocking up on some Velvia 50 back when it was available (120) widely in Europe but lately I have had some thoughts to ask a fellow local photographer who often travels to Japan to source some...

Check with Kumar to get you Velvia 50 from Japan.

dscottjorgenson · Jul 24, 2025

I shoot Velvia 50 in 120 format almost exclusively, and why? Because of what most other respondents on here have already said: color transparency film, properly exposed in suitable lighting conditions and then developed well, is magical - a medium of art appreciable in its own right. Yes, I also agree with others that scanning and post-processing are actually easier with transparency film, since you have a fixed point of reference - so that's another reason too. But the magic of the medium is the main draw.

loccdor · Jul 28, 2025

About 50% of what I shoot now is E-6, 45% B&W and 5% C-41.

I don't usually project it or use a viewer.

E-6 has these advantages for me over C-41:

* Digitizes with a digital camera more easily than C-41
* Generally has less grain than C-41 for the same speed
* Lovely glow to highlights if you burn them just slightly
* Dust appears black which is usually less distracting than bright white
* You can preview the images with your eyes
* Requires less post-processing adjustment to final image
* The high contrast and lower dynamic range complements lower contrast vintage lenses well
* Sunsets and overcast weather both look really good
* I don't find the processing to be more difficult
* Better with push-processing than C-41
* Better with underexposure than C-41 (effectively giving you a higher film speed in practice)
* (Usually) better in expiration than C-41, at least in my experience

Disadvantages for me:

* E-6 kits are a little more expensive
* E-6 kits can't process quite as many films acceptably as C-41 kits
* Extreme brightness range shots will be compromised (but in practice it's rare you'd find such a shot would make a good final image anyway)
* I have to buy and test expired E-6 films since there isn't a good affordable supply of fresh stock

Richard Lawson · Jul 28, 2025

All my colour is either E6 or trichromes.

As others have said above, there's nothing that looks like a well exposed slide, especially in medium format.

I'm currently waiting on a couple of tests to confirm the shutter on the 4x5 is working as it should before exposing more sheets from my freezer.

Koakashii · Aug 15, 2025

ChrisGalway said:
I'm curious to know why people shoot colour reversal film. After all, it's more expensive than colour negative film, less latitude perhaps, there's very little choice (3-4 options, ISO100 or ISO50) and it is not as easy to get hold of (especially Fuji).

Are you viewing the slides in an optical viewer or projector? (The best viewing experience in my opinion, but "selfish" as you can only show others in person.)
Are you darkroom printing them (surely not ... Cibachrome is long gone)?
Are you scanning them, and if so, what's the advantage over scanning CN film?
If you are home processing, do you prefer transparency film because of the pleasure of unwinding the film at the end and seeing those beautiful jewels? (I never tire of this, it's so rewarding!)
Or is it just for the fun of taking slides, after all, this is a hobby isn't it?

To be clear, nearly all of my colour analogue photos are transparencies (Provia 100f, 6x6cm). I take medium format stereo photos and view them in an LED-illuminated high-quality optical viewer ... the realism is amazing. Even the latest digital OLED displays (e.g. in Apple's Vision One) do not match the combination of dynamic range, colour fidelity and resolution of a properly exposed and processed medium format colour transparency. So I use transparency film for it's "display" properties ... as regards its "taking" properties I wish it had a higher ISO speed, ISO100 is a bit limiting (although Provia easily pushes to ISO200 with little obvious degradation).

It's only my curiosity!

It’s like seeing Oled tv screens vs a lcd

fstop · Aug 16, 2025

2 major reasons

Cheaper film and processing than negative film (70s and 80s)
Image buyers wanted it instead of prints.

mshchem · Aug 16, 2025

ChrisGalway said:
It could be a long story, but basically you need a camera, slide mounts and a viewer. I've attached three photos as examples. (I'd be happy to expand if you message me!). Whilst most people who shoot stereo use digital, it's still accepted by most that the most realistic immersive results are still obtained using medium format film ... at least right now, digital displays are improving all the time..

View attachment 403508
View attachment 403509
View attachment 403510 View attachment 403508 View attachment 403509 View attachment 403510

Lord Almighty that's cool!!!

ChrisGalway · Aug 17, 2025

fstop said:
2 major reasons

Cheaper film and processing than negative film (70s and 80s)
Image buyers wanted it instead of prints.

Those were the days! Slide film is now horribly expensive ... but I still think it's worth it if you're able to save up your pennies for the occasional treat!

Why do you shoot colour reversal film?

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