- Joined
- Jul 14, 2011
- Messages
- 13,930
- Format
- 8x10 Format
Hi Helge. I found Astia 100F to be the best color balanced film ever and used it in 8X10 for making master dupes of other chromes for printing purposes. Velvia has its niche, but is of such a high contrast level that it's less versatile than Provia. I've shot every generation of Provia sheet film, but it's annoying to work with because it's on dimensionally unstable triacetate base. But recent versions of Ektachrome sheet film are on far superior PET base; and their current E100 is more neutral than either Provia of Velvia, but not equal to Astia in that respect, which in its last generation was itself on excellent PET base. Triacetate shrinks and won't maintain registration with contrast masks for very long.
And I'd argue that Kodak Ektar is the best balanced color neg film ever - not perfect by any means, but the closest thing ever to chrome film results from a CN film. That's mostly what I've been printing from the past two months. But one has to understand the importance of filtering it for color temp balance at the time of the shot. Once the handwriting was on the wall concerning the extinction of Cibachrome, I started shooting Portra 160VS, which was a nice stepping stone into Ektar 100 once it came out. Right now I'm RA4 printing on Fujiflex Supergloss, an amazing product.
Yesterday I did my first Acros II test prints, to compare with the original version, which I often used. Similar except for a little steeper toe (an improvement), and a little less blue sensitivity (another improvement). Expensive! - (not an improvement). And still realistically a 50 speed film for me if the scene is quite contrasty. I also recently thawed out the last box of 4X5 original Acros I had on hand. End of an era. It was great to have it in Quickload holders for backpacking purposes, which were more reliable than Kodak's Readyload sleeves. But at my age now (73), anything resembling a long backpack trip is more likely to involve roll-film backs on the 4X5, or an outright Fuji 6X9 RF camera.
I still have a slide projector, but nobody offers slide mounting anymore, even though E6 processing in this area is available clear up to 8X10. Sliding mounting would have to be done by hand. That was a long time ago - Kodachrome slide shows, old pre-E6 Agfachrome 50. Once I got into actual color darkroom printing, I soon transitioned into strictly 4X5 chromes for a decade, then added 4X5 black and white, then 8x10 of both. But what the heck - I'm taking a walk with the Nikon and color film in it tomorrow or the next day. Too windy this week for anything other than handheld work! Might take the Fuji RF with TMY400 in it too. But it'a all fun and rewarding.
And I'd argue that Kodak Ektar is the best balanced color neg film ever - not perfect by any means, but the closest thing ever to chrome film results from a CN film. That's mostly what I've been printing from the past two months. But one has to understand the importance of filtering it for color temp balance at the time of the shot. Once the handwriting was on the wall concerning the extinction of Cibachrome, I started shooting Portra 160VS, which was a nice stepping stone into Ektar 100 once it came out. Right now I'm RA4 printing on Fujiflex Supergloss, an amazing product.
Yesterday I did my first Acros II test prints, to compare with the original version, which I often used. Similar except for a little steeper toe (an improvement), and a little less blue sensitivity (another improvement). Expensive! - (not an improvement). And still realistically a 50 speed film for me if the scene is quite contrasty. I also recently thawed out the last box of 4X5 original Acros I had on hand. End of an era. It was great to have it in Quickload holders for backpacking purposes, which were more reliable than Kodak's Readyload sleeves. But at my age now (73), anything resembling a long backpack trip is more likely to involve roll-film backs on the 4X5, or an outright Fuji 6X9 RF camera.
I still have a slide projector, but nobody offers slide mounting anymore, even though E6 processing in this area is available clear up to 8X10. Sliding mounting would have to be done by hand. That was a long time ago - Kodachrome slide shows, old pre-E6 Agfachrome 50. Once I got into actual color darkroom printing, I soon transitioned into strictly 4X5 chromes for a decade, then added 4X5 black and white, then 8x10 of both. But what the heck - I'm taking a walk with the Nikon and color film in it tomorrow or the next day. Too windy this week for anything other than handheld work! Might take the Fuji RF with TMY400 in it too. But it'a all fun and rewarding.
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