At 16:04 1/8/02, Charles Monroe asked:
I'm kind of backing into slides once again after a hiatus of a little
over thirty years. I started with a Argus C-3 in the early 1940's, . . .
[snip]
My father used an Argus C-3 for decades; he bought his in 1953.
Question:
1. The only slide film available locally is Elite chrome 200.
[snip]
a. What are some recommended film(s)?
b. I'll need a mail order source preferably here on the US East coast.
Suggestions?
Sadly, you are experiencing the "dumbing down" of the consumer film buyers
who own the marvelous polycarbonate bricks with a googol of AF/AE program
modes and are bundled with snail slow outright rubbish for lenses. The
result is any film slower than ISO 200 completely disappearing from the
consumer film shelves. If you were to follow Kodak's advice, you'd be
loading up with nothing but Zoom Max [ISO 800], their latest miracle film
[snake oil] that can do anything and everything [with utter mediocrity]!
In consumer films:
Kodachrome 64 *
Elitechrome 100 (NOT the Extra Color!!)
Elitechrome 200
Fuji Sensia 100
In professional films:
Kodachrome 64
Fuji Provia 100F *
Fuji Astia *
Afga Scala 200X * **
Fuji Velvia [ISO 50]
E100S
E200
Ektachrome 64T ***
Ektachrome 160T * ***
Ektachrome 320T ***
* Films I currently use
** Black and white
*** Tungsten balanced
Notes:
(a) E100S is the pro version of Elitechrome 100; likewise with E200 and
Elitchrome 200, and EPL-400 and Elitechrome 400. E200 and Elitechrome 200
are much finer grained than Fuji Sensia 200; OTOH Fuji's Sensia 400 and
Provia 400F is much finer grained than Kodak's Elitechrome 400 and
EPL-400. Kodachrome 200 has the coarsest grain of any of the ISO 200 films.
(b) Neutral saturation: Fuji Astia 100 and Kodak EPN-100; moderate
saturation: Kodachrome, Fuji Provia, Sensia, Elitechrome 100/200/400,
E100S, E200, EPL-400, and all of the Ektachrome tungsten; high saturation:
Elitechrome 100 Extra Color, E100VS and Fuji Velvia.
(c) Fujichromes (all of them) have a reputation for their "light blob"
rendering of extremely bright light sources. Train photographers were the
first to note this effect. I've experienced it with both Provia 100F and
from traffic signals on one of the few occasions using Sensia 400 for night
"street shooting." Seems as if the extremely bright light source flares
transversely through the emulsion. Neither Kodachrome nor the Ektachromes
do this. Not a problem if you don't have extremely bright sources of light
such as a traffic signal at night or a train headlight in the photograph
[both of these are brighter than car headlamps].
(d) Diffuse RMS granularity isn't everything! It's the system MTF of lens
and film that count. With the very recent demise of Kodachrome 25, the
finest grain transparency now is Fuji's Provia 100F. However, Fuji's
Velvia has a better MTF than Provia 100F even though it's diffuse RMS
granularity number is slightly higher. Downside of Velvia is its very high
saturation doesn't do well with skin tones; also users are discovering it
doesn't quite have as high an archival life as other E-6's. IMO Kodachrome
64 versus Elitechrome 100 or E100S very likely outperforms them in MTF even
though its diffuse RMS granularity is slightly higher.
(e) Agfa Scala 200X is the *only* B&W transparency with very nearly the
fine grain of an ISO 100 E-6, an exceptionally high archival life, and it's
treated during processing for improved durability and lifespan.
(f) Try these transparency films under a range of conditions, find what
best suits your "vision" for your photography and use it. You will find a
wider range of film characteristics available to you with transparency than
you will with color negative; consumer or professional.
Order film from B&H Photo Video in NYC:
http://bhphotovideo.com/
I do this in quantity to amortize UPS shipping cost across 5-15 rolls of
film. I also avoid using anything over ISO 200.
Any recommendations for a mail order slide film processor?
I would closely watch USPS implementation of high powered electron beam
irradiation equipment. This equipment (made by Atlas) is **guaranteed** to
ruin film as if it were removed from the cannister and exposed to bright
daylight for several hours. It is much different from the x-ray systems
found in airports for luggage scanning.
I use a Qualex drop box at the local discount department store for K-14
(Kodachrome) and E-6 processing. Turnaround is 5-7 days for Kodachrome and
4-5 days for E-6. At this time I have mailers for all the Agfa Scala 200X
on hand as it requires special processing (it's not K-14, E-6 or E-4
[former Ektachrome process; still used for Ektachrome IR film]). There are
three labs in the U.S. that handle Scala 200X. I'm monitoring USPS
irradiation equipment acquisition and installation as it is of great
concern to me for continued Scala 200X usage. Some wise-ass told me to
ship it to the lab UPS; yeah, right; UPS is over 10X the cost of sending it
by USPS.
3. My current mail order processing lab will make floppies or CD's at
same time as the
color negative processing but does not offer this service with slide film.
a. Does any lab offer this service?
As dumb as it sounds, Qualex will not create a "Picture CD" when processing
transparencies! [This would be a no-brainer for Qualex if done prior to
mounting the transparencies.] Qualex can make Photo CD's which are much
higher resolution, but not at processing time. Many full-service pro labs
can do the same. I use one and only have selected slides scanned. More
images can be added to a Photo CD later (until it's filled). The Photo CD
uses a special file format (not TIFF or JPEG) and imaging software such as
PhotoShop or Picture Window that can read these files *must* be used to
access them. You might do some research to see if a couple of the nearest
pro labs can do this for you.
c. If that is prohibitively expensive is there any flatbed scanners that
I can use to scan slides and still do the usual flatbed scanner tasks?
Most very high resolution (4000dpi) film scanners with a high DMax (dynamic
range) handle transparencies better than a flatbed with a transparency
adapter. [A film scanner capable of handling 120/220 in addition to 35mm
is on my list, but the price of one that can handle medium format film is
prohibitively high.]
Whether you have Photo CD's created or buy a scanner and do it yourself,
there is a learning curve to working with scanned images! It does require
some processing to adjust color balance, contrast, and sometimes brightness
levels no matter how good the scanner is.
-- John
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