Hi all,
The ongoing discussion of various brands of slide film and the planning of our
next trip to Greenland this summer makes me speculate which slide film to take
with me.
Last time, with no experience with slide film whatsoever, I followed a film
dealer's advice to use Kodak Elitechrome. I took 200 ASA film because I mainly
thought of using my zoom lenses. Also I did not know how the light was in
Greenland and I did not take a tripod with me because we saved every gram of
equipment on the hiking trips. I was mostly relying on the automatic exposure
of my OM-2, sometimes compensating a stop plus or minus. That worked rather
well.
So the question is: Which film renders both the crystal blue colours of
icebergs, the deep colours of the sparse greenlandic vegetation, the black
rocks and the immense amount of sky, and can cope with the high contrasts?
Elitechrome 200 was rather grainy and had difficulties with the high contrast.
I have used Provia 100 and 400 and Velvia a lot since, not in Greenland, but in
Denmark. I an very satisfied with these films. I like the neutral rendering and
the contrast capabilities of Provia and also the full colours of Velvia. It
plays good together with the Zuiko lenses' tone (I could see a clear difference
between the Zuikos (24/2.8 and 35-70/3.5-4.5) and the lightweight Tamron
70-210/4.?-5.6).
I may also consider Fuji Sensia 100, which does not need processing immediately
after exposure (We'll be there for 4 weeks, without my pro-lab and with
temperatures between 0 and 20 deg. C.). And Sensia is a great deal cheaper as
well.
I've never used Kodachrome and from the discussions I learned that it is almost
unavailable in most places.
Meanwhile, we've bought a lightweight plasticky tripod (500 gr.), so I don't
need to rely on a 200 ASA film.
Do you have any ideas? Any experiences with photographing icebergs and the
Arctic are welcome. Me and my girlfriend (who has just bought a used Minolta
X-700 to replace her broken X-300) are so excited of travelling to Greenland
again!
Best regards,
Bernd Moeller
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|