Best Film Type?

[smurfbike]

Recently I have been using lots of Fuji Superia Reala 100 film and I am extremely impressed with the results. I haven’t found another film to rival it’s realistic colour, sharpness, lack of grain and wonderful ability coping with artificial light sources, especially green casts from florescent lighting.

As with most colour negative films, Reala benefits from a little overexposure, 64 - 80 E.I for best results.

I have discovered it’s major strength is its suitability for scanning. Perhaps this is due to it’s very smooth grain structure?

According to the Fuji Germany website, it has the highest sharpness and fine grain of all colour negative films available from Fujifilm.
My feeling is that not enough enthusiasts know about this film and it’s qualities.

It can be difficult to find stocks in smaller camera stores but is well worth the effort!

My question to members of the forum is;

What are your views and experiences with this film?

Thanks in advance,

[simonkirk]

A bit new to film but since i got given a roll of TX-400 i have been using this exclusivley, never shot colour film i prefer B+W

[vincebelford]

Jeffrey hit it on the nose.
I would add what is your output medium? Do you plan to show pictures in pbase or make prints or project them? If you’re scanning them are you using a flatbed or neg/slide scanner?
What inner vision do you have for any bunch of photos and does the equipment and materials you use give you the desired result?
I know, many questions, but this is your art not anybody else’s – that’s the fun; you get to be a little deity creating your own universe. Try everything and use whatever works for you.
Vince

[arachnophilia]

my prefered b+w print film is agfapan apx 100. i also like kodak hie infrared, when it gives me the accidental good result. my prefered color slide film is fujichrome velvia 50.

ideally, i'd use nothing else, but that just doesn't happen. kodak tri-x 400 is good back up because walgreens carries it and they're open 24 hours here. kodak extra color 100 is also acceptable in a hurry.

[zaneyau]

I know this will sound rude, so I apologize in advance if it's taken the wrong way.

As far as the best film type?

Stop asking questions and take pictures.

There's a lot of films out there, each with it's own differences and subtlety.

Each does something different.

It's not rude at all, it's actually quite true

[jim_panzee]

There is no colour negative film equivalent to Fuji Velvia 50 or Provia 100 for colour, contrast, resolution or fine grain.

Who says so!!!

[jim_panzee]

According to the Fuji Germany website, it has the highest sharpness and fine grain of all colour negative films available from Fujifilm.

I've never tried it, but if Fuji Germany says its good, who am I to argue.

[containsmildperil]

There is no colour negative film equivalent to Fuji Velvia 50 or Provia 100 for colour, contrast, resolution or fine grain.

Who says so!!!

I'd tend to favour Velvia for landscapes, flowers, and generally static subjects where saturated colours are desirable; Provia for shots including people. I find Kodak Elitechrome Extra Colour (EBX) a good all-round slide film, and at 100asa, it's a stop faster than Velvia. I surmise from the time difference that this site is US-based, so I'm not sure how your prices compare to UK prices, but over here, EBX is usually considerably cheaper if you shop around. There are technical reasons which I don't understand why slides give superior colour reproduction compared to negative film. The difference is clear when viewing a projected slide, whereas if viewing a print made from a slide, there may be little difference.
Though a little off topic, in this age of digital manipulation, when it's getting harder and harder to tell if a print is "real" or digital, I find something reassuringly honest about slides. That said, I shoot mostly print film, because I want to have prints for my album at a reasonable price, and because I like the greater exposure latitude which print film offers. My favourite colour print film is Kodak High Definition ( a versatile 200asa), and I like chromogenic (C41 process) b&w films, particularly Ilford XP2.

[filipdabrowski]

When I shoot film I break it down this way:

Color: Fuji Provia 100 or 400

B&W: Ilford HP5 Plus or Kodak Tri-X 400

Provia has the best color/contrast of all the color slide films I've tried. The Ilford is my fave B&W film, but sometimes hard to find while traveling in certain countries...so if not the Ilford I always go for the Tri-X. I've tried them all over the years and these three seem to be at the top of my list. Sometimes, though, I also pop in a roll of Velvia 50 for landscapes.

[rob3571]

For those using Superia, you should try Superia Reala. It is a more expensive but it is sharper and has more contrast.

Actually its not sharper. These two emulsions have the exact same grain and resolving power. The difference between Superia Reala and Superia 100 is the color rendition.

Check out the datasheets:
[url]http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/Sup_Reala.pdf
[/url]
http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/AF3-007E.pdf
The shapes of the green curves are different.

[rob3571]

I have seen anything about Konica.

I used some Centuria VX 200 recently and really liked it. It reproduced nice soft flesh tones and very clean whites. It did very well with flash-lit scenes.

Fuji Superia200 tends to be almost over-saturated IMHO. Not the best people film. I do like Superia XTRA 400 and Press 800. For such fast films they have tight grain and have a lot of exposure latitude. I like to over-expose Superia 400 slightly (rate it at ISO 320) to get detail in the shadow and really saturate the colors. It does fine.

I'm so sad about Kodak Supra. I just tried it last summer and liked it and now its gone. It was a promising landscape/scenic emulsion.

[pulp_depiction]

What is the best film? I've become a bit of a fuji superia 200 (100 sometimes) girl myself... but I think that's because it's easy to find and I usually have coupons. I think it gives good results, but I don't know what all is out there.

-Emily
(The Forum Goddess)

Last year I got back into MF 35mm and tried some new films.... and processing costs/methods. Bear in mind I am wearing L plates here, still learning how to drive 35mm at 46yrs old...

I like macro and nature and kids candid action portraits...

These 2 pics for comparison are taken using the same 105mm Kiron lens on the same OM-1n in the same location, different days.

No 1 is a scanned supermarket auto-lab std size print from Kodak 200ASA High Def negative film


No 2 is a high res scan from the neg roll done by a pro lab - ie I found it actually cheaper/better to say "no prints please just dev & scan the roll to CDROM" - the film is Fuji Press Pro 800ASA negative film




I like the Fuji greens better, the Kodak (or maybe the autolab, has a red bias. Also the higher speed gives surprising quality. Well, surprised me anyway. I am sticking to dev & scan, especially since Santa brought me a Epson R800.