Colour film for a long trip.. Velvia 50 (and K64)

[Bruno Gracia]

Hi there!

I have been watching videos and pictures made with Kodachrome 64.. what a beauty, sadly it's not possible to produce it anymore 🙁

And I'm wondering if the Velvia 50 is in some terms close in contrast and colours to this film.. I love much more the slide than negatives and I will do a very long trip for south Asia or Caribe, We don't know still.. with my leica M6 with 35 cron (don't know yet if asph or IV, which is better for colour?), and the FM2 with the 105 2.5 ..

Any suggestion in colour film?

 

[Godfrey]

Hi there!

I have been watching videos and pictures made with Kodachrome 64.. what a beauty, sadly it's not possible to produce it anymore 🙁

And I'm wondering if the Velvia 50 is in some terms close in contrast and colours to this film.. I love much more the slide than negatives and I will do a very long trip for south Asia or Caribe, We don't know still.. with my leica M6 with 35 cron (don't know yet if asph or IV, which is better for colour?), and the FM2 with the 105 2.5 ..

Any suggestion in colour film?

Kodachrome is to Velvia as Renoir is to a cartoonist. Velvia is super saturated (overly so in my opinion).

I stopped shooting slides over 25 years ago. Modern negative emulsions like Portra give so much more to work with in sharpness and exposure latitude...

G

 

[roboflick]

Velvia 100 is beautiful for travel and landscapes. I love the saturated colors! And the 35 cron asph is a perfect match for this film, incredible color and resolution even wide open, you can shoot into light without any worry about flare, worth every penny. Velvia 50 is beautiful too but you lose a stop, so your preference should be what stop you mainly shoot at, wider apertures would benefit from the speed of the 50 film. You really need to nail the exposure with slide film, I had no problem with the exposure meter in the m6, but remember to expose for the highlights, otherwise the colors will become washed out, this is the opposite of c41 and black and white film. Enjoy shooting slide film!

Nik

 

[Bruno Gracia]

Thank You both!

So.. for color film (slide or negative) it does exists a real advantage shooting the Asph instead the IV? And what about black and white?

 

[roboflick]

I don't think you would see the difference in black and white unless you were shooting extremely fine grained film into a light source wide open
Nik

 

[Exdsc]

Thank You both!

So.. for color film (slide or negative) it does exists a real advantage shooting the Asph instead the IV? And what about black and white?

For slide film, with its low ISO you want a lens that is sharp at wide apertures; with black and white film you want a low contrast and high resolution lens.

If you don't shoot slide film at a decent shutter speed, you're going to lose the edges and acuity, so keep the shutter speed twice the focal length and open the aperture.


for 35mm 1/60, and min 1/25.

 

[Etabeta]

Bruno, there will be a lot of light, down there... So, I'd choose Velvia 50 which is, at least in my opinion, a little better than Velvia 100 (deeper yellows, no magenta cast, etc) for landscape and nature. Besides, with a "slower" slide, you won't be obliged to close the diaphragm too much at noon, in particular with your M6.

 

[Exdsc]

Bruno, there will be a lot of light, down there... So, I'd choose Velvia 50 which is, at least in my opinion, a little better than Velvia 100 (deeper yellows, no magenta cast, etc) for landscape and nature. Besides, with a "slower" slide, you won't be obliged to close the diaphragm too much at noon, in particular with your M6.

But the tricky part with slide film is to shoot when there is not 'too much' light.

 

[Bruno Gracia]

You're right but I'm not a landscape or nature shooter, just people or some colour textures 🙂

Here in London.. with the cloudy days is most difficult than my country (south Spain).

 

[thegman]

I would imagine Provia might be closer to Kodachrome than Velvia, but Velvia is great in it's own right. For me, Velvia is my "go to" film for travelling in places of natural beauty.

 

[Exdsc]

You're right but I'm not a landscape or nature shooter, just people or some colour textures 🙂

Here in London.. with the cloudy days is most difficult than my country (south Spain).

People are even more tricky with slide film because people move and when things move, shutter speed increase is even more important - unless of course you freeze people into a dead stare - Steve McCurry approach.


Negative film is always better for people because you're not going to destroy skin tones with high contrast and saturation of slide film - especially Valvia.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Sensia 100, if you can find any, would be one of the best E6 choices. Otherwise Provia 100F. Velvia has many virtues, but portraiture is not one of its strong points. You can do portraiture with slide if you want to. Granted, neg has some advantages, but if transparency is what you love, go for it. How quickly we forget that generations of magazine photographers somehow managed to get by with reversal films for people photography until just a decade or so ago; it can be done.
Cheers
Brett

 

[Bruno Gracia]

Thanks guys, Actually my favourite one is Provia 100F, some images with portra 400, first time using it!




Yellow man por Bruno Gracia, en Flickr



bus worker por Bruno Gracia, en Flickr



Sri Lanka President por Bruno Gracia, en Flickr

 

[Godfrey]

Thank You both!

So.. for color film (slide or negative) it does exists a real advantage shooting the Asph instead the IV? And what about black and white?

Lenses see differently. I'm not familiar enough with the subtle differences between "IV" and "ASPH" to make much of a recommendation.

Basically, since I only rarely have more than one or two lenses in a particular focal length, and I only very rarely carry more than one focal length at a time, I use what I have and, knowing it, adjust what I shoot accordingly.

Too much time spent trying to analyze what might be "best" for an unknown situation leads to a paralysis...

G

 

[Bruno Gracia]

yes Godfrey.. more photography and books and less equipment.. Less is More.

 

[Bruno Gracia]

What about the Ektachrome for the skin tones?

 

[roboflick]

ektachrome e 100g or provia 100f are excellent for skin tones, astia 100f is even better if you can find any.

Nik

 

[helen.HH]

Porta 160.... Love the palatte, so Painterly

 

[Mystyler]

Astia 100F is fantastic for people, but I now use Provia 400X. Skin tones are where they should be. I've pretty well neglected my C-41 stock because of that one film.
I also found Velvia 100 was better than 50 if there are people in the frame - but 50 is better for everything else.








These were shot on Astia 100F at around 1400 in the very harsh Aussie summer sun.

 

[Alex Krasotkin]

Try to find Agfa Precisa 100. I bought it recently in UK via ebay. Great unexpensive slide film. Otherwise Provia 100F is ideal.