Listened to the C-41 podcast, too. Very stoked by Sasha Coen's comment: "I shoot medium format and 35mm wasn't my thing 'cause I don't like the grain, but I tried it, and it looks like medium format. This is a new film!"
Looks like Sasha Coen has little experience with reversal film in general. Because:
Reversal film generally has significantly finer grain, higher resolution (especially at lower and medium object contrasts) and better sharpness than color negative film.
That is the reason why professional photographers have used 35mm color reversal film for decades in their public slide / AV shows in big halls on huge cinema screens. And the slides on the huge screens have outstanding quality.
A 35mm color slide is much closer to a 120 format color negative because of this finer detail rendition than a 35mm color negative.
So that he is impressed by the fineness of grain of 35mm Ektachrome has certainly less to do with being it Ektachrome, than being it reversal film.
Because Provia 100F, the Velvias, former Astia 100F, Sensia, Kodak Elitechromes and so on all have (had) this outstanding and extremely fine detail rendition.
And this quality level which is closer to 120 format color negative film than expected.
And I liked hearing that the dynamic range is wide. Not going to help you if you blow the highlights, but still wide enough that if you nail those, you've got "something like 7 stops"... to which I say, "Huh? Okay.... we'll see when we see it... but if you think so, that's sounding like high praise."
Hopefully it is more than 7 stops, because former Ektachrome E100G, Elitechrome 100 and Fujichrome Provia 100F have about 8 stops. If you look at them on a light box.
If you need to squeeze even more from them it is also possible with a real drum scanner. A friend of mine showed me scans with about 11 stops contrast range from Provia 100F. And Tim Parkin (onlandscapes) had published drum scans made by him of Velvia 50 with about 10 stops range.
It is really impressive what a capable photographic medium reversal film is.
When I came back to film, it was for the B&W, but now I'm beginning to shoot color again, and liking it very much. Not sure I want to process E6 myself, but the prospect that Kodak might make film a long term viable alternative is beginning to sound very much like their intention rather than just reviving an old formula.
Very good idea to start using color reversal again (I've never stopped doing it
🙂). But you don't have to wait for Ektachrome.
You can start at once with Provia 100F, Velvia 50 and 100. Not only in 35mm, but also in 120. All three films are available in both formats (and sheet film, too).
