Experience with 1600 color film?

[hoot]

This isn't OT at all, considering how users of rangefinders are less likely to use flash. 😀

I've been commissioned to take photos of different locations in my city, for a travel guide. The photos have to be in color. :bang: Since I never use flash outside of the studio, I figured 1600 ISO film will probably be necessary for many indoor shots.

It appears there is only one kind of 1600 ISO color film, alternately packaged as Fuji Superia and Fuji Professional. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? Is the indoor color rendering decent without the need for a compensation filter? Should the film be exposed at an EI of less than 1600 (e.g., 1250)? In that case, should it be marked accordingly before being dropped off at the lab?

Thanks!

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Some people liked it, I didn't find it that hot... probably because my lab tried to balance the dark zones and rendered them weirdly overexposed.

However... how dark are those areas? A Leica loaded with any ISO 400 color emulsion can do anything! Try shooting at low light with any Leica lens and your meter will tell you to set the camera shutter speed at 1/125th of a second, and the lens wide open at f2. Trust me, you don't need ISO 1600 film if there's ISO 400 nearby.

Good luck and enjoy your assignment! 🙂

 

[Bertram2]

This isn't OT at all, considering how users of rangefinders are less likely to use flash. 😀

I've been commissioned to take photos of different locations in my city, for a travel guide. The photos have to be in color. :bang: Since I never use flash outside of the studio, I figured 1600 ISO film will probably be necessary for many indoor shots.

Thanks!

Fuji 1600, @ 1600

Hoot,
there is more of this theater stuff in my old gallery, just go backwards !
The scans are merde, from the lab, the prints look fine even at 13X18, acceptable even at 18X24. Worth an attempt anyway.

bertram

 

[amateriat]

Saw results from some pre-production Fuji 1600 when the agency I worked for tried some for an event (US Open, 2001). We 86'ed it for Fuji Press 800 pushed +1 stop (with me tweaking the in-house Noritsu on the fly). I imagine it's been reformulated since then, but I haven't seen anything.

Is it possible to work with a tripod/monopod for at least some of the locations? Short of that, you might try whatever current version of Fuji's 1600 product is available. Or just 800 with a push.

 

[dmr]

I've used the Fuji 1600 on occasion in the Pentax. The RF's I have only go to 800 -- as of this time. 🙂

Here are a few links to some I've shot with the 1600 Fuji. It's definitely more grainy than the 800 Fuji Superia, but still not too bad.

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35780
http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35774
http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/vegas5/5588409-R1-031-14w.jpg
http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/vegas5/5588409-R1-051-24w.jpg

Oh, and yes, I abhor flash and very seldom use it! 🙂

Hope this helps. 🙂

 

[XAos]

I've been thinking about trying 1600 for my 'fire cam' the little oly Stylus Epic I keep in my gear at the station. I usually shoot 800 in it now, unless I'm loading for a specific time and expect to use it up at that moment - where I might load 400. I don't like to go much slower than that because I don't like getting caught with half a roll of 100 at night, and there are some things where you can't get a big enough flash to shoot. $5 a roll is hard to swallow though - considering how much this camera gets used for mundane stuff.

 

[smileyguy]

I shot a roll of 1600 before Christmas. I was playing a concert in a church with low light but fantastic architecture and carvings. I shot most of the roll of 36 in the church with my SLR and 50mm 1.8 lens and no flash. Great fun and some good shots came out of it. A little grainy but certainly a trade off. I did some casual portrait stuff to finish off the roll and it turned out fine as well. Window light with the same lens as in the church. A little soft because of the grain but generally very nice. I would recommend it. Just have fun and shoot a roll. Not that much lost really if it doesn't work out. Play, play, play, shoot, shoot, shoot.

 

[DougK]

Here is a thread on photo.net discussing the Fuji Natura S that also talks about the ISO 1600 film... http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BcOO.

 

[furcafe]

It's OK, but visibly grainier than Press 800 or NPZ (or whatever the new emulsion, 800Z?). To me, it kind of resembles Kodak's old Ektapress PJ800. Whether it's acceptable for the travel guide will depend on their standards, size of reproduction, etc. Sounds like this is the kind of assignment that calls for flash, if possible, (it's not always a bad thing) or high-end digital.

I've shot it @ 1250 to reduce grain in the shadows. If you do so, just have the lab process normally (i.e., don't tell 'em anything).

My examples, @ ISO 1600:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furcafe/tags/fujisuperia1600/

& @ ISO 1250:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furcafe/tags/fujisuperia16001250/

 

[Byuphoto]

I've used the Fuji 1600 on occasion in the Pentax. The RF's I have only go to 800 -- as of this time. 🙂

Here are a few links to some I've shot with the 1600 Fuji. It's definitely more grainy than the 800 Fuji Superia, but still not too bad.

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35780
http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35774
http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/vegas5/5588409-R1-031-14w.jpg
http://www.letis.com/dmr/pics/vegas/vegas5/5588409-R1-051-24w.jpg

Oh, and yes, I abhor flash and very seldom use it! 🙂

Hope this helps. 🙂

Did you use any color compensation for the flourescent lighting? I do not detect any greenish cast

 

[Socke]

Grainy and has to be exposed very carefuly. If I need ISO1600 I use a dSLR or B/W.

 

[varjag]

There is also Konica Centura 1600, or has it been discontinued? A roll was $3-4 here back in 2004.

With 1600 color negs it is wise to overexpose a bit, they're often not sensitive to the box rating; it was certainly the case with Konica. The emulsion is already on the verge, it doesn't take much underexposure for shadow details to vanish. It may also be less sensitive in artificial lighting.

Also, a problem that you should be aware of: street lighting is often disgusting when shot on daylight-balanced color negs. That combined with the grain of high-speed film might be a problem to your client. A better option for architectural shots can be tripod, some slow tungsten film (e.g. Fuji RTP II 64T), plus a set of Wratten filters with color meter. Or *gasp* a digital 🙂

 

[Bertram2]

This isn't OT at all, considering how users of rangefinders are less likely to use flash. 😀

I've been commissioned to take photos of different locations in my city, for a travel guide. The photos have to be in color. :bang: Since I never use flash outside of the studio, I figured 1600 ISO film will probably be necessary for many indoor shots.

It appears there is only one kind of 1600 ISO color film, alternately packaged as Fuji Superia and Fuji Professional. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? Is the indoor color rendering decent without the need for a compensation filter? Should the film be exposed at an EI of less than 1600 (e.g., 1250)? In that case, should it be marked accordingly before being dropped off at the lab?

Thanks!

If you think one stop less could work too Superia 800 will be a huge improvement for colour , grain and sharpness. One of the most amazing products on the film market. I use it for daylight and animals, when I need short shutter times for the SLR teles-

bertram

 

[dmr]

Did you use any color compensation for the flourescent lighting? I do not detect any greenish cast

Just levels in Photoshop.

I'm learning that Fuji color films seem to be more forgiving in non-daylight light than the Agfa seems to be.

 

[Stephan]

If you're going to be shooting places and you dont need to freeze movement why not just use a tripod (heresy with a rangefinder, I realise 😀) ?

 

[James Burton]

It appears there is only one kind of 1600 ISO color film, alternately packaged as Fuji Superia and Fuji Professional. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?

FWIW

I tried a couple of rolls of "Fuji Press 1600" a few years ago. Nice colour film but very chunky grain. The XTRA-800 supermarket stuff is better. I find that 800 is fine for lit areas. Tripods are good also 🙂

Thanks,
James

 

[Stephan]

Actually about the 1600 superia, the same question came up on lightstalkers.com recently, someone tested teh film and was quite disapointed with the results. Quite a few people recommendes pushing press 800 one stop for better results 😉

 

[drmatthes]

Hoot,

try a test roll of Ferrania Solaris 800 @ ISO 640-800, cheap italian stuff, very brilliant, not as grainy as ISO 1600 and, with its susceptibility for yellow and red, compensating for the greenish touch often encountered in artificial tube light; therefore good film for night shots in cities. Not so good for indoor shots with conventional bulb lighting, then producing much too strong orange tone.

(Will be back on the private message road tomorrow, time's too short, jobwise)

Enjoy, like Lartigue...!

Jesko

 

[drmatthes]

On a very classical basis, it might be wise to use a Duto Softener in night shots. The lights then tend to "swim" into the dark areas much as they seem to do to human beings looking into the light at night; moreover, it is possible to underexpose by one stop because the lights gain more space then anyway.

This is the method described by Jenö Dulovits, one of the inventors of the Duto Softener.

J.

 

[pshinkaw]

I use Fuji 1600 for available light shooting at basketball and volleyball games. I 've been very pleased with it. I started with Fuji 800, but found that 1600 gave me a little more latitude in the darker corners of gymnasiums without any noticeable increase in grain size.

I handhold, 1/125 at f4 to f2.8 depending on the lighting. I use a Leica M2 with a 50 cm Summicron and a Mamiya NC1000 with a Mamiya CS 135mm/2.8.

Apparently there is some software problem in many minilabs which screws up the printing of Fuji 1600. The techs have told me that if it is not programmed properly it can cause the printer to gum up badly and then jam. I have had this experience at places that use both Fuji Frontier and Noritsu processors. As a result, I found one CVS store (using a Noritsu) and I point out the film type and speed whenever I bring a roll in. The most expereinecd techs do my film. Haven't had any problems for the past several rolls.


Walgreen's (Fuji Frontier) was totally unsympathetic. They refuse to process Fuji 1600 around here.

-Paul
-Paul