That news sucks! Kodak, you will regret this decision!!
What a sad day.
I've used E100G and E100VS / Extra Color so far. Excellent stuff.
But I will not stock it up.
My money will now go to Fuji!
Provia 100F, Provia 400X, Velvia 100F are excellent films I like, too.
It is now time to support Fuji to
keep color slide film alive.
Slide film is
unique, it can
not be replaced by colour negative film, and especially
not by digital.
With slide I always have an authentic picture. I only need to hold it against light to enjoy it.
Impossible with CN and digital.
Slide film is a major part of photographic culture.
It absolutely deserves to stay alive!
There are lots of very good reasons for shooting slides:
1. Projection: Absolutely unsurpassed quality (brillance, sharpness, resolution, fine grain, tonality) at that big enlargements.
I've compared slide projection with excellent projection lenses to the current most expensive beamers (2 MP; 7000€).
The result is absolutely clear: Slide projection is a league of its own. Far superior resolution and sharpness, better brillance and tonality, much better color reproduction.
The most expensive beamers can not compete at all with slide projection.
With beamers you have the situation that you pay e.g. 7000€ for a 24 MP Nikon D3x, and then you pay another 7000€ to smash this resolution down to the extrmely low resolution of 2 MP with the beamer (and the 2 MP are only valid in horizontal direction, in vertical direction you have even 40% less resolution).
You burn more than 10,000€ to get crappy results. Digital projection is completely ridiculous in it's cost - performance relation.
2. Slide viewing with an excellent slide loupe: Outstanding quality, fast, convenient.
Viewing slides this way with a little, slim daylight light table is as fast as looking at prints in a photoalbum. But with better image quality.
This way you can easily show others your slides without projection.This set-up is smaller and lighter than a photoalbum or a laptop.
3. Prints have a limited contrast range of about five stops (max. contrast from deep black to shiny white on the print). There is a physical limit which cannot be surpassed.
Slides as a transparent medium can deliver higher contrast ranges. With certain (BW) slides films even more than 10 stops.
This greater max. contrast range of slides is one reason for their higher brillance.
4. With slide film you can achieve higher resolution, better sharpness and finer grain compared to color negative films.
There have been some scientific tests proving that films like Ektachrome E100G, Provia 100F, Velvia 100 and 100F, Astia 100F have about 30-40% higher resolution than Ektar 100.
I've made some comparison tests, too, and can confirm that.
5. Reliability:
What you see is what you get.
Give your slide film in 5 different labs, and you will always get the same results.
Give your CN film in five different labs and order prints from them, then you will most probably receive five different results, because the operator at the printer does an interpretation. You get differences from the scanning and from the operator of the machine, who decides about contrast and colors.
6. Most authentic form of photography: A slide is an original, the pure form, not manipulated in any form.
7. Versatility:
Slides can be viewed only with the eye, holding against light, with a loupe, they can be projected on a screen, and you can scan and print them (and currently there is still the possibility to make a Ilfochrome, or a direct print with Harman Direct Positive Paper).
Color negatives can only be printed.
8. Very cost efficient:
Color negative film makes sense if you want prints.
For a quality print I have to pay here about 35 - 40 cents depending on the lab.
A 36 exp. CN film, developed and with prints cost me more than a slide film with development.
If you consider projection than there is an even much more significant price gap: With projection my huge, brillant picture of 1m x 1,5m or 2 x 3m cost me less than 1€ in total.
A print from CN film of that size cost me much more than 100€, and doesn't have the brillance, resolution, fine grain and sharpness of the projected slide.
9. BW slides:
Their tonality is unique. Yo can not get this unique look with prints.
Once you have seen BW slides, you are hooked.
10. You always have an original color reference for scanning and printing: Look at your slide and you know how the real colors are.
That is impossible with color negatives: Our brain is not able to convert the color negatives to real natural colors.
Besides the superior detail rendition of slide film that has been the main reason for the popularity of slide film in professional photography.
11. Slide film is the best photography teacher: You have to do it right at the moment you click the sutter (if you're doing the real stuff, viewing the slides on a light table and in projection; without scanning and further manipulation).
Slide film makes you a more disciplined and deliberate photographer. You think before you shoot. Less clicks, but more good shots in the end.
12. With slides you feel like being back in the scene at the moment you shot it, it's so real.
It's a "time machine":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus
Slides, that is where film is absolutely unique and can not be replaced by CN or digital.
Cheers, Jan
