Pro Fujifilm - Anyone use it.

Thardy

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I stopped in a pro camera shop a few days ago to browse. I'd been using mail order film (Arista Premium and bulk Reala) for the last few months and I guess I forgot the price of film at a store.

I grabbed two rolls of Fuji 400H and 160S to try. Lets just say that it was a good thing I had my credit card with me because I grossly underestimated the cost!

I may have to save this stuff for a special occasion. Of course it will need pro processing (no Walgreen's chemicals on this precious emulsion).

Funny thing is I ask my wife all the time to "pick up a bunch of Portra" and she never tells me how much it cost.
 
400H is good, and 800Z even better. As for their 160 emulsions, I'm better off with Superia Reala.
 
I'm normally a Portra user, but while I was in Tokyo last month, I picked up a 400h for a morning shoot at the fish market and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. The grain didn't look ISO400 at all, much finer than I expected. I won't comment on the colour as my scan workflow requires manual adjustment using vuescan, and I tend to make it look as realistic as possible.

Will definitely use that film again in the future, once I run out of my stock of Portras.
 
I have not used the 400H or 160. I bought a bunch of expired 800Z and Reala (both outdated by 2 years). I love shooting both, especially at an average cost of $1 per roll not including processing of course. My local Walmart does a fine processing job 95% of the time.

The 800z has it's own character, some grain but it is lovely grain and it has a distinct look and color pallate, I think someone here commented it's like a color version of Tri-X. I have only tried rating it at 500 ISO so far, not shooting at box speed so I can't comment on how it performs. It is my "400 speed" color film until I run out or source some more cheap Kodak 400UC.

The Reala produces beautiful skin tones and nice smooth out of focus areas. Reala is low contrast so it is perfect for high contrast outdoor lighting days.
 
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I use Fuji 160S and Velvia regularly. I buy it from the Fuji pro shop in the UK. They are not expensive and often have outdated or short dated film for lower prices. Unfortunatley the english postal rates have have been raised since last April. Kodak films are here in the Netherlands often double the costs of Fuji films.

Frank
www.flickr.com/photos/asialover
 
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