question regarding scala

T

the lobster

Guest
As I understand the case to be (from secondhand sources- books, internet research), a color print from a color slide will always be a little "less" than the slide, meaning the colors won't be right on as in the original transparency. I have had a few prints made from slides and it seems that the slides just have more to them than the prints. Granted this experience is limited and I was not the one making the prints. They weren't bad by any means, just off enough to notice, but maybe because I saw both the slide and the print, or maybe because of the light involved in slide viewing.

All that incoherent rambling was a prelude to this simple question:

Is a B & W print made from Scala better (as in closer to the original slide), than a print from a color slide? I have shot mainly color, but am getting quite interested in B&W films. I love viewing slides but may also want a fine quality print. Any experience would be helpful. Thanks for reading.
 
I don't think there is a good way to get a conventional b/w print from Scala. You would have to make an internegative, thus the print would be one step further removed from the original Scala transparency, as opposed to a direct print from an original negative. Where Scala would excel is in scanning, as many inexpensive flatbed dual purpose film and print scanners do better with transparencies than they do with negatives, although the best dedicated film scanners are almost equal.

To make a color print from a color slide, traditionally there are two methods, one is a direct reversal method, in that the paper is special and processed in a special chemistry to yield a positive color print from a positive color transparency. This method has always been difficult to master, and has a limited tonal range, and it may be now discontinued. The other, and preferred by professionals, method, is to have a large format (4x5") color internegative made from the transparency, and then a high quality print can be made using conventional color paper. The special internegative film compensates for the higher contrast of a transparency and conforms it to the contrast range of standard color printing paper.

Now-a-days, with scanning, it hardly matters, as the digital printing process can easily and almost equally handle transparencys or negatives as originals for making prints. The results should be comparable. If you have a half-way decent film scanner, then you should be able to get excellent files from Scala transparencies, and thus yield excellent prints.
 
Scala is in a way a BW negative film that in the process is turned to a Slide. Unfortunatly you need a lab to to this!.
Making a print directly from scala in the darkroom would not make sense to me - but having it scanned in high res and printed out does.
The scala and good colour slides ar wonderfull to look at a light table but in fact the negative colour films have more stops / tones / latitude than slides but a hard to judge from the orange base and inverted colours.
If I were to choose to films it would be the SCALA for BW and Agfas RSX II for slides and I would never have the need for another film in my life.
But as it is now i have to send SCALA abroad to have it developed and that conflicts with my temperamentum
 
I have seen an exhibition of reversal prints made from Scala and I have to say that I can't see why he bothered. And I'd absolutely agree that a print is NEVER as good as the tranny from which it is made.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
 
processing scala

processing scala

I have had a roll of Scala in my bag for about 2 years, it was process paid then the lab went bust so I have never used it. Can it be used as a negative film ? and say developed in Agfa Rodinoll

Dennis
 
I have not heard of any good results on selfprocessing of scala visit agfafilm.de and find what lab processes the film in UK/Wales - rember that SCALA film is grad from100-1600 iso but it has little to do with film speed and lots to do with contrast - in dull weather use 4-600 iso in brigt sunshine use 1-200 iso - cheers RUben
 
The reason why a transparency looks better than a print is simple: it is observed in transmitted light rather than reflected ligkt, therefore the tonal range is many times greater. Consider a monochrime transparency can have a tonal range of about 1:1000, and a monochrome print would have to struggle to get to something like 1:100, making a print will entail compressing the tones quite substantially.

In that sense, no matter what medium your original image is on, as soon as you make a print out of it, the tones will indeed be compressed.
 
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Scala is a negative film that is specially processed to make positive slides. Processing it in Agfa Rodinal 1:20 for 8 minutes @ 68° make great negatives if all you want is prints.
 
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Hi Ruben , I had a few questions from Todd Hantz a while back regarding his shots on RFF which he had developed on his own. Here is a copy of his answer regarding developing Scala on his own.

Originally Posted by Todd.Hanz
Hi Jan,
I developed my Scala film as a negative in Rodinal and what I got was a negative just like if I was shooting regular film. I liked the tonality it gave me, but some of that may have been from the Rodinal. If you want to try it go to digitaltruth.com and look in the "massive dev." chart for the film and developing times, good luck!

Todd


Quote:
Originally Posted by jan normandale
Hi Todd

I shoot Scala 120 and have it processed. It's a positive. So if you have had shots developed as negatives how did you end up with everything looking positive. Shooting with a flash?

I'm interested and curious

Jan



RubenBlaedel said:
Scala is in a way a BW negative film that in the process is turned to a Slide. Unfortunatly you need a lab to to this!.
Making a print directly from scala in the darkroom would not make sense to me - but having it scanned in high res and printed out does.
The scala and good colour slides ar wonderfull to look at a light table but in fact the negative colour films have more stops / tones / latitude than slides but a hard to judge from the orange base and inverted colours.
If I were to choose to films it would be the SCALA for BW and Agfas RSX II for slides and I would never have the need for another film in my life.
But as it is now i have to send SCALA abroad to have it developed and that conflicts with my temperamentum
Click to expand...
 
Scala

Scala

I love the tonal range of the Scala film. I always wondered how I could get prints made from some slides. I went to Samy's here in Santa Barbara and via digital magic they made some really nice 12x18 prints for me. They almost look better than the slides. I also have the digital scans (42MB) so I can make additional prints at my photo group lab. I could have probably done this myself if I had all the requisite digital paraphernalia but I prefer silver images (and I spend too much time on this damn computer as it is!).

I hope this film stays available.
Zoltan
 
I hope this film stays available.
Zoltan[/QUOTE]


Hi Zoltan

I posted a while back on this film and said ' I had heard this film was being discontinued by Agfa'. I was in one of the largest specialty professional labs in Toronto (Toronto Image Works) and the only lab in Canada that is licenced to process Agfa Scala and asked the question.

The answer was. There is no truth to the story and Agfa is making Scala.

So you don't have to fill your fridge with this film for future reserves.

Jan
 
zpuskas said:
I love the tonal range of the Scala film. I always wondered how I could get prints made from some slides. I went to Samy's here in Santa Barbara and via digital magic they made some really nice 12x18 prints for me. They almost look better than the slides. I also have the digital scans (42MB) so I can make additional prints at my photo group lab. I could have probably done this myself if I had all the requisite digital paraphernalia but I prefer silver images (and I spend too much time on this damn computer as it is!).

I hope this film stays available.
Click to expand...

A number of years ago, a few paper manufacturers made direct reversal papers which would give a positive print when you expose it under a positive image, be it colour or monochrome transparency. If I recall correctly the last maker of such paper was Orwo who made the paper in Berlin. Now sadly gone, of course.
 
It's the special processing of Scala that makes positive slides not anything inherent to the film. At one time Kodak made a kit to process Panatomic X as positives. DR5 Chrome makes it's business by offering special processing that will render positives from just about every conventional B&W film out there. The bottom line is that Scala is a negative film that is marketed by Agfa as a slide film with their special processing.
 
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