Slide/Transparency Film -Do you use it?

I use about 30 35mm rolls a year, alongside digital, they look so good when projected and it also disciplines me to think more about the digital images I'm taking, these tend to start as a 'Polaroid' for the slide shot.
 
On the cost of slide film, Velvia is certainly expensive in Australia but I've been lucky enough to get it at about US$10 a roll for the past few years by stocking up during trips to Japan or taking advantage of sales like B&H just had. I figure that at $10 a roll it's actually no dearer than it was in the 80s, allowing for inflation. But it's still money when digital is "free". Also, Sydney has a good cheap E6 and C41 developing lab, although they don't mount slides.
 
These days, for us, there is no money. Things are... tight. However, there always seems a way to find a little money for some slide film/120 film, etc. and it is well worth it because life is too short not to.

Besides, like shooting any film, it is an event! The whole process of setting up the projector and looking at the huge projected image I shot and remembering every detail of the moments when the shutter was released, is the reward for me! It is much more satisfying than looking at a computer monitor, or even a huge TV screen! It is amazing to be actually "re-living" those "Kodak moments" looking at the projections on the wall, on the side of the house, or on a building... one commands the entire space not just a monitor on the desk... even the room is theater-dark and nothing distracts.

Now I need a 120 slide projector! Still cheaper than a new television screen and the content is a lot better.:):):)
 
I used to shoot tons of slides. Mostly 35mm, and E100SW, VS and Provia 400 were my main films. A good bit of Agfas RSX200 as well, some Velvia. I still have a cubic foot box full of slides that never got edited for the stockhouse when they stopped accepting submissions on film. Haven’t shot a roll of E6 that I can recall since. 2007 maybe?
 
Some examples from a trip to Mexico (a very colorful place). These are either (I can't quite remember) Ektachrome E100VS or Kodachrome (sadly missed, back when I could still get it processed- the last year) Shot on the Leica M6 and a Summicron 50 lens.

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A few more from Mexico:

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and this last one is my wife photographed here (who is Mexican and the reason for our trip - to visit her family)


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I shot only slides for many years, decades. I stopped when difficult to find a good lab where I live: long time to send films and have the slides back, higher prices and bad work done, scratches and dirt (obviously in the sky!).

I know there are good labs around (I had opportunity to visit one in Germany, very good experience) but do not like the idea to send films around and anyway they are now expensive.

Yes, the projection event is something great and very different than sitting in front of a computer. Thanks for reminding.

robert

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I still have 20 rolls or so of 35mm Prescia - a German version of Fuji Sensia 100 I think. And quite a few rolls of Provia 120. I love slide film. Bought a 6x6 1960s projector a while back...

Have not shot for a while because of developing, but I should get myself an E6 kit.
 
For color, I shoot mostly Velvia and Provia in 135 and 120 for projection (primarily) and scanning. I’d actually completely stopped using all C41 a few years ago, feeling that digital could replace C41 for my uses, but not E6. It’s the projection aspect mostly, especially with 120. Have recently added back a small bit of Portra 160 again for portraits mostly.

At some point in the future digital projection or the best 4K screens or digital picture frames may well give me more than I am getting now from a projected medium format slide, but it’s not there yet, though it can be quite stunning in a quite different way.

Yes, digital color is easier provided you always have a grey card with you.
 
Looking for some 127 film size Super Slide mounts!

Does anyone know of a source to buy those?:)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CARDBOARD-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

Looks like all new stuff... Not ancient old stock. Real "heat seal" mounts like good old Kodak processing used - the kind you have to seal with a hot iron.

I'll try some Provia slides in 127 size eventually... I just have to get my slicing technique dialed in right. I've ruined too many rolls recently! Just when I thought I had all the bugs worked out of it. :(
 
I have a couple Rolls of Provia 100F in 120 that I let expire. Meant to shoot them before 5/17 (their due date) but are still frozen. :eek:

And they are meant to go through (as an announcer would say), gorgeous, larger-than life, two and a quarter by three and a quarter professional format. Yes 6x9 slides are a sight to behold, and it's why I chose that Fuji RF. But it's been a year since I put slide through it!
I've been stuck at frame #4 of a Portra 400 roll. 35mm is stealing the show in the meantime. :D

These days, for us, there is no money. Things are... tight. However, there always seems a way to find a little money for some slide film/120 film, etc. and it is well worth it because life is too short not to.
Alas Dave, true. I don't shoot much really and on average I may do a propack a month. That's 80€ including processing for C41. It's money, but film photography is the guilty pleasure.

Joe, those Mexico shots are gorgeous. I was able to catch the tail end of Kodachrome and don't regret it. What an experience to shoot, slow and thoughfully, the few rolls I had. Though the result wasn't as strong because of inexperience.


I know there are good labs around (I had opportunity to visit one in Germany, very good experience) but do not like the idea to send films around and anyway they are now expensive.
I've gotten used to batching and sending out because it's where the labs are. But for E6 it means separating it from the C41 so I either shoot more, or none. Means, I should shoot more!

I've gotten used to the polivalent nature of C41 that feel E6 is quite picky. Portra takes the harsh noon Mediterranean light better than Provia, or so I have consolidated in my mind...
 
The family and I are off to Malaysia, Singapore and Japan next month. I’ll be bringing the GA645i and at least 5 rolls of Provia. Also some Portra 400 and Acros 100.
I don’t use either camera or slide film regularly at home but I like to take them traveling.
A medium format projector would be nice but...


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I was just warming up to Astia when they discontinued it. I thought it had a quality that struck me as "purity of color". I wish they still made it.

Oh, how I miss Astia! By far my favorite color film of any, followed by Velvia 50 but only for landscape work.
 
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