Slide/Transparency Film -Do you use it?

Huss said:
Heads up party people, B&H has Provia, Velvia 50 and Velvia 100 on sale for $6.99/36
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Thanks! Added some to the freezer.

I have a spool of expired ( 2012 ) but frozen Provia I just cracked open. Test roll will start after I finish a roll of Velvia in my R-E--only camera I have that I can set the ISO manually.
 
Huss said:
Heads up party people, B&H has Provia, Velvia 50 and Velvia 100 on sale for $6.99/36
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Note: I took advantage of this sale a couple weeks ago, and be forewarned: in the case of the Velvia 100 it is pretty close to date (June 2018). I missed the fine print on the Velvia 50 sale though--it expired in 2015! Just shooting the roll now. Probably will be fine I think. Strange they would have such a backstock of 2-year past date film though. I don't know about the date on the Provia.

IMO slide film has better shelf life than color negative in absolute terms. Though color neg is more correctable for color shift so it may be splitting hairs. In the Kodachrome days I wouldn't hesitate to shoot K25 that was 10 years out of date, stored without refrigeration. For Ektachrome and Fuji, 10 years may be pushing it.

I vacillated between color negative and slides until I got a Leitz Pradovit CA2500 projector with Colorplan lens. That was a game changer for me. If you're tired of the left half sharp/right half blurry game of carousel and other cheap projectors/lenses, try a Leitz. Now I absolutely shoot about 30% slides (rest B/W) and wonder why I ever bothered with negative.

Velvia 100 is my current favorite. E100VS was my all time favorite. From 2005-2014 I shot a ton of 7285 in 16mm, Super 8 and 8mm (same emulsion as E100VS I believe). Man what a depressing day it was to lose that. 8mm was never that gorgeous, even in the Kodachrome era (and I shot a lot of that too).

They'll come up with 50K digital projectors before the year 2118 and still never match the visceral, emotional impact of pure, organic color dyes. It's something beyond resolution.
 
Tompas said:
...my film cameras are primitive (M6, MD-2, Pentax 67) and my exposure techniques are not perfect -- so slide film is out.
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What a strange statement. I have shot a ton of slide film in my Pentax 67 and 67ii. Velvia 50 no less:

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It has a meter, and a pretty good one at that.
 
Corran said:
What a strange statement. I have shot a ton of slide film in my Pentax 67 and 67ii. Velvia 50 no less:


It has a meter, and a pretty good one at that.
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I always find this to be a weird comment, too. I shot most of my first slide film through a yashica em with a gossen digisix meter. Full stops only. It worked really well and I was really happy with the results. The common thread, it seems, is if you can't meter every inch of a scene and get down to 1/10th stops, you cannot shoot slide.
 
Tompas said:
Not everybody has to, right?
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Of course not, that's your choice. The part I found strange is blaming the supposed primitiveness of your tools, as opposed to you simply not wanting to shoot it.

As someone else mentioned, there's a lot of people who think you need to have your exposure accurate to 1/10 of a stop to shoot slide film. I think that's a bit silly. It's certainly never stopped me from shooting slides with a basic selenium meter if I wanted to.

Some slides are more forgiving than others, for sure. More of an issue in today's world of scanning is density and poor scanner performance with those densities, even correctly exposed slides.
 
Hogarth Ferguson said:
I always find this to be a weird comment, too. I shot most of my first slide film through a yashica em with a gossen digisix meter. Full stops only. It worked really well and I was really happy with the results. The common thread, it seems, is if you can't meter every inch of a scene and get down to 1/10th stops, you cannot shoot slide.
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Perhaps the best comment should be - "I can't be bothered getting correct exposure.." Or - "I can't be bothered carrying a meter." I find the previous comment weird also. I always carry a meter - if not - sunny 16 rule. Anyways - it's all fun.
 
Ah, yes, the FUN of photography for me began with Kodachrome. For the first twenty years of my life, I was using slide film just for fun and I think most people were shooting slide film for vacations and other times when they could have the slide film mounted in anticipation of boring their friends with slide shows after dinner on the weekends. Correct exposure, composition, etc. made no difference... it was simply having a good time, and it is maybe more fun now when viewing our photos from the past. I remember those Slide shows!

Great fun! Seriously!

But times have changed. I still shoot slides for fun, but most people who even know that film is still available have no desire for anything more than the convenient digital form of images. But, the fun of snapping pictures and sharing them has not changed! They don't care about exposure, etc... as long as it is good enough for them. They are just having fun, how cool is that?:):):)

I will have another slide show of my own tomorrow night... who can I bore this time? Lol...:p
 
samuelphoto said:
I've mostly stopped shooting transparencies because of all the forces working against it. My primary reason for shooting transparency film was to get prints made using the Cibachrome/Ilfochrome process. If you've never seen a 16x16 Ilfochrome print made from 120 format Velvia 50 shot on a Blad (or equivalent), you are missing out. Some people cried when Kodachrome was discontinued for me it was the loss of Ilfochrome. At the same time, all of the labs shut down in Atlanta (my favorites were E-6 and Moakler) and the cost for processing became prohibitive for general shooting. As stated above, Astia was my favorite for general purposes but it's gone and I don't find any magic with Provia or any of the remaining Kodak brands. Now Fuji is jacking up the prices. I don't think I shoot a dozen rolls a year now.

When I do shoot transparencies, for enlargements I get them scanned at Metal & Paper in California (used to be West Coast Imaging). Their work is superb. I use them for printing all of my digital files. Highly recommended.
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Yes, Ilfochromes are really something special. I did them in college.

I have a machine that spits out Ilfochrome prints up 16x20 (or is it 20xs24 can't remember) and I have a ton of chemistry and paper for it, all with expired dates. Not sure if it's any good anymore. This stuff was given to me. One day I will get my darkroom going. It's gonna take some serious motivation and organization. I have 4 enlargers, one of them a Focomat IIc that I have never used. Hmm...Rolleiflex - Ektachrome - Focomat - Ilfochrome...sounds enticing.
 
Not really since Kodachrome. The last one I did (Retro Chrome) I processed in regular C41.

I do want to try the New Ektachrome, if and when ... :)
 
Corran said:
(...) The part I found strange is blaming the supposed primitiveness of your tools, as opposed to you simply not wanting to shoot it.
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No, you got that wrong. I don't blame my cameras for being simple (or primitive, as I chose to call them). I like simple/primitive cameras -- of course, why would I use them otherwise?

But I photograph mainly people: situations I cannot repeat. So I want, or maybe need, the extra latitude negative film gives me compared to slide film. A bit of a safety net against mistakes in exposure I sometimes make.

Corran said:
As someone else mentioned, there's a lot of people who think you need to have your exposure accurate to 1/10 of a stop to shoot slide film. I think that's a bit silly. It's certainly never stopped me from shooting slides with a basic selenium meter if I wanted to. (...)
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Yes, sure, I know. It's not that I never used slide film at all. I just don't do anymore, for reasons above.
 
"But I photograph mainly people: situations I cannot repeat. So I want, or maybe need, the extra latitude negative film gives me compared to slide film. A bit of a safety net against mistakes in exposure I sometimes make."

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me!:)
 
I thought 35mm slide was cool, til I tried 120, 35mm is too small for me. (4x5 is a bit unwieldy)

I love the look, but even the NYC labs are dirty
 
wjlapier said:
The Velvia 50 I purchased said 3/18 in the ad. The Provia ad says 5/18 and the Velvia 100 doesn't state.
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Just received the Velvia 50 and it's 4/15 expiration. Checked the add and it still says 3/18. Oh well. But, just saw that Velvia 50 ( must be the fresh stuff ) is $15 a roll :eek:
 
dave lackey said:
"But I photograph mainly people: situations I cannot repeat. So I want, or maybe need, the extra latitude negative film gives me compared to slide film. A bit of a safety net against mistakes in exposure I sometimes make."

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me!:)
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Yes, well I don't like shooting Velvia with people looking at the camera or if they are the main subject. Unless they have a role in the landscape, I don't use Velvia. Provia is beautiful and accurate with skin, I use that. Anything Kodak slide film is not accurate, but quite nice with people too. When people are my main subject, yes, black and white is no.1 for me also. I understand. Still, I try to meter even if I look like a goof doing so, because "accurate" exposure has a huge part in image rendering, grain, tonal separation - etc, etc.
 
Huss said:
Heads up party people, B&H has Provia, Velvia 50 and Velvia 100 on sale for $6.99/36
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Thanks for the heads up Huss :)

Picked up a couple of rolls of provia and a roll of velvia 50 to toss in the freezer until the weather gets nice. Even if short dated/expired I'm sure B&H stores their film in a pretty controlled environment so I'm not too worried. I've never shot slide film before so hopefully I can have some fun in the summer sun with this stuff, Maybe ektachrome will be out by then too. ;)
Maybe I'll get a little E6 kit from freestyle and process it at home.
 
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