Call me crazy...
But. Even if I am, I am planning on shooting a lot of slide film this year starting this week. It appears that we have a new lab in Dunwoody that is adding E6 processing in a couple of weeks. They are awaiting a reasonably priced jobo machine.
So....headed to Raid's neck of the woods soon and will shoot what I have left of Sensia and Provia. Maybe a roll of Velvia too.
Are YOU shooting slides this year? If not, why not?
🙂
Hi Dave,
of course I am shooting reversal film this year!
Nothing comes close to a beautiful slide on a lighttable and especially in projection!
Over the last years I have increased my slide film usage from year to year. This year will be another record year for me.
There are
lots of very good reasons for shooting (also) slides:
1. Projection: Absolutely unsurpassed quality (brillance, sharpness, resolution, fine grain, tonality) at that big enlargements.
We've compared slide projection with excellent projection lenses to the current most expensive beamers (2-4 MP; 7,000-10,000€).
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. 7,000€ for a 24 MP Nikon D3x, or 3,000 for a D800, and then you pay another 7,000-10,000€ to smash this resolution down to the extremely low resolution of 2-4 MP with the beamer (and the 2-4 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.
For big pictures with best color brillance and detail rendition slide projection with good projection lenses deliver the best quality.
2. Slide viewing with an excellent slide loupe (e.g. from Rodenstock, Leica or Schneider): 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.
Viewing slides with a slide loupe and with a projector deliver
- much better quality than scanned slides
- are much faster (no time for scanning needed)
- at less cost.
3. Prints have a Dmax. of about 2,3 logD. In this range there is a physical limit which cannot be surpassed.
Slides as a transparent medium can deliver higher contrast ranges and higher Dmax. with about 4 logD with color transparency films, and with certain BW transpararency films even up to 5 logD.
This greater Dmax. and contrast range of slide films compared to prints 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 (including lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss) proving that films like Ektachrome E100G, Elitechrome 100, Provia 100F, Velvia 100 and 100F, Astia 100F have about 30-40% higher resolution at medium and higher contrast details than Ektar 100 and Reala. And Provia 400X is surpassing Pro 400H and Portra 400.
http://www.aphog.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=401&Itemid=1
We'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 good labs, and you will always get identical results.
Give your CN film in five different labs and order prints from them, then you will receive five different results, because the operator at the printer does an interpretation. You get differences from the scanning (different scanners/profiles) 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 the 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 BW 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 - 50 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.
BW slides are a very nice completion to BW prints.
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 one of the the main reasons 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 shutter (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. Slide film is ideal to test your camera, whether the light meter and shutter are working correct.
13. Slide film is ideal to test lenses, because of the superior resolution and finer grain compared to CN film (evaluated in the optical imaging chain with optical printing, with projection or a microscope, because even 8000 ppi drumscaners are not able to resolve all the details in slide film; we’ve done such tests, and can confirm the results of Tim Parkin and others).
13. 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.
It is now time to shoot as much slide film as possible to
keep color slide film alive.
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!
The photographic world would be very poor without this unique medium reversal film!
Cheers, Jan
