The Promised Land of Slide Film

[HHPhoto]

Lucky German film shooters. If slide film were as inexpensive to shoot here in Texas, I'd never have invested in digital.

My favorite little camera, Contax T3, sulks in the corner. I shot some of the best chromes I've ever seen with that Sonnar lens, rivaling my Nikon F6 slides.

Oh well...

Looks like it makes lot of sense for you coming back to slides.

Texas is not the north pole....😉 there exist a postal service 🙂.

Ordering online at B&H, Adorama, Freestyle, Ultrafine etc. is the way to go.
They have very reasonble prices for slide film.
Same is true for lots of E6 labs which are offering mail order service, like Dwaynes, NCPS, oldschoolphotolab etc.

One reason, beside the quality, for me to use slide film is that I have less costs compared to CN film.
CN films makes sense with prints on RA-4 paper.
Quality prints on RA 4 in 13x18cm format cost me about 39 - 49 Cent depending on the lab.

One 36 exp. CN film with prints costs me more than a slide film + development.
And as mentioned, I love my pictures being impressive, brillant and huge:
A slide projected on 1m x 1,5m or 2m x 3m cost me less than one Euro, a print of the same size cost much more than 100 €, and don't look as good as the projected slide.

Cheers, Jan

 

[BobYIL]

Velvia 50 - fresh - 15 rolls of 135mm is $100 (5 Euro each)

FP4 135 as above is $75 (3 Euro each)

Don't use Tri-X or HP5

Processing incidentally is 1.75 Euro for each of the above

Thank you... How come the Thai distributors/retailers can offer such prices lower than anywhere else? Your country should be a paradise for film photographers too.. 🙂

 

[HHPhoto]

I took advantage of the shrinking US market for slides by scooping up two Leitz projectors: CA2500, Color 250 AF. Their mass and build quality instills confidence. 🙂

Yes, the Leitz / Leica projectors are very good and solidly built.

Now just need a projector platform and screen. Well, okay, also the Zeiss T* P-Sonnar 90/2.5. I think it's Leitz P mount

The Zeiss P-Sonnar is an excellent projection lens, one of the best ever made (I am using one in a Zeiss Ikon projector).
But it doesn't fit in the Leitz / Leica models.

For your Leitz projectors I recommend the Leitz Colorplan P 2,5/90 projection lens. It is also excellent and do fit in your projector.

I wish you much fun with your projected slides!

Cheers, Jan

 

[HHPhoto]

WOW! A beautiful post, topped with a wonderful scene from Mad Men! It brought tears to my eyes.

You are welcome!
Well, the Mad Men scene is phantastic, isn't it?

What a beauty slide film is when projected. Indeed, no comparison at all with today's digital beamers. I've watched professional digital projections by professional photographers and I still wonder how they can be happy with such crappy quality. The photograph literally disintegrates on the screen.

Yes, I didn't understand that as well. They put huge sums in expensive digital camera gear, and then they put another huge sum in a digital beamer which deteriorate the picture quality massively.
Therefore I have stopped going to such beamer shows. Wasted money, the picture quality is too bad.
But I continue to join real slide shows with projected slides.
Here in Germany there are lots of professional photographers going this best quality route.
For example Norbert Rosing and Helfried Weyer. Their slide AV shows are absolutely stunning.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Rico]

The Zeiss P-Sonnar is an excellent projection lens, one of the best ever made (I am using one in a Zeiss Ikon projector).
But it doesn't fit in the Leitz / Leica models.

For your Leitz projectors I recommend the Leitz Colorplan P 2,5/90 projection lens. It is also excellent and do fit in your projector.

Jan, I do have the Colorplan 90, but am also a Zeiss junkie. 🙂 The eBay.de seller mentions a barrel diameter of 42mm which agrees with the CA2500. Is this a matter of incompatible thread pitch?

 

[sevo]

Jan, I do have the Colorplan 90, but am also a Zeiss junkie. 🙂 The eBay.de seller mentions a barrel diameter of 42mm which agrees with the CA2500. Is this a matter of incompatible thread pitch?

Yes. My P-Sonnar does not lock into my CA2500. However, the thread is a later secondary addition to the originally push-pull barrel mount of projectors, and not absolutely needed. If you can work around focusing it by push/pull rather than using the thread, it can be used. That is, YMMV - there may have been different versions, not even all Pradovit projectors and Pradovit Leica lenses are inter-compatible...

 

[HHPhoto]

Rico, I can confirm what 'sevo' has written.

Cheers, Jan

 

[David_Manning]

FYI...

Provia 100F is $6.49/roll as of today, and The Darkroom in Southern California does a mail service that is $10/roll to process E-6 and scan. They post the scans online immediately, and mail you back the CD.

I'll send some EliteChrome to them in the next week and let you know what I think.

My Contax T3 has a small smile on it's face again.

 

[wblynch]

...and The Darkroom in Southern California does a mail service that is $10/roll to process E-6 and scan.

I'm curious how they compare to Precision Camera with their RFF Special?

 

[David_Manning]

Precision Camera is actually a better deal at $11.99, since they provide high-resolution scans. However, when I tried Precision Camera (great folks, BTW), I had to pay shipping both ways so it ended up being more expensive.

In my mind, I can use lower-resolution scans for web use and for deciding "selects" and then re-scan hi-res on my own.

The difference isn't a big deal on one or two rolls, but could make a significant difference in $$ spent with a large order...say, return from vacation or the like.

 

[HHPhoto]

Yes, the Leitz / Leica projectors are very good and solidly built.



The Zeiss P-Sonnar is an excellent projection lens, one of the best ever made (I am using one in a Zeiss Ikon projector).
But it doesn't fit in the Leitz / Leica models.

Cheers, Jan

Hi guys,

I have to correct my former statement. And I am lucky that I've been wrong 😉.

A friend of mine informed me that the excellent Zeiss P Sonnar T 2,5/90 is fitting in the latest Leica Pradovit IR and PC models (and the P600).
I visited him and he showed it to me. He is using a Pradovit PC with the Sonnar. It is a bit loose, but working properly. Image quality is excellent.

The Leica Pradovit PC is still sold new at a ridiculous low price of only 249€ at www.atelier-rieter.de (the former price was 700€).

Cheers, Jan

 

[Robert Lai]

I still have my Leitz Pradovit 2500. You have to make sure that the main motor bearings (sleeve bearings unfortunately, not ball-bearing) remain well lubricated with a thick oil that won't sling off from the rotation and the tremendous airflow of the cooling fan. Otherwise, it will seize up, and not function. I have the Super Colorplan 90mm lens with it, as well as the 120mm.

There was a time when I used it regularly for lectures as an assistant professor. After I quit academics in 2006, I have rarely used it, preferring to scan my slides instead. In acadamia here in the US, they have all gone to digital Power Point anyway. Everybody used the same blue background, and the same boring dissolves, fades, wipes, etc. Wow - progress 🙁

If you plan to project, I suggest exposing two frames per image. One to keep, and one to project. I notice that a lot of my lecture slides (Ektachrome) have faded from repeated projection. This, even in a fine projector such as the Leitz P2500. This will help to keep slide film use up!

 

[funkpilz]

dm is the bomb. They use to have APX 100 for €0.95 a roll, me and my friend both got 50 rolls. They restocked and doubled the price after that.

 

[HHPhoto]

Hi Robert,

There was a time when I used it regularly for lectures as an assistant professor. After I quit academics in 2006, I have rarely used it, preferring to scan my slides instead.

Then now is a very good time to use this projector again. It is a very good projector.
Scanning film is always a quality degrading process: You loose resolution significantly, and scanners enhence grain by scanner noise.
With projection with a very good projection lens (like your colorplan) you don't have these problems: You get the full resolution and the original extremely fine grain which your slide film deliver. No quality loss.

If you plan to project, I suggest exposing two frames per image. One to keep, and one to project.

With this strategy you are always on the absolute safe side.
From this point of view it is the best strategy, no doubt.
But with the current modern slide films with their much improved color stability it is not necessarily needed.

I notice that a lot of my lecture slides (Ektachrome) have faded from repeated projection. This, even in a fine projector such as the Leitz P2500. This will help to keep slide film use up!

Well, even my 25 year old, often projected Ektachrome and Fujichrome slides are in optimal shape (perhaps not as often projected as yours).
Now the more modern slide film emulsions are even improved concerning color stability. About 200 hours of projecting are possible before a slight color fading begin to start.
You project a slide in general for about 10 to 25 seconds in a slide show.
So you have the possibility to do thousands of slide shows without color fading.

Cheers, Jan

 

[rolleistef]

Thank you... How come the Thai distributors/retailers can offer such prices lower than anywhere else? Your country should be a paradise for film photographers too.. 🙂

Well, if you take the actual value of 1$ in other places, you find out that it's not that unexpensive for those who live in Thailand?

As for Germany, take into account quite of a low VAT. I mean, those are prices that are just normal, and people in the shops don't pretend it's the price of silver that drives the price of the films up (as I heard in the UK from a guy at York Photography in London who thought it was normal to sell 120 HP5 for £6 or £7...)

 

[HHPhoto]

As for Germany, take into account quite of a low VAT.

The VAT in Germany is 19% for film. Not so much less compared to other European countries.
There are several reasons for the relative low film prices in Germany:
1. It's the biggest film market in Europe. And the 4th biggest worldwide.
2. Hard competition between the dealers here: More than a dozen different online stores selling film.
Thousands of drugstore chain shops which are all selling film and film development (at nearly every corner of the street you have one of these drugstores here....😉).
3. German consumers are price sensitive.

Cheers, Jan

By the way: Here another quite cheap shop:
http://afa-fotohandel.de/sonstiges/fujifilme/index.php