Tag: slide

Fujichrome Fortia SP film re-released in Japan

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Fuji Fortia SP

Fuji have re-released the "limited edition" Fortia SP slide film in Japan. It’s ISO 50 (though it’s recommended that you shoot it at 64), has extremely high colour saturation (apparently higher than Velvia 50), and high contrast. It’s available in 35mm and 120 with no plans for distribution outside of Japan.

You can order it from megaperls, though, who carry some other films that are difficult to get outside of Japan, such as Fuji Neopan SS (ISO 100, not Acros) and Fuji Presto 400 B&W films and Fuji Natura 1600 colour print film. It aint cheap, though.

ISO 24,000 film is not to be

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

In May, I re-posted Oran Grad’s post from The Online Photographer about a high-speed, ISO 24,000 black and white reversal (slide) film that Kodak’s research department came up with and was quite excited about its implications for pinhole and zone plate photography. Unfortunately, it appears that there wasn’t enough interest and they will not be offering the film commercially.

I received this from them via email:

The purpose of Dr. Gilman’s presentation, "A High-Speed Direct Positive Photothermographic System", was to share information on an innovative technology and to showcase its potential. Eastman Kodak Company invents and evaluates many technologies annually for possible commercial applications. However, Kodak does not have any plans to make this technology available in a commercial product.

I guess it’s time to start pushing the hell out of ISO 3200 film. I’ve successfully pushed Kodak T-MAX 3200 (TMZ) to 12800 using T-MAX developer and will see if I can coax another stop out of it or Delta 3200 to achieve the equivalent speed and report back with the results. It’ll be a negative instead of a positive and will have boulder-sized grain, but I’m still really excited about the prospect of handheld, freeze-frame, normal shutter speed pinhole photography.

Awesome implications of ISO 24,000 film

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Yesterday, I posted (well, lifted Oren Grad’s post from The Online Photographer) about an ultra high-speed ISO 24,000 B&W reversal film emulsion that Kodak have developed, but one implication didn’t hit me until today: if released commercially, it would allow handheld pinhole photography at normal shutter speeds.

An aperture of f/185 gives you a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/250 second in about a half stop under full sun, and you’d have an even wider range of choices with zone plates or photon sieves, whose aperture equivalents are larger.

This opens up a lot of possibilities that didn’t really exist before: tripod-free shooting, flash (including fill flash), precision exposure control with normal shutters, and a whole world of candid/documentary and indoor and outdoor stop-motion photography.

While I generally like the slower shooting experience of pinhole photography, sometimes it’s just annoying, and sometimes it outright prevents me from getting the shots I want.

I’m really excited by the possibility of more creative choices. Bring it on, Kodak!

ISO 24,000(!) film developed by Kodak

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Oren Grad’s entire post from The Online Photographer:

No, that’s not a typo. This week at the International Congress of Imaging Science in Rochester, NY, Kodak researchers presented a new silver halide emulsion that is thermally developed to produce a positive image at speeds of up to ISO 24,000. You can read the conference abstract here.

Kodak is currently seeking to determine whether there is sufficient demand for such a film to justify a trial production run. More in this thread over at APUG, including instructions on how to communicate your interest to Kodak.

Via The Online Photographer

Why are we still shooting slide film? answered by Ken Wronkiewicz

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Ken Wronkiewicz posted a rebuttal to my recent article, Why are we still shooting slide film?, bringing up something I completely failed to consider: slide film has a greater Drange (density range) than print film does. This means that while you give up dynamic range, you get a significantly better contrast range in what you do capture.

In light of this excellent point, I’ll keep shooting slides in low-contrast lighting such as overcast days. You can always get rid of unwanted contrast after the fact, but you can’t add it if you didn’t capture it in the first place.

Check out Ken’s complete explanation at wireheadarts.com.

Why are we still shooting slide film?

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Given that I get my color film developed at a lab and scan it myself (and that I never project slides), I’ve got to wonder why I shoot chromes anymore. The film and processing are both more expensive, and with my workflow, all I get for the money is less dynamic range and no exposure tolerance.

The ~5 stops that most slide film can capture is simply not enough for many non-studio lighting situations. It’s quite common to be faced with the choice of having to severely blow out a bright area or severely block up shadows. Landscape photographers who shoot with view cameras or SLRs can sometimes get around this with split ND filters, but not everybody can take 20 minutes to set up a shot, not every subject has a brightness boundary that falls in a conveniently straight line, and there are plently of cameras that don’t let you look through the lens to see what you’re doing (rangefingers, TLRs, pinholes, toys, etc.), so it’s not a solution for everybody…

Continue reading on Photon Detector

Fuji introduce Provia 400X slide film

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Fuji Provia 400X 120 pro-pack

According to Fuji’s press release, the new Provia 400X Professional ISO 400 slide film features:

Brilliant color reproduction: Fujichrome Provia 400X Professional provides new levels of color saturation in ISO 400 class films.

Ultra-fine grain: Fujichrome Provia 400X Professional provides exceptionally fine grain for a 400 speed color reversal film (RMS: 11).

Rich tone reproduction: Fujichrome Provia 400X Professional produces smooth and continuous gradation from highlights to shadows, providing pleasing skin tone reproduction.

Improved color image stability: Fujichrome Provia 400X incorporates new-generation color couplers for significantly improved long-term color image stability (anti-fading characteristics) compared to current 400 speed color reversal films.

(end quote)

Also mentioned in the Provia 400X brochure (PDF) is "minimal change in color intensity and tonality throughout the -1/2 stop to +2 stop range (EI 280-1600), and extending even to +3 stops (EI 3200) in certain conditions." Nice!

I can’t wait to see what this stuff does when cross processed and pushed. I like to use crossed and pushed Provia 400F for pinhole work on overcast days, but it does get insanely grainy. Hopefully this will be a little less severe. (I actually like its grain-the-size-of-boulders characteristics, but it’s nice to have a choice.)

With all this strife for film companies and product lines of late, it’s nice to see new stuff coming out!

Provia 400X will be available in 135-36 and 120 formats. The film code appears to be RXP.