col/film 4 enlargments

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Now that KR 25 and EKTAR 25 are no longer, what colour emulsion will give the most infomation? I have a feeling the answer will be Velvia but i find it just a little too saturated.I can almost pick a Velvia tranny sitting on a light-box at 50 paces. I have a shot of the sun setting over the Taj Mahal from across the river shot on a Linhof 6x9 ,my friends love it but i just think "VELVIA"! Film manufactures go for more and more speed ,this is fine for the average shooter but for me its the apature that gives the feel to a shot , not the shutter speed.Variations in depth of field allow me to shoot portraits and landscape photos all with the 35mm f2 ,I do not just set a camera on f8 apature prioroty and shoot every thing at that.With my noct outside i have ND filters other wise it would be almost un-usable.

-- Tim (timphoto@ihug.com.au), July 21, 2001

Answers

Try Konica Impressa 50. It comes closer to Ektar 25 than any other color neg film. Beautiful pure and smooth colors. Your average minilab will probably have trouble with it, due to lack of experience. When I told mine that it was like gold 25, their results realy improved.

-- Jay Goldman (goldman@math.umn.edu), July 21, 2001.

Grain is not the only criterion for enlargement. Transparency films lose saturation when printed (a plus for shooting Velvia)and also lose tonal range, i.e. gain contrast (a minus for shooting Velvia). I always preferred Royal Gold 100 to Ektar 25(renamed Royal Gold 25 just before its demise)because it was less contrasty. I was very wary of using a faster emulsion for large prints until I tried Portra 400NC to shoot a wedding and loved the results so much that I tried the 160VC in medium format for landscapes and was blown away by the color gamut as well as the breadth of the tonal range. I tried some in 35mm and have been stuck on it ever since. For really big enlargements, though, there's still no substitute for negative size, regardless of the film...and especially if you're comparing the formats on the same emulsion.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 22, 2001.

I'm not sure that regular Kodachrome 25 has been discontinued, just Professional Kodachrome 25. At least B&H still lists it.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), July 22, 2001.

PKM was discontinued quite a while ago; KM is now discontinued as well. Whatever is in dealer stock is all there's going to be.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 22, 2001.

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