Fuji Provia 100F with Leica, any inputs?

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Hello:

I recently spend some €€€€ on Provia 100F and Velvia.

The latest, I have already used and liked it, exposure compensation is almost mastered. The precision of the light evaluation on the R7 is easing up the picture taking process!!

What comes up for the Provia 100F, any hint/tip you would like to share? The Provia 100 F is an inversible or slide film, sold as "pro" film (it means large quantities at high price, ahem). Ah, what about the latitude? My Dad shall probably use it in his SRT101 which light meter has not the subtelities of the R7.

TIA. Xavier

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001

Answers

Given good technique, you can properly expose slide film with any meter, or no meter for that matter. Provia 100F and 400F also take pushing very well. I regularly push 100F two stops with only a small increase in contrast and decrease in sharpness.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), December 12, 2001.

Xavier:

I have shot about 10 rolls, all at the rated speed with an M6 and 50mm 'cron and 28 mm Konica Hexar and the results are truly "State of the Art". Nothing can compare with it for accurate colour, IMHO. Velvia is a bit more saturated and "mellow" and Ektachrome is snappier and not so fine grained or sharp. As far as I am concerned Fuji's wizards have done it, aided and abetted by the lens grinders at Leica and Konica.

I will share this: try it!!

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001.


Xavier, I use Provia 100 F; it is a very sharp & grainless film. You may very well find that it is your film of choice. I do a lot of people photography and prefer the skintones of Sensia / Astia to Provia. Sensia is the "Amateur" version of Astia (or so I have been told) and is available at an economical price and my experience has been very positive with this emulsion.

-- David (pagedt@chartertn.net), December 12, 2001.

I agree with David, I prefer Sensia/Astia 100. Particularly for people. Provia has very fine grain, but is pretty low contrast. I think that Sensia has higher contrast, so has a bit more snap to the images, although it has more grain. In bright sun Provia is great, if you take portraits in the shade or take anything in the shade Provia really lacks punch. Provia has good color balance to my eyes, but perhaps a little green to me. When it comes to sharpness and "punch" though nothing beats Kodachromes, but many think the contrast of Kodachrome is too much and it is effectively a stop slower.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001.

Here is another vote in agreement with David and Robin. Though Provia 100F is highly regarded as a a very fine grained film, it has lower contrast than the older Provia 100, somehow artificial colours and does not render skin tones faithfully.

Astia/Sensia 100 look more "natural", but I still give the edge to Ektachrome E100SW and its consumer version Elitechrome 100 (EB) for their sharpness and well-balanced colour palette.

-- George (gdgianni@aol.com), December 12, 2001.



I'm not very fond of ProviaF...too biased to blue.

Astia, OTOH, is GREAT, IMO. I use Sensia, too, when I spent all my photography "budget" to new equipment...

...come to think of it...hey...I haven't been using Astia lately...

:)

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001.


Thanks for those inputs Guys.

We will see what it comes up with landscape and architecture. Cheers. X.

-- Xavier d'Alfort (hot_billexf@hotmail.com), December 13, 2001.


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