There are lots of comments on this site about people's favourite slide film, but which film do you find has the most latitude and reacts in a tolerant and kindly manner when confronted with less than perfect exposures, as may from time to time occur when using an M3 or LTM? My preference is for a 100 ISO film such as Provia or Ektachrome; what others are good choices?

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), April 15, 2002

Answers

Slide films have very little latitude and I don't know any exceptions.

Provia 100F has less contrast than others, giving more details in the shadows and making the exposure of contrasty scenes easier.

-- Stephane Bosman (stephane_bosman@yahoo.co.uk), April 15, 2002.

Sensia 100 (or its pro equivalent, Astia).

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), April 15, 2002.

Kodachromes have less latitude than E6 films in my opinion. All E6 films are much of a muchness in the 50-200 range.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), April 15, 2002.

Ektachrome E200 = Elitechrome 200 (ED) > Astia = Sensia 100 > Provia 100F and 400F = Ektachrome E100SW = Elitechrome 100 (EB) > Ektachrome E100VS = Elitechrome 100 EBX > Kodachrome 64 and 200 > Velvia > Kodachrome 25

-- George (gdgianni@aol.com), April 15, 2002.

This same question came up several months ago--it's probably archived in the film threads.

Slide films simply don't have "lattitude" in the same sense as negative films since you can't adjust for variations in exposure during printing. I've found that the Kodak E films have a decent shoulder, so highlight contrast levels off a little bit before the highlights are totally "blown out."

If your M3's shutter is in good condition, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I shoot slide film in my M3s quite frequently and don't seem to have lost any exposures to big variations in shutter speed.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), April 15, 2002.

There really is no such thing as "exposure latitude" even with neg film. For a given ISO there is only 1 "correct" exposure that will provide equal detail (shadows and highlights)on either side of middle- tone. What differentiates neg and pos film is the width of stops on either side of "mid" that detail is still visible. That is the film's conrtast range. Reversal films have a narrower range than color neg. Some (K64, Velvia, and most of the high-speed films) have a narrower range than others. The ISO 100's, particularly the lower contrast ones like Astia and (to a lesser extent Sensia), have a somewhat greater range. The more saturated ones like Elite Extra Color and E100VS, have a narrower range. Depending on your subject you may be able to significantly expand the contrast range of slide film by using graduated ND filters (for landscapes with a more or less straight and unbostructed demarcation between foreground and sky), daylight fill-flash (very limited with any M Leica except the M7 and then only after making some heady exposure caluclations since the HSS is manual-only), reflectors, digital compositing, etc.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 15, 2002.

I get the impression that E200 is the most flexible slide film out there, it handles under and over exposure pretty well and pushes a lot better than anything else I've seen. And it works well for my trademark underexposed shots as well!

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), April 15, 2002.

And it works well for my trademark underexposed shots as well!

Rob, I love your trademark underexposed shots... of trucks!

-- Richard (rvle@yahoo.com), April 15, 2002.

Yes, I'm working on a sponsorship deal with Kodak and Fiat Agritech to see how underexposed a picture of a tractor can be and still be recognisable as such. As you can see, the first results are encouraging.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), April 15, 2002.

I've found Sensia 100 to be very flexible and forgiving, for slide film. I like it somewhat overexposed to mute the colors. In situations I've encountered so far, I haven't blown out the highlights.

Sensia's colors are very quiet and placid, which is what I prefer. Whites look especially nice (starting to sound like a detergent).

-- Steven Hupp (shupp@chicagobotanic.org), April 15, 2002.

I have found Provia 100 and 400 to be great travel films as they have "wider" latitude than say Velvia. I have used K25, K64, K200 in the past and find that they are more unforgiving. I will now try the Ektachrome as it seems to be getting rave reviews.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), April 15, 2002.

E200 is my first choice. I use it most of the time now. E100SW is not bad either, unlike E100S, but just IMHO.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), April 15, 2002.

I'll toss out an unexpected alternative. Ektachrome 64 Professional Daylight, EPR, an old favorite. Admittedly 64 is slower than 100. I mention it because of my experience in both 35mm and 4X5. Good for high contrast subjects where holding detail was crucial, i.e. snow scenes in strong light. Highlights were beautiful, snow and ice held great detail. Easily out performed Fuji in these situations.

Colors are good and are not blue as one would expect. Once did a comparison test, 35mm size, against EPP 100. EPR 64 was actually warm , not blue at all, contrary to its reputation. According to the Kodak site it has enhanced saturation, which I agree with, but not as much as Velvia of course.

EPR 64 doesn't have the latest grain technology and sexy reputation of new E6 Fuji and Kodak films but it's a sleeper.

Another one to try is Agfachrome 100. Neutral color and moderate contrast. Buy a roll of each and try them.

-- David Lobato (lobato1@pdq.net), April 15, 2002.

"the width of stops on either side of "mid" that detail is still visible."

Uh, sorry, Jay - to me this IS 'exposure latitude.' It may be "contrast range" as well, in the same way that "car" and "auto" share a definition.

Whatever you call it, color negative has more of it - but I still prefer slide film.

I agree generally with George's "greater than/less than" progression - with one caveat: the really high speed films become so unsaturated that to me they become unusable - their highlights go from fishbelly white directly to detailess gray with no place where the color/exposure is anything close to what I can accept as correct.

I actually find that Velvia (FOR ME) has a useful kind of latitude - its saturation and longish highlight scale allows me a bailout on the overexposure side without blowing the highlights away completely. I'm not talking about shooting it at 40 - I'm talking about shooting it at 40 AND at 40 PLUS a half-stop and still getting better-than-usuable images except in the hottest light.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), April 16, 2002.

I think your intended final use (projection, scanning, direct printing) has a significant effect on what is a practical latitude/contrast range. Specifically, I find that with a good desktop scanner (16 bit, multi-sampling) and curve adjustment in Photoshop, it is possible to get a lot of useful information out of shadows that may look underexposed when you see a slide under a loupe.

My favorite film is Provia 100F. It has less of a tendency to lose highlights than other films especially Kodachrome. I think it is too saturated, but my final use is scanning for inkjet printing, and I can easily reduce saturation with Photoshop. Fuji Astia may have lower contrast, but I can get similar results from a scan.

-- Masatoshi Yamamoto (masa@nity.co.jp), April 19, 2002.