Is FujiFilm as good as, say, Kodachrome?

Now that I've FINALLY bought a camera, I'm wondering about that. Is
there a material difference in quality, given that I will be having a
company do the developing and printing?
Thanks for your opinions!
Cindy

CanonAE14fun wrote:
Now that I've FINALLY bought a camera, I'm wondering about that. Is
there a material difference in quality, given that I will be having a
company do the developing and printing?

No. Kodachrome was unique. It was basicly three monochromatic films,
each sensitive to one of the primary colors (red, green and blue).
During development (a long and complicated process), dyes were added
to replace the unexposed silver in each layer. This produced high quality
color with resolution and contrast close to monochrome film.

All the other films have the dye in them already which makes the layers
much thicker. This reduces resolution and contrast. The dyes are also not
as stable as the ones used for kodachrome processing.

Because slide file works with transmitted light and prints with reflected
light, slides produce sharper, clearer images with better color.

Assuming slides are properly processed after choice of film, exposure
will effect your results the most.

Prints are a different story. Today's prints are computer scanned to
produce "good" results. Good is defined as the least number of returns.
Exposure, choice of film and paper type do not effect your pictures
very much unless you use a lab that will produce correct results
as opposed to good looking ones.

If you wish to have real creative control over your results, consider
using black and white film and developing and printing it yourself.

It's not that difficult and equipment these days can be gotten cheaply.
Ask on rec.photo.darkroom, if you are interested.

If you do develop your own fim, you can buy it in 100 foot (33 meter)
rolls which makes it a lot cheaper. You put it in resuable film cassettes.
You also can make a contact sheet, which is an actual size print of all
of your negatives at once. Then you can pick and choose which ones to
print and after you have done it for a while know how to crop and expose
them.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

(Geoffrey S. Mendelson) writes:
CanonAE14fun wrote:
Now that I've FINALLY bought a camera, I'm wondering about that. Is
there a material difference in quality, given that I will be having a
company do the developing and printing?

No. Kodachrome was unique. It was basicly three monochromatic films,
each sensitive to one of the primary colors (red, green and blue).

IS. Kodachrome IS unique. Why the past tense? Kodachrome's still
around. For how long, we don't know, but if you like it you should be
using it and show Kodak it's still wanted.

During development (a long and complicated process), dyes were added
to replace the unexposed silver in each layer. This produced high quality
color with resolution and contrast close to monochrome film.

More corrections: Dyes ARE added, and this PRODUCES high quality
color. You get the picture. Pun intended.

--
Fredrik Sandström

I wrote:

No. Kodachrome was unique. It was basicly three monochromatic films,
each sensitive to one of the primary colors (red, green and blue).


Fredrik Sandstrom wrote:

IS. Kodachrome IS unique. Why the past tense? Kodachrome's still
around. For how long, we don't know, but if you like it you should be
using it and show Kodak it's still wanted.

I guess it depends upon where you are. I doubt there is a roll of it for
sale in all of Israel. I also doubt that you could get it processed. You
would have to send it off to Dwaynes, via a courier service or take a
chance that it would neither get x-rayed at the post office, or gama ray
"inspected" on the docks. :-(

BTW, does anyone know if Kodak is still making it, or planing on making
anymore, or are they just cutting up rolls stored in a mine shaft?

I wish I had stocked up on Ektar 25 while I could, but I guess by now
it would all be too old to use, even if it had been frozen. :-(

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:39:08 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

[---]

I wish I had stocked up on Ektar 25 while I could, but I guess by now
it would all be too old to use, even if it had been frozen. :-(

Interesting question - how long can freezing prolong the useful life
of film?

"Andrew Price" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:39:08 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

[---]

I wish I had stocked up on Ektar 25 while I could, but I guess by now
it would all be too old to use, even if it had been frozen. :-(

Interesting question - how long can freezing prolong the useful life
of film?

Film begins aging the instant it is made (more or less). Radiation from
nature (and the beams the Government sends out!) adds to the background fog
level. Keeping the film cold will slow down the chemical aging process, and
keeping it in metal freezer will decrease the background radiation (assuming
it's not the same freezer where you keep your Uranium stash!)

Black & White obviously will not be affected by a color shift, only fogging,
so it can kept longer.
When color film is printed, the color balance can be adjusted to a certain
amount to compensate for color shifts.
Slide film has no correction available for color shift or fog, so it will
show any aging effects first.

It's really a matter of how much aging shift you can toloerate. B&W or color
print film that's a year or two out of date and has been frozen the whole
time shouldn't be a problem.

"Ken Hart" wrote in message
...

"Andrew Price" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:39:08 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

[---]

I wish I had stocked up on Ektar 25 while I could, but I guess by now
it would all be too old to use, even if it had been frozen. :-(

Interesting question - how long can freezing prolong the useful life
of film?

Film begins aging the instant it is made (more or less). Radiation from
nature (and the beams the Government sends out!) adds to the background
fog level. Keeping the film cold will slow down the chemical aging
process, and keeping it in metal freezer will decrease the background
radiation (assuming it's not the same freezer where you keep your Uranium
stash!)

Black & White obviously will not be affected by a color shift, only
fogging, so it can kept longer.
When color film is printed, the color balance can be adjusted to a certain
amount to compensate for color shifts.
Slide film has no correction available for color shift or fog, so it will
show any aging effects first.

It's really a matter of how much aging shift you can toloerate. B&W or
color print film that's a year or two out of date and has been frozen the
whole time shouldn't be a problem.



It does continue to age after being exposed and printed......My old color
slides show a lot of mold spots, and in some of them (the non-Kodachromes)
the color fading/shifting is very evident......I don't know how one would go
about preserving them longer after printing.....Perhaps putting them in a
dry nitrogen filled case, like they do with historical paper
documents.......

On 2008-02-13 12:48:26 -0700, Andrew Price said:

On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:39:08 +0000 (UTC), (Geoffrey
S. Mendelson) wrote:

[---]

I wish I had stocked up on Ektar 25 while I could, but I guess by now
it would all be too old to use, even if it had been frozen. :-(

Interesting question - how long can freezing prolong the useful life
of film?

Kodachrome is the champion when it comes to "cryogenic film
reincarnation" or whatever you want to call it. No other color emulsion
will last longer when properly frozen & thawed. By "last longer" I mean
still retain its color balance and sensitivity. Photographers who have
hoarded original 25 speed K-chrome have reported using it twenty and
thirty years out-of-date with fine results.

As pointed out, the unprocessed film is B&W with couplers which are
considerably more stable than dyes. If frozen when fresh and brought
back to room temperature properly a short time before use, the stuff is
amazing.

When K-chrome dupes were used for archival purposes, they proved to
have wonderful longevity as long as they weren't projected improperly
(by that I mean leaving a slide or strip in front of a very strong lamp
for a very long time); In my experience with light boxes (homemade
kiosk setups) Ektachrome 8X10s were a bit more fade-resistant than
Kodachromes for this purpose.

As of about a year ago there is indeed just one source of processing in
the world, and fans of the product are rightly concerned that EK may
only be releasing dwindling stocks and not continuing to manufacture
new Kodachrome beyond the last batch they made.

Fuji Velvia 50 is pretty good, but there will never be a film to rival
ASA 25 (or even ISO 64) Kodachrome, and that's a shame.
--
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is
one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Sidney J. Harris

Pudentame wrote:
But, all of today's Kodak C-41 films are based on the Ektar technology
anyway, so you might try Kodak Ultra 100UC.

It's not just the technology, it was the "look" Ektar 25 was the closest
thing to Kodachrome ever made in a color negative film.

How does the 100UC compare to it?

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Pudentame wrote:
90% of the quality at 50% of the cost I'd say. It's been so long since I
actually shot Ektar.

And I don't shoot 100UC, although 400UC is nicely saturated, if that's a
valid description for a color negative film.

Thanks.

I don't think the one roll of Ektar I found is going to be much use for
making comparisons. It wasn't refrigerated properly.

I'd leave it in the box and sell it on eBay as a collector's item. :-)

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/