No more Velvia

Chadwick wrote:
I just read in Amateur Photographer that Fuji are to permanently
cease
production of Velvia 50 in a year's time. Apparently they can't get
one
of the magic ingredients.


Same thing happened to Kodachrome 25!

On 1 Mar 2005 10:24:26 -0800, "Chadwick"
wrote:


Alan Browne wrote:
Chadwick wrote:
Charlie Waite (UK landscape pro) says he knows of people who will
buy
up £5000 of the outgoing 50 and freeze it.

Film is already frozen up to well over 50 deg C. You mean cold
store.
...
One rule of thumb (and probably more myth than fact) is that for
every 10°C
below fridge temp, the storage life of unexposed slide film is
doubled. So at
-17°C the storage life would be something on the order of 10 years.

Maybe I did mean frozen then?

I think (but he *can* be confusing) Alan's point was film is in it's
frozen state at room-temperature. Much like the glass in your lenses
which are made of liquid that is frozen at the factory before being
shipped to the stores. Luckily it stays frozen at the temperatures we
use them at.

--
Owamanga!

On 1 Mar 2005 10:24:26 -0800, "Chadwick"
wrote:


Alan Browne wrote:
Chadwick wrote:
Charlie Waite (UK landscape pro) says he knows of people who will
buy
up £5000 of the outgoing 50 and freeze it.

Film is already frozen up to well over 50 deg C. You mean cold
store.
...
One rule of thumb (and probably more myth than fact) is that for
every 10°C
below fridge temp, the storage life of unexposed slide film is
doubled. So at
-17°C the storage life would be something on the order of 10 years.

Maybe I did mean frozen then?

I think (but he *can* be confusing) Alan's point was film is in it's
frozen state at room-temperature. Much like the glass in your lenses
which are made of liquid that is frozen at the factory before being
shipped to the stores. Luckily it stays frozen at the temperatures we
use them at.

--
Owamanga!

On 1 Mar 2005 10:28:55 -0800, wrote:


Chadwick wrote:
I just read in Amateur Photographer that Fuji are to permanently
cease
production of Velvia 50 in a year's time. Apparently they can't get
one
of the magic ingredients.


Same thing happened to Kodachrome 25!

Don't worry, with all film types, the demand curve is dropping sharply
due to digital. That should stretch out how long any ingredient
stockpiles will last.

Of course, a rush on Velvia 50 is just what the marketing &
disinformation department needs to keep Fuji profitable.

g ....trust no one.

--
Owamanga!

On 1 Mar 2005 10:28:55 -0800, wrote:


Chadwick wrote:
I just read in Amateur Photographer that Fuji are to permanently
cease
production of Velvia 50 in a year's time. Apparently they can't get
one
of the magic ingredients.


Same thing happened to Kodachrome 25!

Don't worry, with all film types, the demand curve is dropping sharply
due to digital. That should stretch out how long any ingredient
stockpiles will last.

Of course, a rush on Velvia 50 is just what the marketing &
disinformation department needs to keep Fuji profitable.

g ....trust no one.

--
Owamanga!

Chadwick wrote:

doubled. So at

-17°C the storage life would be something on the order of 10 years.


Maybe I did mean frozen then?
I was just quoting what the magazine said.

Sure, the magazine writers are a bit thoughtless sometimes, but film is a solid
at the normal range of temperatures so it can't be frozen any more than that.


It'll be interesting to see what replaces it. Currently you flick
through a magazine and nearly all the shots (especially landscapes) are
on Velvia 50. I've been thinking about trying it, and only put off by
the fact that it is a transparency film and I have zero equipment to
handle transparancies. But I've just got a new scanner that can take
them, so maybe I'll take the plunge.

Do your training on something a little less contrasty like Sensia 100. Velvia
is beautiful but narrow latitude for your exposure. If you spot meter a
highlight in your scene and then open 1.7 or 2.0 stops, you'll usually do fine.
Also use the spotmeter to 'scan' the scene and make sure that it fits into +/-
2 stops of your exposure. Every thing outside of that will be black or clear on
the slide. For older scanners, and additional 1/3 exposure will 'thin' out the
slide for an easier scan. The 12bit and higher scanners generally have less
problems with denser slides. (I'm talking about film scanners, not flatbed).

If you don't have a spot meter it will be tougher to nail the exposure. An
incident meter is a good way as well, but nailing highlights is less certain.

Cheers,
Alan

--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.

Owamanga wrote:

I think (but he *can* be confusing) Alan's point was film is in it's

You make it sound intentional... snif.



--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.

Owamanga schrieb:
On 1 Mar 2005 10:24:26 -0800, "Chadwick"
wrote:

I think (but he *can* be confusing) Alan's point was film is in it's
frozen state at room-temperature. Much like the glass in your lenses
which are made of liquid that is frozen at the factory before being
shipped to the stores. Luckily it stays frozen at the temperatures we
use them at.

No. The glass in lenses (and elsewhere) is still liquid! Is just flows
very slowly.

Walter

Owamanga schrieb:
On 1 Mar 2005 10:24:26 -0800, "Chadwick"
wrote:

I think (but he *can* be confusing) Alan's point was film is in it's
frozen state at room-temperature. Much like the glass in your lenses
which are made of liquid that is frozen at the factory before being
shipped to the stores. Luckily it stays frozen at the temperatures we
use them at.

No. The glass in lenses (and elsewhere) is still liquid! Is just flows
very slowly.

Walter

Alan Browne wrote:
Do your training on something a little less contrasty like Sensia
100. Velvia
is beautiful but narrow latitude for your exposure. If you spot
meter a
highlight in your scene and then open 1.7 or 2.0 stops, you'll
usually do fine.
Also use the spotmeter to 'scan' the scene and make sure that it
fits into +/-
2 stops of your exposure. Every thing outside of that will be black
or clear on
the slide. For older scanners, and additional 1/3 exposure will
'thin' out the
slide for an easier scan. The 12bit and higher scanners generally
have less
problems with denser slides. (I'm talking about film scanners, not
flatbed).

If you don't have a spot meter it will be tougher to nail the
exposure. An
incident meter is a good way as well, but nailing highlights is less
certain.

Thanks for the advice. To be honest, I've still got a lot to learn in
general, so I'm probably going to stick with normal film for the
foreseeable future; it reduces the number of variables that affect my
pictures. I only really considered Velvia at all because a) all the
pros seem to use it, and b) when I scan and print my photos at home I
usually need to increase the saturation.

This latter point is probably due to poor general technique rather than
the film I used (eg. I only just found out that my "misty morning"
shots of recent weeks are looking washed out because I'm using
centre-weighted metering, not spot metering, so even though I'm
pointing the central focusing area at the ground to meter off it, there
is still sky in the shot and that is giving me the "wrong" reading.
Only by luck did I get one right because I'd left the right neutral
grad on. It proved that it wasn't the camera screwing up - it was me.)