Saturday, May 25, 2013

A Review of Photographic Slide Films


For those that use photographic film and are interested in submitting their photographs to magazine and book publishers, the film of choice is slide (positive). Until very recently, editors and publishers would rarely accept photo submissions that were not slides and although most prefer digital submission because of the speed of delivery, there are still many publishers and editors who prefer and accept slide film photo submissions.

Nothing brings out color more than slide film, yes not even digital, and for those of you who think that digital is the best thing to come around, the highest megapixel resolution digital camera goes to 21mp at a cost of around $10,000.00 more or less. Slide or positive films have an average equivalency of 25 "megapixels" and a quality 35mm SLR film camera runs at about $320.00 to $600.00.

The consumer slide film market is quickly being taken over by Fuji and its line of Fuji-chrome films. Kodak and its Kodachrome film series does not lag far behind, but developing of their films is only possible at very few selected sites or through Kodak themselves, while Fuji-chrome can be developed at hundreds of locations.

All slide films once developed and mounted, can be scanned and the file transferred to a computer and then you can proceed to do everything the same with the file as you would have done with a digital file downloaded directly from the memory card of a DSLR. However, scan the slides at the scanner's highest resolution which should be at 3000 to 4000dpi.

The cost of developing & mounting of slide film is about $10.00 per 36 frames. Just ask the developer to mount the slides in plastic mounts, in the event that you want to open the mount. The cost of most slide films run from $4.79 to about $8.79 per roll.

Grain in slide film. All films are categorized by a number, according to their grain resolution. With 25 being the lowest and mostly available from Kodak which offers the finest grain to 1000 which offers the largest grain size, Think of a newspaper photo, if you look at it under a magnifying glass, little dots (grains become readily apparent) the same as with film. The finer the grain, the sharper the image. In a digital format grain is referred to as noise.

For good lighting conditions sharp detail, excellent color saturation and ultra fine grain under magnification, then the choice should be those slide films that have a number that is less than 100. Kodachrome 64 is excellent. For general use a film rated at 100 is also very good, for low light conditions or fast moving subjects 400 is the standard. A middle ground are films rated at 200. This number also coincides with the amount of light that is needed for a good photo. These numbers are also referred to as the ASA or ISO speed.

Fujifilm Slide Films:

Fuji-chrome 64T, a film for use with tungsten light, it offers a true to life color rendition of the subject with a rich balanced tone.Fujichrome Astia, a film for rendering natural and skin tones that are exceptionally true to life. Fuji-chrome Provia,excellent color saturation with fine grain and much improved sharpness, great for multi purpose photography. Fuji-chrome Sensia, offers the ability to photograph a myriad of subjects with excellent color saturation, color renditions with fine grain.Fujichrome Velvia, the professionals choice, it offers vivid colors, excellent saturation, true to life rendition of colors and ultra fine grain.

Kodak Kodachrome & Ektachrome Side Films

Ektachrome. Great details under less than ideal lighting conditions, tends to over saturate blues, but excellent for panoramic photography. Elite Chrome. The highest color saturation of any slide film in today's market. Very fine grain comparable to Kodachrome 64 and its ultra fine grain. Kodachrome 64, the best for natural looking skin tones, ultra fine grain, great detail, extremely sharp.

Afga Slide Films

Agfachrome. High color saturation, extremely fine grain, best suited for portraits and fashion photography. Not widely available though.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Photographic-Slide-Film-a-review-of-color-films

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