[rickbehl]

Hi,


I realise the idea of a perfect film is very subjective but I thought I would see if there was any general consensus on the matter. Up to now for landscape and nature photography on 35mm and 6x7 I have been using a combination of Velvia 50, Velvia 100 and Provia 100F. My main shooting is geared towards the fairly low light levels (magic hour). I haven't really experimented with Kodak film for landscape (although I do use Portra as my main portrait film). I'm pretty happy with Velvia and my main decision between which of the 3 films mentioned I will use in any given situation is usually determined by the amount of light available (if very low then use Velvia 100/Provia 100F, if very bright then use Velvia 50).


My question is what is/are your perfect film(s) for landscape/nature photography? and do you use any combination of pushing/pulling on these films? Is my thinking right in that Velvia 50 doesn't handle too well for longer exposures hence Velvia 100/Provia 100F are better for very low light?


Thanks in advance,
Rick

[Adam]

Hi Rick,

I've used the Portra 160VC, which definitely seemed to boost the colors for landscape shots. I'd definitely recommend it!

[stevebrot]

...And the other major contender, Ektar 100.


Steve

[tuco]

Here is a Ektar 100 in 120 roll with low light and a landscape. Shot was around 8 seconds. This was the "magic blue hour".

[rickbehl]

That's a Great Shot Tuco! Love the blue skies. I take it this was just after the sun had gone down?

I've taken a few shots on Ektar but nothing serious yet... I still really enjoy the viewing of a good transparency on the light table...

[tuco]

Yes, after sunset. In the spring when the twilights are shorter than summer, we get some really blue skies here when seen by a camera. My estimate is that it occurs around the end of civil twilight and last for most of nautical twilight that time of year. Its there in the summer too but not as saturated with blue as in the spring.

[gofour3]

If you like using slide film how about trying a b&w reversal?

Fomapan R 100 is perfect for b&w landscapes and you can push it to 160 ISO for the dr5Chrome processing. The only draw back is that you need to send it to Denver for development.

checkout these threads:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-film-slr-discussion/98853-dr5-chrome.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-film-slr-discussion/57018-fomapan-...rsal-film.html



Phil.

[Clicker]

for greens I think fuji is better over kodak which has better reds, we're talking negs right?

[whojammyflip]

Reala 100 is great. Punchy colours, fine grain, its just ISO 100, but then if you are taking landscape photos, you will have outdoor light and probably access to a tripod too. It seems in the UK high street labs like Boots use Fuji Frontier machines which have all the Fuji films pre-programmed into them. I've got a load of Kodak Ektar I fear to shoot as Boots won't have the colours nailed like they do with Fuji film. Plus, Fuji film is a tad cheaper.

[Digitalis]

Fuji velvia is notoriously bad at longer exposures, it suffers from reciprocity failure which means the film loses speed as your exposures go over 4 or so seconds, so to correctly expose a 4 second exposure you will have to leave the shutter open for six seconds.

Fuji provia and Astia improve on this with astia being amongst the best for longer exposure times I recall astia able to do 120 second exposures without compensation.

unfortunately due to digital you don't have a lot of film manufacturers to choose from. Though I suggest Extar 100 as a good place to start...some of the negative films have a much greater lattitude for push processing and may deliver the results that you want, feel free to experiment.

[ChrisPlatt]

Kodachrome

Chris

[brofkand]

Kodachrome

Chris

*sniff*

I just started to heal.

[rickbehl]

Yes, it is unfortunate that a lot of our favourite films are slowly dissapearing... It's a real shame that film manufacturers are being forced to do this. But of course these companies are run as businesses and hence only really act on the the bottom (financial) line...

There does seem to be some resurgence about interest in film cameras that I have noticed on this and a few other forums. I think cameras like the Holga are helping to spark some interest in film photography. I even bumped into a young university student a few weeks ago who had invested in a large format view camera that he would use for landscape photography. I was quite impressed but unfortunately he told me that he was the only member of his 'camera club' that was using a non-digital camera.

I do believe that Kodachrome and Reala are being phased out from the list above. I heard that Kodak Portra is also going although will be replaced by something supposedly better...

Cheers
Rick

[Nesster]

... the thing with film is you can get so much variety - so the answer to a 'best' question is 'for what effect, what feel, what intent?'

Grainy high speed films are 'best' for certain types of landscape moods, for example, or color films with muted palettes are 'best' for some other types, depends on intent.

Re. Kodak slide, Ektachrome and Elite Chrome don't get the enthusiastic press Fuji tends to get, but I have seen captivating landscape slides from both... they can do blues and greens and browns in a very natural and nuanced manner. Worth a try to see if you like.

[Buffy]

Fuji velvia is notoriously bad at longer exposures

Velvia 100 (not 100F) is significantly better than Velvia 50 with regard to reciprocity failure. I think Velvia 50 failures begin ~30 sec whereas Velvia 100 manages ~3 min.

Buffy