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04-07-2017, 01:11 PM - 1 Like   #1
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FLAVR: Film lovers analogue visual reference

Wanted to point forum members to this: FLAVR: Film lovers analogue visual reference. I bought the Amazon Kindle version last night. Seems like a great reference.

Context-wise, I would have liked more descriptive text of each film. Some of the text appears to be copied-and-pasted. As for the UI, I would have liked a faster way to scroll or thumb through the films. It's hard to compare two films against each other without this ability. I probably should have waited for a print version, but the digital version is available now, so I jumped on it.

04-07-2017, 06:55 PM - 1 Like   #2
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Can you give a review of it?


Use one film specifically and compare to your actual experience if you can.
04-08-2017, 03:31 AM - 1 Like   #3
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I bought it; I read it. It's not all that crash-hot in my opinion. It's entertaining to see the visual results with the various films the author tests out, but I was expecting far more information about each film than the author actually gives, especially when he spends the first part of the book describing the excruciatingly exacting testing process he put each film through. Next to that, the lack of detail in the text is disappointing and after a while the film descriptions become a bit repetitive. You can only say "Another great film from..." (insert company here) so many times before people begin to think you've run out of worthwhile things to say and you're padding out. This is especially the case when the images in question sometimes range from the OK to the "What on Earth is this abomination of a film?"

My short analysis: written by hipsters, for hipsters. Cruel, perhaps, but I had been reading "The Negative" earlier that evening and Ansel Adams' level of writing (never mind his photography) leaves it in the dust.

I give it two and a half out of five canisters of expired Kodachrome 25. Not recommended.
04-08-2017, 09:25 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by pathdoc Quote
My short analysis: written by hipsters, for hipsters. Cruel, perhaps, but I had been reading "The Negative" earlier that evening and Ansel Adams' level of writing (never mind his photography) leaves it in the dust.

I give it two and a half out of five canisters of expired Kodachrome 25. Not recommended.


Of course the target audience may be for others with less film experience too!


Thanks for the review.

04-09-2017, 09:18 PM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by pathdoc Quote
I bought it; I read it. It's not all that crash-hot in my opinion. It's entertaining to see the visual results with the various films the author tests out, but I was expecting far more information about each film than the author actually gives, especially when he spends the first part of the book describing the excruciatingly exacting testing process he put each film through. Next to that, the lack of detail in the text is disappointing and after a while the film descriptions become a bit repetitive. You can only say "Another great film from..." (insert company here) so many times before people begin to think you've run out of worthwhile things to say and you're padding out. This is especially the case when the images in question sometimes range from the OK to the "What on Earth is this abomination of a film?"

My short analysis: written by hipsters, for hipsters. Cruel, perhaps, but I had been reading "The Negative" earlier that evening and Ansel Adams' level of writing (never mind his photography) leaves it in the dust.

I give it two and a half out of five canisters of expired Kodachrome 25. Not recommended.
I would agree with most of the points in pathdoc's review. However, for $9.99, it will probably save me from trying some films out that I was interested in but now no longer am.

The ebook is organized by film speed. Within speed, the films are ordered alphabetically by manufacturer (whatever that means these days). So BW films appear along with color. And negative films are bundled with slide films. I would have preferred grouping by these categories to facilitate easier comparison within category.

What I find more useful are the head-to-head blog posts and videos out there. The good ones really do a deep-dive into the handful of films they cover. FLAVR tries to be comprehensive. But it ends up only scratching the surface of the films it covers.
04-09-2017, 10:26 PM   #6
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BTW, how does it evaluate color negative film for color response and contrast? Do they also evaluate resolution? I remember that I completely disagreed with Popular Photography's evaluation of Kodak Ektar 100 shortly after it was released. Particularly in the methods used and the results attained.
04-10-2017, 10:12 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
BTW, how does it evaluate color negative film for color response and contrast? Do they also evaluate resolution? I remember that I completely disagreed with Popular Photography's evaluation of Kodak Ektar 100 shortly after it was released. Particularly in the methods used and the results attained.
The author doesn't get into resolution. It seems to focus on color and contrast only. I don't know enough about film processing to answer your first question.They use an X-Rite Color Checker Passport and show the resulting shot for every film. Not sure if that helps.

04-11-2017, 05:24 AM   #8
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Using the color checker as a reference is good but how do they extract the info from the film - scanner or optical print? Did they explain that process?
04-17-2017, 08:58 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by LesDMess Quote
Using the color checker as a reference is good but how do they extract the info from the film - scanner or optical print? Did they explain that process?
Scanned with an Epson 4870. Exported as JPG, sharpened in Capture One. They used the histogram, eyedropper (for shadow, highlights, and mid-tones), an unsharp mask during scanning.
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