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01-06-2020, 09:46 PM   #1
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What were the preferred film types in 1983 for a film shoot at night?

Back at this time i was using Agfa 50s Professional, great film that I enjoyed using a lot.
I'm writing a short novel that references, in some detail, a nightime photo shoot involving a sports car, a model and a very long flowing fabric train. Although it's not strictly necessary to be 100% accurate, I'd like to keep it fairly factual and I'm wondering what colour slide films would have been the "go to" in 1983 for such a shoot.
For Black and White I've referenced Ilford Delta as the film of choice, Agfa 50S is one of the colour films he will be using, but what else, probably of a higher ISO rating, would have been a good choice?
On a tangent, saw a great movie last night, ANNA, which was a box office disaster and has an awful trailer that no doubt helped kill it. Despite this it had plot twists around every turn and I loved it, despite the action scenes being horrendously implausible. What was fun was seeing the depiction of the model fashion industry and it's photographers, (this was set I assume in the early 90s) the latter so unrealistic as to be hilarious. Was curious to see Mamiya as the brand of choice for all the photographers shooting, I assume, medium format, and I'm wondering if this would also have been one of the cameras of choice for a landscape photographer in the early 80s?
Thanks in advance,

01-06-2020, 10:03 PM - 1 Like   #2
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I usually used Ilford or Kodak ISO 400 in the eighties. I also shot a lot of slides back then. No idea what fashion photographers used, I was using A Pentax ME Super, then a Pentax model A3.
Mamiya went bankrupt in 1984 so I guess they were not all that popular.
01-06-2020, 10:19 PM   #3
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Agfachrome 200 was the most common fast reversal film from Agfa, back then. I often used it for general shooting, as well as lower-light work. There was a professional Agfachrome 1000 that some professionals used in the 1980s, but aside from those I don’t recall any faster slide films in use.
01-07-2020, 12:35 AM   #4
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In 84-85 I know I was using Kodachrome and Ektachrome - 200 ASA mostly when I was trying to shoot wildlife. I think I used more Fujifilm from the mid-80s onwards. I remember using Ilford for B&W when I did a little bit of developing in the early 80s. But I could not remember the varieties. I salute your intention to try to be as accurate as possible. Nothing bugs me more than glaring errors in books or movies.

01-07-2020, 09:42 AM   #5
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Ilford Delta was introduced in 1990. HP5 would have been the Ilford B&W film of choice in 1983 or maybe XP1 and Tri-X from Kodak.
01-07-2020, 10:30 AM   #6
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Tri-x pushed to 800,1600, or 3200 was used in my football game shooting in that time frame.

But for fashion most photographers would probably take Kodak Vericolor III VPS negative film 160 ASA and shoot with a Hassblad with the Zeiss planar 80mm 2.8 - using strobes on stands plugged into power. The leaf shutter allows for 1/500s synch. The negative film gives a higher exposure latitude over slides. The same photographer could bring a second back loaded with Ektachrome and swap between shots to get both slides and negatives.

After Hassblad, the RB67, the Mamiaya, and the Pentax 6x7 would also be reasonable options. The 6x7 focal place shutter would limit synch speeds but flash tends to stop motion already.

If no flash, then almost certainly the shoot would be b&w perhaps again a back setup with color but primary shots would be Ilford HP5 or Tri-X and pushed and then custom developed. Some development options existed that have pretty rational grain at 1600 and even 3200 and the grain can be a bonus on some types of fashion shots.

This isn't from my own fashion shooting experience, I was pretty young then. I shot a lot of 35mm and my dad ran a camera store that catered to professionals. So I consulted with him on the info. Very little negative film outside of VPS was used by his fashion photographer clients. Slides were a little wider variety but largely Ektachrome professional 200 which only came out in 1980 or so.
01-07-2020, 10:48 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by hal55 Quote
I'm writing a short novel that references, in some detail, a nightime photo shoot involving a sports car, a model and a very long flowing fabric train. Although it's not strictly necessary to be 100% accurate, I'd like to keep it fairly factual and I'm wondering what colour slide films would have been the "go to" in 1983 for such a shoot.
For Black and White I've referenced Ilford Delta as the film of choice, Agfa 50S is one of the colour films he will be using, but what else, probably of a higher ISO rating, would have been a good choice?
Was curious to see Mamiya as the brand of choice for all the photographers shooting, I assume, medium format, and I'm wondering if this would also have been one of the cameras of choice for a landscape photographer in the early 80s?
I was a pro photographer in '83 and if I was shooting an exterior night with strobe, Kodachrome 200 was my color side default and Kodak Tri-X 400 for B&W. Kodak still had a monopoly on the film market with Fujifilm Fujichrome (Velvia wasn't introduced until 1990) rising for daytime color vibrancy. Even back then, however, Kodachrome processing was not locally possible other than major cities, and any serious pro would need to get their film processed the same day, night, or following day, so I suspect in more rural areas or smaller cities Ektachrome would have been the default. In Europe at that time Agfachrome was the most common and in Asia it would have been Fujichrome.

Also note that most car shots, especially at night due to the blinding quality of the strobes, would have had the model's car towed with tungsten lights and no gels. Therefore in that situation we would use Ektachrome 160T or if we really needed faster shutter speeds with tungsten lights, Scotch 640T.

In the US, back then, Ilford was perceived as a student, educational, hobbyist brand, mostly from Kodak brainwashing. I was shooting it for my personal use, but would have been scorned by the agency, studio, or my client if I used it.

Brand of choice for medium format? #1 Hasselblad; #2 about tie with Mamiya, Pentax, and Bronica; #3 Rollei and Contax. Other's existed but they were rare.


Last edited by Alex645; 01-07-2020 at 02:45 PM.
01-07-2020, 11:08 AM   #8
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Fast, and great at night, and usable in low daylight w/ filter is Ektachrome 320T (tungsten ASA [iso] 320). My go to film for night lights, theatre, etc. for decades. (Likely 1970's thru early 2000's, when they stopped making it I switched to digital.)

If you decide to use it I can look up the 3 letter designation. Okay I checked on it, it goes by the code EPJ.

Someone mentioned 160T above, and for night time one of the tungstens: 64T, 160T, or 320T are likely choices. 64T was limited DR--best for copying art work; 160T had widest DR, and often used as do everything film w/ filtering for daylight. (always better than filtering daylight film for night/incandescent lights). But for low light likely 320T. 8x12 prints w/ it were lovely. BTW if you want to be accurate you should have them use a color meter (Sekonic Sixticolor likely).

The other one for models/adds--especially fabric (I believe) was EPN, which was iso 100 Ektachrome (daylight film), of lower contrast, more pastel like.

All these were known as Ektachrome Professional.

---------- Post added 01-07-20 at 11:35 AM ----------

Okay, I checked--look at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=2ahUKEwj...76Ff3JKhjLbmsq

Introduced when:
160T 1977
64T 1987
320T 1992
EPN 1984

So my memory was faulty and it would be 160T, as someone mentioned earlier

Last edited by dms; 01-07-2020 at 11:46 AM.
01-07-2020, 01:17 PM   #9
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Kodak 2475 recording film. Fast (E.I. 1000-4000), but might not have been preferred.

https://125px.com/docs/film/kodak/2475.pdf
01-07-2020, 01:46 PM   #10
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I also used Ektachrome Tungsten (160 ASA?) very successfully in the late 70s. Lovely stuff!
01-07-2020, 04:18 PM   #11
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I'm surprised none of you shot vps or extachrome pro 200. I didn't but all the pros I knew shot vps in 120/220. I was a student shooting a Nikon 35mm for fun and yearbook stuff.
01-07-2020, 04:26 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by hal55 Quote
What were the preferred film types in 1983 for a film shoot at night?
I was using Ilford XP1 chromogenic black-and-white film in that era... from memory you could expose it from about ISO 50/18° up to 800/30° on a single roll and then get it developed quickly by the labs in C-41 chemistry.
01-07-2020, 07:57 PM   #13
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Kodak introduced Kodacolor VR 1000 in 1983, but I don’t know anything more about it.
01-07-2020, 08:17 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by UncleVanya Quote
I'm surprised none of you shot vps or extachrome pro 200. I didn't but all the pros I knew shot vps in 120/220. I was a student shooting a Nikon 35mm for fun and yearbook stuff.
Kodak Vericolor VPS was a color negative film and commonly used for weddings and events. However ad agencies and studios required slides for better proofs, harder to duplicate, and a positive image that was sort of an equivalent to RAW today.

Ektachrome was also commonly used as a less expensive alternative, but the reds and flesh tones from Kodachrome popped and anything a photographer could do to get an edge in competition, that WOW factor, we'd do it. Once Fujifilm's E6 Velvia came into the market, the expense of Kodachrome and K-14 processing was no longer justifiable.
01-07-2020, 08:41 PM   #15
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Thanks to steephill for picking me up on Delta not coming to market till 1990. I was scratching my head wondering how I made such a howler after trying to research this properly, all I can think of is that I distracted myself going through some brilliant galleries of Delta shot images and then totally forgot it was the wrong era.
Will be having fun with this working Ilford Cibachrome into the story, I had a number of prints made on this and I adored the results it gave, dearly wish I still had them now.
The input of everyone is massively appreciated, now all I have to do is hope that someone is interested in a story about a UK gymnast who becomes a model and her adventures, both in front of the camera and elsewhere and I actually get a few sales on this.
Hell of a lot of fun writing it anyway.
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