[shoey]

Well I took the plunge and bought my film body off ebay. it arrived yesterday, although I quickly found that consumables (film, battery) easily overtook half the cost of the camera. What I would like to do with it is to shoot some good B&W, to experiment with filters, and to shoot some wide landscapes with a good film like fuji velvia.

Besides velvia (which costed me $25AUD from a shop!) what are some similar grade films that would produce really saturated, almost surreal colors? and what are some good choices for black and white?

PS i had a look thru my film body with the zenitar fisheye for the fisrt time, now i know what it means by 180 degree diagonal

[Pasvorn]

For B&W, I like Fuji Neopan 400, and Arco 100. Tri-X is still a favorite of many. I don't like T-Max that much since I have to rince it a long time to get rid of anti-halation coating. IMHO they cost around $2.99 USD from B&H.

Instead of slide, why don't you try colour film? I think a colour negative has much better latitude than a slide. Though, nothing beats looking at slides on top of light table. $25AUD is expensive.. How much does it cost to process. If you lucky, you should go ask a shop for a sample. Kodak 100VS is not a bad choice. But I don't think it is that much cheaper.

Good Luck,
-Pasvorn

[roentarre]

Velvia colour is well known for it red to orange spectrum: punchy, vibrant and intense. Hence it is appalling for protrait as velvia is notorious for skin tone reproduction

Velvia F100 is not a bad option as its ISO is 100 with colour rendition similar to ISO 50. While there is also another version of velvia 100 doing not so well in terms of its colour rendition comparing to the ISO 50 counterpart (i believe this is already off the market).

In terms of colour slides, sensia or provia are all good choices but both brands do not have the colour rendition like velvia. I have 4 rolls of fortia which are even richer than velvia colour. I stored them for an important day.


C41 films are not too bad these days as
Fuji Reala 100 - best of all, true colour reflection, colour is richest among all brands when other brands are not yet bankcrupted

Konica Impressa 50- Set ISO 64 on your film. This is the "velvia" of negative films. The film thickness was so thick that you would prefer to develop the negatives yourself (they cut your hands like blades).

B&W
Neopan 400 is handy and great with silky smooth image quality. But the image quality is not punchy or contrasty enough. depends what you really like

T Max was quite popular in the old days and most people use it for social documentary stuff. I love its rough texture and grain on prints.

illford are all sort of out of the market already but i used to love 400 alpha which is the best of all. If you can still find some of them around...

Try some infra red black and white (it has been 3 years i have been away from b & w so i do not know these things are still available). They are just so different and unique from what you see on normal b&w films.