PRO 160s Grain Issues

<p>Myself and a few other photographers I work with have been experiencing problems when it comes to scanning Pro160s (120 roll and 5x4), intense grain, almost like noise. <br>

We are scannning with a Hasselblad Flextight X1, which has just recently been reconfigured and is scanning all other film types perfectly. We also have tried different processing labs with one photographer processing at home himself.<br>

Has anyone else noticed a sudden decline in quality? </p>

<p>Thanks<br>

Andy</p>

<p>I have a bunch of Fuji 160 speed film in 120 and 220. I shoot it at 100. You need only very slight underexposure with these films to see a huge increase in grain. I don't find that Ektar 100 works very well at 100 either. In good light I rate it at 64 and in bad light 50. On Sunday I wanted to shoot a roll of color print film in a Bronica SQ-A hand held. I decided to shoot Reala at 100 rather than Ektar 100 at 64. If I had been using a tripod I might have used the Ektar instead. The Reala came out just right. </p>

<p>I'd try two things. One to take the photographer out of the equation, and one to take the film out. Shoot a roll with several shots normally exposed and several overexposed by a stop and several overexposed by two, etc. If the ones normally exposed are grainy, and the ones overexposed by a stop are fine, then there might be something off with the metering - either technique, funny shutters, miscalibrated meters, etc.</p>

<p>Then, try some other film. Try a roll/sheet of Portra 160VC. Try some Ektar. Try Fuji Pro 400 something. Are all of those ok? </p>

<p>It actually sounds like you've already done both of these, and think the problem is the film itself. I don't use that Fuji product myself, so I can't comment on it - Kodak color films that I use are consistently good as always :D</p>

<p>I scan Pro 160S in 120 often and I agree with earlier post about checking exposure. I haven't noticed that anything has changed with the film itself. Another thing to check is the actual scanning. Are you scanning as negative or positive? I scan all my color negative film as positive. When I scanned earlier I scanned as negative in the scanning software and I would often encounter problems with inconsistent scans. Are you using a 'profile' for Pro 160S? Your settings may be off. Try scan as a positive and invert and correct color in post processing.</p>

<p>Chrise,</p>

<p>How do you scan the neg film as a positive and correct for color casts in post processing?</p>

<p>Dave,</p>

<p>My workflow:<br>

1. My scans are saved as .tif<br>

2. Open in ACR as 'camera raw' format since photoshop doesn't recognise my scanner's native tif-file.<br>

3. Open in Photoshop from ACR.<br>

4. Invert (ctrl-I)<br>

5. Open the levels dialog. Correct red, green and blue levels induvidually (autolevels is mostly fine also)<br>

For most scans this is all that is needed. Sometimes I open curves dialog or selective color for fine adjustment or I reopen the file in ACR and correct white balance, exposure, colors etc. My files are 700-750 MB in size and editing is much quicker when the file is in ACR than in photoshop.</p>

<p>Chris</p>

 

<p>Interesting responses, <br>

Tim, <br>

I have tried bracketing with a few rolls and the results are the same, as for camera or meter faults there has been a variation of both - <br>

Meters - Sekonic (somethings)<br>

Weston Euromasters<br>

Camera- Horseman Mono<br>

Wista 5x4<br>

Bronica etr-si<br>

Mamiya 645</p>

<p>so i think its fair to rule out those parameters.</p>

<p>The only thing I can think of now is either a dodgy batch or the film has been heavily x-rayed during transit.</p>

<p>does anyone use 7dayshop in the uk for film? or Q-foto, this is where our film was purchased..</p>

<p>thanks everyone<br>

Andy<br>

</p>

<p>Andy,<br>

I buy all my Fuji film from <a href="http://fujilab.co.uk/">Fujilab</a> in the UK. They respond promptly to your questions and delivery is always quick and packaging good. I am very pleased with them and their prices are among the lowest I have found in Europe.</p>