Best latitude slide film?

There are lots of comments on this site about people's favourite slide

film, but which film do you find has the most latitude and reacts in a

tolerant and kindly manner when confronted with less than perfect

exposures, as may from time to time occur when using an M3 or LTM? My

preference is for a 100 ISO film such as Provia or Ektachrome; what

others are good choices?

Slide films have very little latitude and I don't know any exceptions.

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Provia 100F has less contrast than others, giving more details in the

shadows and making the exposure of contrasty scenes easier.

Kodachromes have less latitude than E6 films in my opinion. All E6

films are much of a muchness in the 50-200 range.

Ektachrome E200 = Elitechrome 200 (ED) > Astia =

Sensia 100 > Provia 100F and 400F = Ektachrome

E100SW = Elitechrome 100 (EB) > Ektachrome E100VS =

Elitechrome 100 EBX > Kodachrome 64 and 200 >

Velvia > Kodachrome 25

This same question came up several months ago--it's probably archived

in the film threads.

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Slide films simply don't have "lattitude" in the same sense as

negative films since you can't adjust for variations in exposure

during printing. I've found that the Kodak E films have a decent

shoulder, so highlight contrast levels off a little bit before the

highlights are totally "blown out."

<p>

If your M3's shutter is in good condition, I wouldn't worry too much

about it. I shoot slide film in my M3s quite frequently and don't

seem to have lost any exposures to big variations in shutter speed.

There really is no such thing as "exposure latitude" even with neg

film. For a given ISO there is only 1 "correct" exposure that will

provide equal detail (shadows and highlights)on either side of middle-

tone. What differentiates neg and pos film is the width of stops on

either side of "mid" that detail is still visible. That is the

film's conrtast range. Reversal films have a narrower range than

color neg. Some (K64, Velvia, and most of the high-speed films) have

a narrower range than others. The ISO 100's, particularly the lower

contrast ones like Astia and (to a lesser extent Sensia), have a

somewhat greater range. The more saturated ones like Elite Extra

Color and E100VS, have a narrower range. Depending on your subject

you may be able to significantly expand the contrast range of slide

film by using graduated ND filters (for landscapes with a more or

less straight and unbostructed demarcation between foreground and

sky), daylight fill-flash (very limited with any M Leica except the

M7 and then only after making some heady exposure caluclations since

the HSS is manual-only), reflectors, digital compositing, etc.

I get the impression that E200 is the most flexible slide film out

there, it handles under and over exposure pretty well and pushes a

lot better than anything else I've seen. And it works well for my

trademark underexposed shots as well!

<i>And it works well for my trademark underexposed shots as

well!</i><p>

Rob, I love your trademark underexposed shots... of trucks!

Yes, I'm working on a sponsorship deal with Kodak and Fiat Agritech

to see how underexposed a picture of a tractor can be and still be

recognisable as such. As you can see, the first results are

encouraging.

I've found Sensia 100 to be very flexible and forgiving, for slide

film. I like it somewhat overexposed to mute the colors. In

situations I've encountered so far, I haven't blown out the

highlights.

<p>

Sensia's colors are very quiet and placid, which is what I prefer.

Whites look especially nice (starting to sound like a detergent).

I have found Provia 100 and 400 to be great travel films as they

have "wider" latitude than say Velvia. I have used K25, K64, K200

in the past and find that they are more unforgiving. I will now try

the Ektachrome as it seems to be getting rave reviews.

E200 is my first choice. I use it most of the time now. E100SW is not

bad either, unlike E100S, but just IMHO.

I'll toss out an unexpected alternative. Ektachrome 64 Professional

Daylight, EPR, an old favorite. Admittedly 64 is slower than 100. I

mention it because of my experience in both 35mm and 4X5. Good for

high contrast subjects where holding detail was crucial, i.e. snow

scenes in strong light. Highlights were beautiful, snow and ice held

great detail. Easily out performed Fuji in these situations.

<p>

Colors are good and are not blue as one would expect. Once did a

comparison test, 35mm size, against EPP 100. EPR 64 was actually

warm , not blue at all, contrary to its reputation. According to the

Kodak site it has enhanced saturation, which I agree with, but not as

much as Velvia of course.

<p>

EPR 64 doesn't have the latest grain technology and sexy reputation

of new E6 Fuji and Kodak films but it's a sleeper.

<p>

Another one to try is Agfachrome 100. Neutral color and moderate

contrast. Buy a roll of each and try them.

"the width of stops on either side of "mid" that detail is still

visible."

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Uh, sorry, Jay - to me this IS 'exposure latitude.' It may be "contrast

range" as well, in the same way that "car" and "auto" share a

definition.

<p>

Whatever you call it, color negative has more of it - but I still

prefer slide film.

<p>

I agree generally with George's "greater than/less than" progression -

with one caveat: the really high speed films become so unsaturated that

to me they become unusable - their highlights go from fishbelly white

directly to detailess gray with no place where the color/exposure is

anything close to what I can accept as correct.

<p>

I actually find that Velvia (FOR ME) has a useful kind of latitude -

its saturation and longish highlight scale allows me a bailout on the

overexposure side without blowing the highlights away completely. I'm

not talking about shooting it at 40 - I'm talking about shooting it at

40 AND at 40 PLUS a half-stop and still getting better-than-usuable

images except in the hottest light.

I think your intended final use (projection, scanning, direct printing) has a

significant effect on what is a practical latitude/contrast range. Specifically,

I find that with a good desktop scanner (16 bit, multi-sampling) and curve

adjustment in Photoshop, it is possible to get a lot of useful information out

of shadows that may look underexposed when you see a slide under a loupe.

<p>

My favorite film is Provia 100F. It has less of a tendency to lose highlights

than other films especially Kodachrome. I think it is too saturated, but my

final use is scanning for inkjet printing, and I can easily reduce saturation

with Photoshop. Fuji Astia may have lower contrast, but I can get similar

results from a scan.