Is FUJICHROME SENSIA 100 slide film good?

<p>I just got givin to me a 5 pack of Fujichrome Sensia film.<br />The expiry date is 2005.<br>

Can anyone give me reviews about the film or even photos you have taken with it.<br>

Also will it still take good photos since its 10 years old!<br>

Thanks<br>

Andrew</p>

<p>It all depends on how the film was stored. At the minimum, I would rate the ISO at 50-75, since it is a decade old. It is (was) an excellent film -- I shot hundreds of slides with it at one time.</p>

 

<p>Sensia was my second favorite Fuji slide film, after Provia 100F. I preferred Sensia over any version of Kodak Ektachrome. One real advantage to Sensia even over Provia was in deep shade under foliage in daylight, and twilight. Provia tended to be too bluish. Sensia was very slightly warm, but closer to neutral. Very underrated film, and readily available 10 or more years ago in any drug store.</p>

<p>But don't expect much now. Expired color slide film won't perform like fresh. And it's very difficult to get top notch E6 processing now. I stopped using color slide film around 2005-2006 when our local pro lab stopped film processing. They did an outstanding job but refused to compromise to reduce costs to accommodate the reduced usage of film, so they shut down the lab and transitioned to digital printing services.</p>

<p>And I'd already long since stopped using Kodachrome when Kodak discontinued processing. None of the non-Kodak labs I tried could consistently deliver good results from Kodachrome - some rolls were good, others wonky.</p>

<p>If you want to try slide film now, do it for the retro nostalgic vibe and accept the erratic results as-is. Especially with expired film. You might try some funky special effects filters. I liked Cokin's duo-color polarizers, like the Pola Red-Green. The colors were so far from realistic that it hardly mattered if the film was expired or the lab butchered the processing.</p>

<p>Could be it is good, could be not. You will get an image anyway (10 years is not so long even for color film), worst case it will have a color shift, but it must not. <br />Dont overexpose it. That could be recommandable for negative film, but I wont recommend it for slides, no matter how old.</p>

<p>I agree with Eugen on not overexposing. Use it at its rated speed, but you might want to bracket your exposures. On slide film, highlights "blow out" when overexposed, and aren't recoverable like they are when making a print from a negative. If anything, colors on slide film can look richer when a touch underexposed.<br /><br />You can't find E-6 processing on every street corner or even every town but there's no problem at all getting it processed. B&H still sells mailers, and if you google "E-6" you'll find plenty of labs to mail the film to.</p>

<p>In fact even with new positive film it is recommended to underexpose slightly (1/3 stop, half stop could be too much), so you could consider the decrease in sensibility over the years as a built in underexposure. Better bracket as Craig recommends, if possible in half stop increments.<br />Sensia seems pretty robust, so if it was stored under normal condition, not extremly hot you could get correct colors. You will know after the first roll. Depending on that you can expose the others as slide also and use it for projection if the colors are correct, expose for slide and correct by scanning if the colors are lightly shifted or use them for crossprocessing. <br /><br />But I have good hope your film will be fine as slides. <br />Sensia is a very fine film especially for skin tones.</p>

 

<p>In fact even with new positive film it is recommended to underexpose slightly (1/3 stop, half stop could be too much), so you could consider the decrease in sensibility over the years as a built in underexposure. Better bracket as Craig recommends, if possible in half stop increments.<br />Sensia seems pretty robust, so if it was stored under normal condition, not extremly hot you could get correct colors. You will know after the first roll. Depending on that you can expose the others as slide also and use it for projection if the colors are correct, expose for slide and correct by scanning if the colors are lightly shifted or use them for crossprocessing. <br /><br />But I have good hope your film will be fine as slides. <br />Sensia is a very fine film especially for skin tones.</p>

 

<p>Very nice film. Low-medium saturation, medium contrast.</p>

<p>I shot a roll of Sensia a few months back and loved it. The colors are beautiful. I wouldn't really recommend it for portrait, but it's great for landscape or architecture. I love the way it made the sky look in my shots. It shows a bit more grain than Velvia, but had better latitude.</p>

I rather use the new Kodak Ektachome slide film

I rather use the new Kodak Ektachome slide film

 

And you dug up a 3 year old thread to tell us this? There was not any in-date Ektacrhome available when this thread was started.

 

BTW, the new Ektachrome is great. Sensia, if stored properly(most of it is quite old by now), is a great film. They "see" the world differently, but that's not a bad thing.

I still have a fair bit of Sensia in deep freeze. It has a different look than Ektachrome....and yes...what's up with old zombie threads...LOL.