pushing fuji provia 400x for astrophotography

I all, I would like to receive your input on this matter: I would like to experiment with MF film astrophotograpy, untill today I have only

shot star trail and would like to shoot something like this:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/techniques/landscape_astrophotography.shtml

Unfortunatly the faster color slide film available is provia 400x (now discontinued but I have some) that can be pushed 2 stop (if I'm not

wrong); I tried to push it only 1stop in the past with good result (very little grain) and would like to receive your opinion, if you tried to

push it 2 or 3 stop. I can not try it by myself because the lack, at this moment, of dark area (no light pollution) where to experiment for

astrophotograpy (I intend to use in death valley in april - may) and because I don' want to use the few rolls I have just to experiment.

I could use kodak portra 800 pushed 2 stop but I don't like that grain (I used it at 800 and 3200) so I hope provia 400 x pushed 2 or 3

stop will be a better performer.

Please, don't recommend to use a digital camera, I don't like it, don't use it, don't own it and don't want to by nor borrow it. I would like to

do my best with film. Any tips?

Thank you in advance for your input.

Diego

<p>There are tons of monochrome films out there that would push to that level in a blink of an eye, with more detail. Is colour a requirement?</p>

 

<p>^ Judging from the linked, picture: YES.</p>

<p>I saw nothing that screamed colour.</p>

Yes, I mean color and better, color slide.

Diego

<p>I know slide film was what you were primarily interested in, but Fuji's ISO 400 negative films are fine-grained. Pushing may not be needed though as reciprocity failure or lack of it can often make pushing film unnecessary. </p>

<p>Provia 400X is even better than Provia 400F in color saturation and finer grain when pushed 1 to 2 stops. I use it for northern lights photography and it allows me to stop down my fast lenses a bit so the stars in the edges of the frame are not distorted and lets me keep the exposure less than 15 seconds. It is really a sad thing to see it suffer the same fate as another astrophotography classic - Kodachrome 200 slide film. Fortunately it is still in stock at some of the larger photo supply stores. </p>

<p>John Flinn</p>