Reciprocity characteristics of Fuji Velvia 100 (NOT 100F)

Hello all. I am the proud owner of 40 - 120 format rolls of Fuji's Velvia 100. This is

the Japanese 100 not the 100F that is sold over here in the U.S. Japan markets the

50, 100 and 100F versions of Velvia. I've read in many places that the color is very

similar to that of the Velvia 50 but in a 100 speed. I've used the Velvia 100F and

don't really like it much compared to the old 50. My friend happened to be in Japan

on business and asked me if I wanted anything from there. A perfect opportunity to

stock up on this stuff. So now I have a bunch of film and was wondering what the

reciprocity failure characteristics of this film is. Do I have to extend long exposures

even longer? Does it react similarly to the 100F where you don't have to adjust as

much as the 50? Any color shifts? If anyone has any info on this film it would be

much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there. Hope this helps...

I'm not sure of the exact specifics for the Japanese Velvia, but I do extensive night

time shooting

with both Astia chrome and NPS print film in both 120 and 4x5, and I believe that

reciprocity characteristics are very different for different situations, regardless of what

the manufacturer may say. NPS 160 daylight, my print film of choice for night

shooting, is strongly not recommended for exposures over 1/2 second due to

reciprocity "failure", but I use it often with 20-30 second exposures in tungsten and

natural moonlight and it works beautifully (see example below).

Astia, Velvia, and Provia, in my experience, tend to need a little more time than

metered and tend to shift a little towards the blues and greens. I'm sorry I couldn't

directly answer your question to a T, but I guess I'm trying to say that any overly-

technical photographer on this site will probably theorize on what they think MIGHT

happen due to manufacturer specs, when really you should just shoot a couple rolls

in the situations you plan to use the Japanese Velvia in and see how the results apply

to your content. If you've got 40 rolls, I'm sure you can spare 1 to experiment.

As I said earlier, everyone makes fun of me for shooting long exposures with NPS

because it techincally "shouldn't work". But people love the results. Don't let the

specs hold you back from experimenting. And as you said in your post, I'm not a

huge fan of Velvia 100F either. Sorry if I didn't offer you any info, GOOD LUCK!.

Andrew,

You probably no this by now, but for others. The boxes say there is no reciprocity below 64 seconds. I've only shot up to 30 second exposures, but this concurs with my experience.

Also, I didn't notice any color shift.