Slow Color Print Film

Hi, I've been looking around for slow (under 100 ISO) print color

film, but I cant seem to find any.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time, DAVID SACKS

Unfortunately, such a film no longer exists. Konica has discontinued Impresa 50, which was the last color print film slower than ISO 100.

 

Your best choice at this point is Fuji Superia-Reala 100... or one of the many fine transparency films in the ISO 50-100 range.

It's past history. You can chase after Kodak Ektar 25 or Royal Gold 25 on eBay, but it's all getting pretty old by now.

 

The original Kodacolor (1941) was about ASA 25, Kodacolor-X was ASA 64. Kodacolor-II was ASA 100. From there the speeds have just gone up. The desire for speeds at 64 or above was compatibility with fixed exposure box cameras.

 

So Kodak was introducing a very specialist product in their ISO 25 color print films. Coming out in the zoom-lens era, they didn't sell well enough to stay in the product line.

Per R.T., Reala 100 is your best all-around slow-speed bet.

Yep, after the demise of Impresa Reala is the next best thing.

My vote is for Kodak's UC100. Ctein likes it too, reference the September/October 2004 Photo Techniques magazine.

Don't worry about the age of Ektar 25 or Royal Gold 25 that you find on eBay. I have bought more than 50 rolls of very different vintages, most were supposedly frozen and some were not. I have tried almost all the vintages that I have and see no difference. My most recent purchase was for 20 rolls of 1992 that were said to be frozen, I tried a roll and it was awesome. I would not advertise this fact but I have enough for 4-8 years so I do not think I will be buying any more. Definitely worth trying if you've never seen it.

The question is, why would anyone want to use ASA 50 or ASA 25 film? In a normal situation, you can take sharper pictures with higher speed film because you get shorter exposure time and/or smaller aperture.

 

So slow film would, under normal circumstances, only make sense if you got better color rendering from it, or finer grain. I would say that, compared to present 100/160 ASA emulsions, Konica Impresa 50 simply didn't deliver an actual improvement in color or grain so you might as well use higher speed film.

 

Fuji is about to release a successor to the NPS film, which according to them has substantially improved grain. You may want to check that out.

Impresa'a biggest advantage was film scanning, and in this respect it held a significant advantage over other 100 speed films.

 

Not sure why you're bashing Impresa, but even though I was't enthused about it's color rendition, it's scanning abilities were the best of the remaining neg emulsions.

Thanks for the big response, the reason I asked the question is because I recently bought a film scanner, and wanted a cheaper alternative to fine grained slide film.

Also, how large can you magnify a 100 ISO print film compared to a 100 ISO slide film before seeing grain?

Thanks David Sacks

"The question is, why would anyone want to use ASA 50 or ASA 25 film? In a normal

situation, you can take sharper pictures with higher speed film because you get shorter

exposure time and/or smaller aperture"

 

A partial answer is reduced depth of field. Slow film with a wide open fast lens will nicely

isolate the subject from the surroundings, giving almost a 3-D effect.

 

Slow films generally yield smoother grain scans when using a negative scanner.

 

Pick up some ISO 50 film, open up your lens and shoot some portraits. I suspect that

you may like the results.

Those of you who have not used 25 ASA film, slide, B&W, or neg, are very very lucky...you have absolutely no idea what you have missed!

 

 

They are not regular shooting films. Absolutely phenomenal on a tripod for landscapes and architecture, and the best films for supertelephoto f2.8 lenses for motorsports under full sun.

As said previously, Impresa's quality for scanning was awesome! I'd go with Reala. Ctein likes the UC100, however, he likes the Fuji's better & so do I.

Have you tried Efke film............here is a link

 

http://www.frugalphotographer.com/catEfke.htm

I bought some 25asa and not tried yet. Mostly in the 120 size.

Scott,

 

I wasn't bashing Konica Impresa, I was just trying to understand why it is being discontinued.

 

Actually I used to use Impresa for a while until I switched to Fuji Reala. When was that? 12 - 14 years ago maybe?

 

Only recently I switched from Reala to NPS because Reala is not available as 220 roll film and NPS has the fourth color layer now as well.

I tried to switch from Reala to NPS, as NPS had a little more subtle color and seemed to my eye to have slightly finer apparent resolution. The problem was that I couldn't get sufficient contrast (in 35mm) until I rated the film down to E.I. 80. And at E.I. 80, I was running into cross-curves (e.g. hair too red, skin too green- pull red out of the hair and get greener skin, pull green out of the skin and get redder hair).

<cite>I wasn't bashing Konica Impresa, I was just trying to understand why it is being discontinued.</cite>

 

<p>Hmm, lots of reasons - some about Impresa in particular, some about slower films, some about film in general:</p>

 

<ul>

<li>It's hard to find. Your average supermarket, drug store, even the one-hour photo place never sold Impresa. It's hard to sell a lot of it if the great unwashed never know it exists.

<li>A lot of 35mm shooters use P&S cameras with slow lenses. Their manuals tell them to use 400 film, maybe 200, sometimes 800, rarely 100, and I wouldn't be surprised if no P&S camera in the world comes with a manual suggesting the use of 50. Many lower-end P&S cameras can't even handle 50-speed film - they only read two bits of the DX code so they can tell 100/200/400/800 from each other.

<li>A lot of 35mm SLR shooters use the slow kit lenses that came with their cameras. Again, that calls for faster film.

<li>The marketing by film companies has been telling consumers for years that their 400 and 800 films are great all-round films which will solve all their problems. Not everyone is gullible, but many are.

<li>Film sales are down in general as users switch to digital. As the market contracts, higher-volume products will tend to stick around longer than lower-volume products.

</ul>

 

<p>I like Impresa but rarely have a chance to use it. I can't say I'm surprised that it's gone away; I didn't figure it had much longer to live, and when they discontinued it in medium format a while back, the writing was on the wall. I think I have two rolls left in the freezer and I'll make sure I find something special to shoot with them.</p>