Vacation on Big Island - what film to take?

[brooks_lester]

Going during January 16-25 with wife who hates anything that takes more time than a simple snap

shot. Also going with baby who will be 14 months old during the trip. We're gonna try to do some light

hiking, but with the baby in one of those back pack carriers on my back...

 

I have Nikon N80 and FM2n film bodies and a D50. I'd love to shoot just film. I may or may not be able

to take/justify using a tripod. Can I get away with 100 ISO speed film? A lot of shots will be scenic

wides.

 

I've never shot Reala before and I know it's popular for for travel photography. I'd love to shoot slides

too, but I'll probably need to bracket right?

 

Should I just take a bunch of 400 speed negative film and play it safe? Or, take some Reala, Provia 100F,

and maybe some Velvia? What about Kodak film? I've shot Elite Chrome and Portra 160NC, 400NC and

VC...

 

I'm awash in a lot of possibilities....

 

Thanks for your help

[jaophotography]

I would take Velvia (just cause I like the color). To make sure you have good exposures, (if the cameras have it, I'm not familliar with those, I use pentax) put the metering into matrix metering. Or just use spot metering and meter on a medium tone and you should be ok.

 

Wide shots (15-24mm) you can hand hold down to about 1/15 Shutter speed, and maybe 1/8 if you are real still.

 

The Provia 400 is real good. It has almost the same color as Velvia, and you get 2 more stops of light. As I know also, there is always something of intrest along a trail, and it seems to be darker on the trail then on the lookout!I went to shoot landcapes this weekend, and I ended up Shooting more flowers, and bushes that their leaves had turned red, then landscapes.

Just now thinking about it, this weekend, using F/22-32, the shutter speed was around 1/4 to 1/30 using a 75-250mm Tamron lens, And that was in bright sun with a polarizer. On the Wide angle shots (28mm) with F/22, the shutter speed was about 1/60 sec. If you are using low apature, or wide angle lenses, it should be ok.

If you choose Provia 400, DON'T buy it anywhere except on ebay or like places. That stuff is expensive!

As a last resort, you could push Velvia up to 200 or 400. I sort of like the color of velvia exposed at 400. It has a lot more blue in it than normal.

 

I wouldn't use negative film, unless you have photoshop, or something to fix it.

I went on a trip to wyoming and I took all velvia and provia, and I'm glad I did! You will be thankful in the end!

 

-Jon

[john_shriver]

Velvia 50 in bright midday sun near the equator? Going to be too contrasty.

 

If you're toting reasonably fast primes, 100 film will be fine. Could be more dodgy with slow compact zooms. Even so, you should be OK outdoors.

 

The new "two electron" Portras are really fine films.

[randall_pukalo]

For landscapes, shoot slides. Your going with your wife, so I suggest provia 400f or 400X. Great films. Gives you speed for the trails, and you dont have to fiddle around with changing films.

[jim_gupta_carlson]

I've lived in Hawai`i. Don't bring velvia 50 (or slide film in general)unless you want completely blown out skies, which are beautiful, btw. I'd bring Fuji (or kodak if you prefer) low contrast film. Adequate light is not usually a problem, trust me. Bring a mix of slow and high speed film however as the volcanoes are beautiful at night. I would also not bring only high color saturated film. The colors are already so saturated in Hawai`i you may be left with red green and blue. The beauty of Hawai'i is in the fine detail, not the splash and contrast.

[ted_marcus1]

400UC is the most versatile "travel film" for any destination. Great color, very fine grain, and a convenient speed for the sort of changing light you're likely to find in Hawaii's "micro-climates." It makes a great slide film too, if you send it to <a href="http://www.dalelabs.com">Dale Labs</a> for processing and printing on Kodak <i>Vision</i> motion picture print stock.

 

<p>But if it were up to me, I'd take the D50 and not bother with film. You wouldn't have to worry about processing, airport x-ray hassles, or keeping film cool and dry in a tropical climate.

[jim_gupta_carlson]

Ultra-Color film is over-kill for Hawai`i.

[lukasz_grabun]

<p>With a ISO 100 film, with some practice, you handhold camera with 50mm lens at 1/30. I did it by myself and even though I do not have the most stable grip, shots are sharp enough to make a nice 13x18cm print.</p>

<p>Depending on what your preferences are, I would take a low contrast slide or print film. Provia (or Sensia, if your bugdet is tight) is a fine, low contrast slide film with natural color rendition. I wouldn't recommend Velvia as it's too contrasty to my taste and if you decided to get some decent prints from slides, it would cost fortune to have them scanned properly. I actually prefer print films and Fuji Reala and Kodak 400NC/VC (400VC is a great film, contraty to what is often said on this forum - <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/26.html">this</a> and <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/27.html">this</a> have been taken on 400VC and are two pictures I like very much) would be my choices. If you want to shoot some interiors, Superia 800 (which is extremely fine film with hardly noticable grain) will do fine.</p>

<p>The last advice - though it does not refer to films - is: travel light. Don't take too many lenses as it kills creativity. Don't use zooms, take fast primes instead. 28/2.8, 50/1.8 and 135/2.8 is more than enough for most situations you're likely too meet. With zooms - at least in my case - the composition of secondary importance, I often found myself to shoot different frames from the same position, without even moving the tripod. With 50mm lens, when you have to "zoom" with your legs, it's completely different.</p>

<p>And have a great time, too :-)</p>

[lukasz_grabun]

<p>Forgot to mention: this are my personal preferences and don't have to comply with other people tastes but for my unexperienced eye Reala looks best when exposed at 80, 400VC - ISO 250/320 and Superia at ISO 500/640. Of course all the films are processed normally.</p>

[brooks_lester]

I will scan the best images with a Coolscan V.

 

In terms of lenses, I have Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8AF, Nikorr 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-S,

Nikorr 24mm f/2.8AF, and Nikkor 50mm f/1.8AF's to choose from. I'll probably take the

Tamron 28-75 and the Nikkor 24mm.

 

I'm strongly considering purchasing an ultra wide zoom, say an Nikkor 18-35mm or the

DX Tamron 11-18mm (can be used on a full frame 35mm film camera).

 

I'll probably take the D50 along for low light and interior shooting. I love it at high ISO's

and in interiors where dynamic range isn't too great. I still find that DSLR exterior shots

look too digital to me. Outside, I'd rather shoot film. That being said, many shooters get

great exteriors on digital, but I don't seem to be able to do it. The pics just look too

"video-ish" to me.

 

Additionally, for the long term, in albums, and as part of my memories, film pictures will

look more like the film snapshots I remember from my youth, and thus have a timeless

quality.

[roger_smith4]

If you want to shoot slide bring some graduated neutral density filters. I personally recommend Astia and Sensia for ease of scanning and lower contrast.

 

For film I recommend Reala 100- fairly low contrast will give you a huge brightness range to play with with natural looking colors. I also use Fuji 400H and 800Z if you need help with interiors or low light.

[bill_tuthill]

What Ted said. Additionally, Reala has poor (washed-out cyan) blue

sky rendition, so you won't get dramatic cloud formations. Provia

100F has mediocre skin tones, Velvia 50 terrible skin tones -- I bet

the pictures that will be most valuable to you 20 years from now will be those of your wife and child. UltraColor 400 has good skin tones,

although its high red saturation emphasizes acne, etc. Like Ted

I'm baffled why you don't take just the D50.

[brooks_lester]

I just can't seem to get that sentimental and romantic sense of "place" when I shoot

digital on my vacations. Even if I'm happy with the exposures and comps, the images just

don't speak to me the same way that film does. I guess that's since during my childhood

and earlier life, and my parents and grandparents, film walked the earth. Digital didn't

even exist. I'm 43 years old.

 

We took a vacation to Argentina and Chile last in Jan. '06. I took a Fuji F11 and Panasonic

FZ5. My wife took a 15-year-old $125 film point and shoot with a crappy zoom lenses.

Guess what - her pictures capture the feel of the place, to me, way better than my

digipix. Additionally, he film point and shoot, loaded up with cheapo Kodak Gold 400,

had several stops more latitude than either of my digicams. I know, the D50 has a lot of

latitude for a digital camera, about the same as some slide films, but, when digital blows

out it looks like crap. When goes over you just get white skies.

 

I've taken the D50 on few vacations; I've had it for a year and a half, and while I love

being able to change ISO on the fly, I just don't get the "feel" of film that I love so much,

from digital. It looks to video-ish to me. I love it for low light, and some folks manage to

get much better looking, more film-y images from their digital cameras, but I don't seem

to be able to do that.

 

I guess I'm leaning towards taking a bunch of 400 speed negative film and shooting

away. We'll get prints while we're there and I'll scan in the best stuff to post online and

make enlargements...

[lukasz_grabun]

<p>I completely disagree with what Bill said above. Provia features one of most natural skin tones rendition (though Astia is somewhat better at this), and Reala produces wonderfully saturated skies when used properly with polarizer. Bill, you like going more dramatic then <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/22.html">this</a> or <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/16.html">this</a> or even <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/10.html">this</a>? <a href="http://grabun.com/zdjecia/2007/hiszpania/30.html">This one</a> was also taken with Reala, FWIW. My vote for Reala, it produces pleasently saturated images. Velvia is - OTOH - oversaturated for me and people's skin is rendered as red. Which I do not quite fancy, but that's another kettle of fish.</p>

[bill_tuthill]

OK Brooks, I will accept your answer. It should be obvious to

everyone that digital cameras (except maybe Fuji DSLR) have narrow

dynamic range, and thus produce mediocre results with mixed sun+shade,

whitewater, clouds, etc. So just take 400UC and be happy. If you

have a Coolscan you'll get great scans. Even a Fuji Frontier gives

acceptable results with 400UC scans (see recent items on my website,

done that way due to lazyness).

<P>

Lukasz, 400UC can do better than that even without polarizer. <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Ca1t">Here

is an example</A>. The sky was blue, but not quite that blue.

This film trait works to the photographer's advantage because

overexposures don't completely wash out the sky, as they would with

Superia 400, and some blue appears even in mostly-cloudy conditions.

[jaophotography]

Brooks-

I guess that's why I still shoot film too. It kind of has a 3D look don't it? And very smooth.......No words to decribe it!

 

I forgot to mention about the graduated neutral density filters. If you are shooting any sky, you will need to do it early in the morning/evening, or use a polorizer, or a graudal Blue filter (cokin).

I lost about 15 pictures of The Grand canyon of Yellowstone, to wierd looking sky. The sky was real light blue-not good!

 

Yes, and don't bring to many lenses! I wouldn't bring a lens over 300mm, and cover wide to telephoto. (Ex. 28-70mm, 80-200mm) Two lenses could cover it all. it would be nice to have a 18-28mm.

 

But like it was said earlier, everybody has their own personal prefrences. It must be right for you!

 

-Jon

[roger_smith4]

On the examples above, I think it depends how you see the world. I've never seen a sky as blue as the one Bill pointed out, but some people want photographs to show a world they've never seen.

 

Personally I prefer quiter colors, smooth gradations and softer contrast. Color negative films like Reala and the other Fuji Portrait films to this quite well. If I need to increase saturation or contrast it's fairly easy to do so using curves.

[ted_marcus1]

<i>Ultra-Color film is over-kill for Hawai`i.</i>

 

<p>I gather you've never used 400UC. If you did, you'd know that the <i>Ultra Color</i> name is merely the way the marketeers distinguish it from Kodak's other "professional" color negative films which they sell under the <i>Portra</i> name. Before they decided on that, 400UC was called <i>Portra 400UC</i>.

 

<p>However you name it, 400UC has vivid but not overly saturated color. It's certainly not overkill for Hawaii, where many people shoot <i>Velvia</i>. I think it would be an excellent choice.

[russ_butner___portland__or]

Brooks

 

You'll be very pleased with the results that you'll obtain with Kodak 400UC. I burn mine @ 320, and get very fine grain, shadow detail and wonderful colors. And, it's also quite good with flesh tones.

 

Russ<div></div>

[brooks_lester]

I still have 3 months to figure this out - and shoot a few test rolls of the candidate stock!

[Paul Lewis1664881697]

A suggestion... don't expect to find a wide variety of film in Hawaii. Bring what you need. I found very little in Oahu besides your typical Kodak Gold.

[brooks_lester]

Need to go out and shoot some of these stocks I've never shot before - UC400, Reala (I

have 4 rolls in the wine cooler..)

 

If only I could bring the Coolscan, and find the hours and hours of time to lovingly scan all

that film during my vacation...

[jim_gupta_carlson]

"A suggestion... don't expect to find a wide variety of film in Hawaii. Bring what you need. I found very little in Oahu besides your typical Kodak Gold."

 

Imageworks in Kaimuki carries a wide variety of 35mm and 120 film- and they will also order for you so it will be there when you arrive alleviating the need to carry film through security.