Kodak 100VS vs Velvia, report

[roger_urban3]

A friend gave me a Kodak 100VS roll of 35mm film which I put in the G1 last summer and took pictures with. I misplaced the film and just got it developed, about 9months later.

 

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I don't have a scanner, but am I ever impressed with the slides. Such clarity, colors, saturation, sharpness, great skin tones even in the shadows plus a lot more shadow detail in 12:00noon to 2:00pm direct sun in the middle of July, at whatever latitude Chicago is at. Sunset pictures are not exhibiting any blue shift and people standing in the shadows behind buildings at near sunset look great while the background buildings and sky are georgeous.

 

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Beats the pants off of my old reliable standby: Velvia. I'm sold completely!

 

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Now, to get some Kodak 100VS sheet film....! 8-))

[nigel_turner]

Each to his own Roger.

 

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But this isn't a test is it?

 

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Personally, I feel both films are very good. Others will disagree.

 

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I use both depending on the conditions, but I know both films inside

out.

[steve_gangi2]

Kerry Thalman had a nice write-up on slide films in View Camera last

issue. Velvia and E100VS look different to me, but both are good.

[jason_greenberg_motamedi]

The (published) reciprocity failure guidelines with Velvia are enough to drive

any large format user to E100VS.

[kerry_thalmann2]

Roger,

 

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I too "discovered" E100VS a little over a year ago. As Steve kindly mentioned, I wrote an article on color transparency films that was published in the Jan/Feb 2002 issue of View Camera. I won't go into all the details here, but I basically agree with what you and everyone else has stated so far in this thread. E100VS is (for my needs) a truly wonderful film. It is now my film of choice for 80 - 90% of my shooting. I really like the colors for many subjects and lighting conditions. It is at least a full stop faster (more like 1 1/3 stop based on my testing), and has WAY better reciprocity characteristics than Velvia. That said, Velvia is still a very good film (it was pretty much the ONLY film I used for a decade) that I still prefer for some specific subjects and conditions. It's nice to have choices.

 

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If you have a chance, please read the article. Film choice is a highly subjective and personal matter. I knew that going into the testing for the article, and tried to state that clearly. So, feel free to use my results and comments as a baseline, but by all means do some testing of your own with a variety of subjects and lighting conditions. In the end, you may agree with my opinions, or you very well may not. That's not important. What is important is that you end up with the film that gives the results you find most pleasing. I spent over seven months testing films for that article. I now know which films I prefer based on subject and lighting conditions. It sounds like Neil has done similar testing and arrived at his own conclusions. I urge you to do the same. Now that E100VS is available in single sheet Readyloads, it is a very simple matter to carry multiple films in the field and pick the "best" film for any given subject on the fly. We really are blessed to have such options.

 

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Kerry

[scott_atkinson]

I too have been using primarily E100VS (about 500 sheets so

far) for my shooting this spring--mostly deserts. After testing it

against Velvia last fall, I was not only impressed with its speed

and saturation, but especially its ability to separate colors and

show both improved detail and color in shadows. I found myself,

to my surprise, carrying only yellow Readyload boxes on the road

for the first time in years.

[scott_atkinson]

I too have been using primarily E100VS (about 500 Readyload

sheets so far) for my shooting this spring--mostly deserts. After

testing it against Velvia last fall, I was not only impressed with its

speed and saturation, but especially its ability to separate colors

and show both improved detail and color in shadows. I found

myself, to my great surprise, carrying only yellow boxes on the

road for the first time in years.

 

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However, I'm now reconsidering. Despite the above plusses,

I've been experiencing a nasty yellow bias in many scenes and a

questionable warm/amber cast overall. I'm also seeing some

truly electric reds that seem slightly bizarre. I just reconfimed

this on my latest trip by running E100VS, RDP III (Provia), and

Velvia side by side by side on all exposures. Does anyone else

have a take on this? Or an E100VS batch that seems more

balanced? Thanks...

[dk_thompson]

In E6 processing sometimes Ektachrome films will shift to a yellow

bias if the color developer pH is too alkaline. Fujichromes will go to

a green-cyan color. To me, I don't think you can accurately judge a

color balance by comparing different manufacturers films to one

another or even one lab to another...there are other inconsistencies

as well with those newer, saturated emulsions over the more neutral

ones too...they all like to be tweaked in a different way in the

chemistry...your best bet is to stick with one film, use a good lab &

standardize on that. MY opinons only.

[leighperry]

For users of Imacon and other high end non-drum scanners, there may

be another advantage to 100VS.

 

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Nick Rains, the Australian landscape photographer, discovered that

this type of scanner picked up some form of particle in the Fuji film

base, which gives the appearance of accentuated grain.

 

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It appears that Kodak does not have this problem.

 

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You can find his article on the subject <a href="http://luminous-

landscape.com/fuji-pepper.htm">here</a>.

[syd]

I like both the Velvet glove (Velvia) *and* E100VS and infact I really *love* the VS and generally have asked for it of late and only get the Velvet when I can't get the VS. My E6 guy who does E6 only and runs the lab solo put me onto it one afternoon when I was picking up my 120 roll trannies. He grabbed a fresh batch of VS trannies and bunged em up on the light table for a butchers, I was totally impressed and to say that this is a 100 ASA film I was totally knocked out.

 

I bought a roll and had read about people rating the VS at 80 and 125 in some cases, but stuck to 100 as my E6 guy knowingly confirmed that this was a bang on 100 film. I shot my first batch in the Mamiya RB67 Pro-S early morning by Sydney Harbour among lush waterfront paths in dappled shade to open harbour sunlight. I metered from my hand as per usual, got the shots back, where some were in mixed lighting and WOW! This film with the extra stop of light is fabulous if you rate it right and give it bang on exposure which I was able to do every time. It was the times when I didn't trust my readings and bracketed for more exposure where I blew it.

 

This film gave me beautiful saturated blues and bold reds, the browns were deep, nutty and correct to my eyes. The detail in the shadows held better than the Velvet for my money and the grain, contrary to what some have said, in open sky and other areas was tight! E6 guy further added that all the pro's that used to shoot Velvet are now shooting the VS. I'm not saying this is any reason to follow the trend, by all means shoot what works for you, I just agree with them having shot the stuff myself and will be shooting it almost exclusively from now on in the 100 speed tranny category.

 

The Velvet is a great 40 asa film but this will be used for special circumstances from now on...

 

Syd