Alin, To that end, it seems that the old Agfa Ultra 50 was not so much different. Quite punchy, but quite grainy for an ISO 50 film. Also I found it to be quite specialized - did not handle contrast very well. Seemed to me it was the film to use when the colors were dull and the lighting was flat.
I have found that both Konica Impressa 50 and Fuji Reala 100 are much better general purpose films. Ironically, both are lower contrast films - they end up being a good companion to the Agfa Ultra. My old rule of thumb was shoot one of those unless the sitaution would end up with dull, colorless images - then switch to Agfa Ultra. --- Bruce Wednesday, October 15, 2003, 3:26:22 AM, you wrote: AF> Alan wrote: AC>> I don't think there is subsititute for RVP, negative or slide. Your best AC>> hope would be Agfa Ultra 100. AF> Uh, I just got to see my first Ultra 100 test results and they are AF> not very encouraging to say the least. AF> I took pictures of a variety of subjects, including scenics, macro AF> with and without flash, portraits. Colours are very good in diffused AF> light, even with direct flash. The increased saturation is there but AF> it doesn't impact the colour balance, except for the skin tones that AF> get a red or magenta (for backlight with blue skies) taint. AF> The bad news are firstly grain - unacceptably high for a 100 ASA AF> negative, almost as high as a 400 ASA film. This is especially AF> annoying as in the product specification Ultra is given with very AF> low granularity. I have to take the next Ultras to an Agfa lab to AF> have it specifically developed in Agfa C41 chemicals and see if it AF> gets any better. AF> Second, the Agfa exhibits the same poor antihalation protection I AF> have noticed previously with the old Optima II 100. The edges of AF> overexposed areas are excessively blended with the adjacent areas, AF> resulting in a massive sharpness decrease. For instance in a sunset AF> shot this shows up as fuzzy horizon line and exaggerated AF> silhouettes effects. AF> Anyway I'm not going to dismiss Ultra 100 that fast and continue to AF> test with different subjects and labs. It is obviously a very AF> specialized film that works as intended only in specific situations AF> and I intend to determine exactly its usefulness. AF> Servus, Alin
