Got back 15 rolls of C-41 and 6 of E-6. I took some new types on my
recent trip to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and tried new things with
old types. Here are some observations:
The Viking ship museum in Olso is very dark for photography. I
underexposed NPZ 800 one stop and got very good negatives. I also shot
Provia 400F at 1600 here, developed with a two-stop push. My initial
review, based only on looking at the slides through a small viewer, is
that the results are fantastic. D-max is good, there is fine shadow
detail, and overall image rendition is beyond what I had hoped for. I'll
know more when I scan and enlarge the slides. For now, I'm impressed.
E100VS, shot at 400 and developed with a two-stop push, did its usual
wonders.
Velvia 100F is nice, but very contrasty. It's almost too contrasty if
you have any shadows in your image. It's good on cloudy days or without
shadows.
Agfa Ultra 100 is stunning. Beyond its great saturation, tt seems to
have less contrast than Velvia or E100VS. This one will become a
standard part of my kit.
E100G: I am considering this in lieu of Provia 100F. The jury is still
out. Some images were stunning, some flat.
Superia Reala 100. This was recommended to me as having high saturation
but low contrast. The contrast is okay, but it has high saturation only
in bright sun. Otherwise it seems quite bland. I may go back to Agfa
Optima 100. OTOH, I use the Reala 100 indoors shooting the Vasa. I
didn't have a tripod, so had to set the camera on solid things and shoot
time exposures -- about 8 seconds. Some wonderful images resulted, one
of which may show up on a future PUG.
Joe
