Grumpy's Opinion of E100S: I decided to give this stuff a try last winter. As with all my opinions, there are no doubt MANY who will disagree, but... I think it still looks like Ektachrome. Now, keep in mind I shot E100S, NOT E100SW, so I can't comment on the latter.
The Good: Headlight blob problem not nearly as bad as with Provia (which is terrible for that). 100 speed sure is nice -- I've come to rely on having a film this fast as my standard now. It DOES look better than the old Ektachromes. Grain is better than K64. The Bad: Still a slightly blue/cool color cast to it -- makes it LOOK like Ektachrome. Color saturation is very typical of Kodak products, which is to say I think it is rather pale. It is expensive -- same price as PKR64. It gets processed by Kodasux -- NOT my favorite lab. The Ugly: After a few rolls, I got fed up with it and sold the rest. I've been MUCH happier with Provia, despite its headlight blobs, and hey, Provia is a LOT cheaper than any Kodak product <insert Kodak whining about unfair trade practices here>. Now it's Astia? Of course, now there's Astia. As I said yesterday, I've only shot one roll of it, but man did it ever look nice. I'll definitely be shooting more of it. The only thing I don't like about it so far is its cost -- about the same as Kodachrome, which is to say, about $3 per roll higher than Provia/Velvia. Yeah, I know, when you only shoot 25 rolls a year, what does it matter? Odds 'n Ends: I recall someone asking about which film was best for BNs 'butt-ugly' MACs. The answer: Velvia. I've tried everything on these hideous creatures, and Velvia is the ONLY film that will render the green as green and not black. Of course, they still look like crap to me, so I try to avoid shooting them altogether whenever possible -- rather hard to do around here, which explains why I no longer (more or less) go railfanning. Cheesechrome: Actually, while we're on the virtues of Velvia, that film works pretty good for just about all BN junk. For some reason, it makes the older faded stuff (i.e. everything on the roster) look somewhat cleaner than it really is -- super saturation, I guess. On the other hand, I do NOT like Velvia for clean UP (which ain't that easy to find either), as it makes the yellow a bit nuclear. UP looks much better on Provia, and even better still on Astia. And hey, these days, that's all (UP & BN) you need to worry about here in the west, right? Stupid Photoshop Tricks: Hey kids, you can use Photoshop to make your pale Kodachrome look just like Velvia <insert Krusty the Clown laugh here>. Just add a little magenta and crank the hell out of the saturation -- presto! If you don't believe me, check out: http://www.eesoft.com/rr/shotofmonth.htm That picture is on PKR64, and looks nothing like the original slide. Fooled you didn't I? Now if someone would only develop a 'wash the locomotive' plug-in filter... Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 5809
