In a message dated 97-07-30 08:23:59 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > has anyone had any experience with Kodak E100-S. A > (supposedly)knowlefable source contentds it has the best saturation of > any E6 film. > --
I tried a few rolls of E100S, and the warmer counterpart E100SW. First, through Nikon glass, I didn't find either film as sharp as the Provia or Velvia. Next, I didn't find the overall palette of the 100S to look real. It looked nice in some areas, but overly punchy in others. The scene just didn't look right (Whippany Railway Museum area, sunny day, red M&E Alcos present, plus various restored pullman greens, caboose reds, and blues and oranges and fleshtones of a thousand people, and past peak fall colors). The 100SW looked worse, to me, as the browns of the trees were exagerated, the reds and oranges were too enhanced in relation to the rest of the scene. I felt after viewing the slides that Kodak still has some work to do on Ektachrome. Provias shot same day, different camera, same lens, had a "real" look to the colors and the scene. Yes, Provia cleans up the flat colors a bit, but most of the spectrum punches up roughly equally. And the Provia is sharp! And Provia didn't abuse the flesh tones. The term "best" saturation is subjective to the viewer. In terms of pure color saturation, though, Velvia has the title of "most." But Velvia takes it to the extreme, I think, and it creates color where there wasnt' any. It's all up to the shooter. As for me, where I once was among the yellow flock swearing by Kodachrome, I now use a few films and find myself swearing at Kodachrome when it goes flat. I use Kodachrome on the best of sunny days, and for night shots. For haze and high-noon and overcast, I've been very happy with Provia. On those flat-light, rainy days I'll use Velvia which, in that situation, makes a very real-looking scene. Also, I've had great luck pushing Provia and Velvia one stop -- it's almost unoticeable and still very sharp. Two stops is noticeable, but not at all unacceptable. I once pushed K64 one stop just to see it, and I recall the image degrading somewhat, but I don't recall how much (Yes, Fairlawn did push process K-14 once, but I don't know if they still do). Longevity: I was told by the owner of one of the best E-6 labs in North Jersey that the reason the old E-6 faded was that the chemical used to attach the color dies to each other and the film base was famalgahide (spelling?), which decayed after time. He explained that today's films acheive stability with complicated chemistry (he mentioned names, but I forget them) that does not decay. He said that the accelerated aging test showed no degradation after 75 years on the Kodak or Fuji E6 films. I read on an airplane somewhere that the color chemistry used in the Fuji Provia and Velvia films was invented by a man in Connecticut who, when he tried to sell it to Kodak, was told to pound salt. I've never heard that story anywhere else, but I have heard several instances of Kodak arrogance. They're paying for it now, though. Hope some of this helps ....Mike Del Vecchio --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1765
