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Hey Everybody, I've been reading the posts over the past week with much interest. Due to the evils of my real life job I haven't had much time to post some thoughts on Astia vs. Provia vs. Sensia or add my 2¢ to the B&W discussion. Unfortunately, I'm used to eating, buying camera equipment and living indoors, so my job takes precedence. As for Astia, Provia and Sensia, I agree that Astia has less contrast and is more neutral than Provia or Sensia. I was fortunate enough to catch two clean Conrail units on a KCS military train through Vicksburg in late December in great light. I used a roll of Astia, a roll of Sensia and a roll of Provia on the units under identical conditions. (Conrail Units are VERY rare on KCS) All three rolls were processed by Fuji at their Phoenix lab at the same time and the results were quite different. The Sensia and Provia were nearly indistinguishable with respect to color rendition - just a bit over-saturated, but excellent overall. The Astia was right on the money as far as color balance and saturation goes. Portraits of the KCS Crew taken on Astia displayed excellent skin tones. (Yes, I sent them enlargements - free of charge) Although I haven't made any huge (>11X14) enlargements from the slides for comparison, the Astia's grain looks slightly finer than the Sensia or Provia to me. I also had some shots of a UP Detour train led by NS power, late in the day, backlit, in mostly open shade and a few areas of bright sunlight on Astia. The Astia slides were great, handling the contrast very well. As far as Black and White goes, I like B&W, but I don't shoot it enough to agree or disagree with any of the positions taken on it's use by other SPORRS Members. I've been impressed at the tonal range that magazines get from color slides and prints when they decide to transform color to black and white. My B&W image of KCS #307 in this month's CTC Board is from a Provia slide, and the tonal range is pretty good, considering that the lighting was really bad that day. I have to wonder if Dan Schroder's image of the UP coal train was originally a color slide. It has excellent tonal range as well. Over the years, I've admired J. Parker Lamb's B&W photos immensely. I doubt that many of his images would have the same impact if they had been taken in color. Parker's photos have tremendous tonal range, even in very contrasty situations. I generally use B&W only in summer, since this part of the world just doesn't lend itself to color photography between May and September, except for the magic times around sunrise and sunset. I can use yellow, orange or red filters to cut haze and enhance a B&W image - something I can't do with color film - and get a respectable photo. I prefer to use my Hasselblads for B&W, since the photos are nearly grainless - even when I use Tri-X Professional. Like beauty, appreciation for B&W is in the eye of the beholder. That's all for now. Wave at the train. Best Regards, Danny Johnson ======================================================= -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved =======================================================
