Charles Morris
(K=5969) - Comment Date 10/3/2002
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If you want print film with vivd colors i tend to prefer Kodak products. a good one is the Portra VC line-up. These are made for people pictures but have a little bit stronger color saturation. a slightly newer addition to their Portra line is the Portra UC series, offering much greater color saturation on par with fuji velvia slide film but available in faster speeds. these are relatively expensive professional films that will come out of the fridge at your camera shop. if you want something you can get at wal-mart, then kodak royal gold films have been good performers for my uses. the gold "max" films that are available very inexpensively seem a bit dull to me and to make up for that inherent dullness thye seem to produce a bit higher contrast than i find desireable. it causes loss of shadow details unless i overexpose quite a bit, then the colors wash out more and the highlights blow out.
slide films will be the choice of a lot of the landscape and nature fanatics, but the choice of slide films tends to go toward much slower speeds. Velvia is an iso50 film. provia has been much more useful to me as an iso100 film and less cartoon-like colors. if i were to try to do fall foliage from the ground with slide film i would want kodachrome64 or E100vs and a tripod. basically if the goal is prints, use print film, it makes life simpler and less expensive.
2cents@large.
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Terrence Kent
(K=7023) - Comment Date 10/8/2002
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I've heard "Seattle Filmworks" has the market cornered on superb color rendition, in fact there's a rumor several large motion picture studios use their product~
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Charles Morris
(K=5969) - Comment Date 10/8/2002
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Terrence, that may be true, it is movie film stock after all. but the only way i could see using their stuff is to scan it immediately after i got it back at the highest resolution i could afford to store. i have some of their film and the slides have faded considerably in only 3 years.
sigh...
back to the original question.. same answer:
It depends.
;o)
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Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 10/9/2002
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For good colours (as in natural colours) Fuji Reala or NPH are best in printfilm, especially when correctly printed (cheapo labs sometimes mess them up).
But nothing beats Velvia. I've seen results from others with some weird colours, especially in the blues, but haven't had the same myself (but then, I've not shot a lot of it so who knows).
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Terrence Kent
(K=7023) - Comment Date 10/13/2002
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hehe, i was kidding charles, i dont suggest SFW to anyone really~
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Scott Weaver
(K=32) - Comment Date 10/16/2002
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For 35mm print film I have seen NO better than Agfa http://www.agfa.com/photo/products/film/consumer/ultra/ for color saturation with especially fall colors. In the past I used a ISO 50 that I don't think is available anymore, but in general any of the Agfa offerings seem to produce deep color saturation. I did try this older ISO 50 on people pictures and don't do that, toooooo much saturation. They produce other films for this. But for outdoor photos minus closeup shots of people I know of no better than Agfa for saturation of colors.
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Steve Kaufman
(K=2748) - Comment Date 10/17/2002
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I think the range of replies indicates that film choice is a subjective thing. Try different film types, and see what works best for you. There is no "best".
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william l. borch(jr.)
(K=315) - Comment Date 10/23/2002
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I like the kodakhrome 64, It's slow put pushes fairly nice and has nice saturation. I have tried seattle film works and to me it sucks, never enough anything with that stuff. I like velvia it pop's with color but sometimes it seems animated.
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Justin Myers
(K=116) - Comment Date 11/3/2002
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For rocks and blue skies, even snow scapes, I used to love Velvia...but I bought some Kodak 100VS and the results were very good.
It seems to pull alot more blue out of the sky than velvia could.
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Daniel Casteel
(K=47) - Comment Date 11/14/2002
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Living in New England, I am lucky ot have the opportunity to try many different films. I have found I like the Fuji line, especially Velvia 50, better for displaying the colors a bit more vibrant. Although, nothing beats seeing it first hand.
Happy leaf hunting.
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Vincent K. Tylor
(K=7863) - Comment Date 11/18/2002
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Velvia Velvia Velvia velvia...............
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Greg Summers
(K=1115) - Comment Date 11/19/2002
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I guess it all depends what you mean by "best" since we all see colors differently and have our own preferences. I use Provia slide film and prefer it over Velvia but my opinion isn't shared by many others. I like the neutral characteristics of the film and yet, it does colors the way I like them - very vibrant. It is all i ever shoot when I shoot film. It also has the smallest grain of any film so enlargments come out well. It's also faster than velvia so it provides more flexibility. I've seen some outrageously good images from Velvia.
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Bart Aldrich
(K=7614) - Comment Date 11/20/2002
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I use more Provia and Astia than anything, but for landscapes of fall foilage I'd use Velvia with a tripod...for sure! Color stauration in mixed lighting will pop.
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piper lehman
(K=256) - Comment Date 11/22/2002
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I agree about Provia, I also use Sensia for stills and people shots alike. Velvia is sometimes too contrasty for what I like to shoot. I like "melding" tones and colors since I do a lot of minimum DOF/selective focus/downright "blurry" everywhere but the absolute point-of-focus area shots. Velvia can also be tough to scan for the web. All in all, I think slide film is going to be your best bet for depicting color. The saturation just can't be beat. Kodak's slide film is good for yellows and reds, Fuji for greens and blues (hence the color of their respective packaging). Color coding: easy to remember. Lighting tip: use early morning and late afternoon side light for landscapes. Use shaded/overcast light for closeups of foliage for the best control of contrast. Landscape shots with lots of green leaves and brown/black bark also look better in shaded light, IMHO, since there is often too much contrast with bright sunlight for any film to capture the true colors.
Filter tips: Use a polarizer to cut down glare and darken blue skies in backgrounds. Use a warming filter or enhancing filter (try each both along with your polarizer and without) for increasing fall colors.
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Alessandro Berselli
(K=2920) - Comment Date 3/9/2003
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I usually shot on mountain in each season and in order to have best " natural " color i always use Kodakrome 25 iso and 64 iso. In this film saturation is not extreme and balance color is very natural; but if you want a bit of saturation buy Agfachrome RSX 50 iso. Velvia and Provia 100F are very good but they have a bit of green tendency in my personal opinion.
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Joćo Domingues
(K=638) - Comment Date 5/8/2003
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Hi Amanda, in my opinion if what you want is "COLOUR", get Fujichrome Velvia 50 (slide film), now there's a new one, 100 iso, i read this one is equally good, just faster. I have lots of photos taken with Velvia 50, i love this film but has 2 'problems':
1? It's a 50 iso film (slow), but i don't care;
2? It's more expensive, it's a pro film (when i can i only buy this);
As example:
I hope i was useful, then tell me if it worked.
JDomingues
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Joćo Domingues
(K=638) - Comment Date 5/8/2003
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Hi Amanda, in my opinion if what you want is "COLOUR", get Fujichrome Velvia 50 (slide film), now there's a new one, 100 iso, i read this one is equally good, just faster. I have lots of photos taken with Velvia 50, i love this film but has 2 'problems':
1? It's a 50 iso film (slow), but i don't care;
2? It's more expensive, it's a pro film (when i can i only buy this);
As example:
I hope i was useful, then tell me if it worked.
JDomingues
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Joćo Domingues
(K=638) - Comment Date 5/8/2003
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Hi Amanda, in my opinion if what you want is "COLOUR", get Fujichrome Velvia 50 (slide film), now there's a new one, 100 iso, i read this one is equally good, just faster. I have lots of photos taken with Velvia 50, i love this film but has 2 'problems':
1? It's a 50 iso film (slow), but i don't care;
2? It's more expensive, it's a pro film (when i can i only buy this);
As example:
http://www.usefilm.com/showphoto.php?id=123853
I hope i was useful, then tell me if it worked.
JDomingues
p.s - Sorry for the repetition, i had a problem ;()
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AJ Haselwood
(K=2148) - Comment Date 5/9/2003
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I have to agree with Greg. Provia all the way. I use it exclusively and it has never let me down. Images really explode when printed on ilfochrome. Provia has always been consistent in color and quality.
I am currently doing a marketing survey for Kodak and I will let you know how their new slide films work out.
aj
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