Slide Film, A CALL TO ARMS! : SHOOT IT OR IT WILL DIE

Alowisney said:
This thread is making me buy my first roll of slide film for some landscape shots I want to do.
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Buy Two!

Get some Velvia 50 and go nuts!

You can't beat it for yellow tones, man.

It's gonna blow you away.

I'm excited for you.

Make sure you post your results.
 
Right now the price is spiking well beyond C-41 often because of trans-shipment costs between labs. It's hot potato. Solve that, you buy time until smaller-scale emulsion production is worked out (a whole other kettle of fish).
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Just bring/send it yourself directly to a lab. That's what I do. Drive about 50km to the lab, drop the film, get it next week. It is ready next day but with work it doesn't fit. They do push and pull even for slide (at a price). And there are more than a few labs in that circle that do E6.

Just phone a lab and ask! There is no point in paying the middle men.
 
Gumby said:
p.s. I was much a much more poitive and idealistic person when I was 31. Subsequent years of experience has beaten me into a more realistic (maybe even negative) approach to life. It is what it is... for the most part. :)
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I sadly turned 53 yesterday , and find wilsonstott's attitude a breath of fresh air. I see the negative in everything, like a reflex, and the last thing the world needs now is "realism", which usually means seeing as impossible things we used to take for granted.

Randy
 
zauhar said:
I sadly turned 53 yesterday , and find wilsonstott's attitude a breath of fresh air. I see the negative in everything, like a reflex, and the last thing the world needs now is "realism", which usually means seeing as impossible things we used to take for granted.

Randy
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Woulda, coulda, shoulda, Randy.

Happy Birthday, by the way!

Yea, it's all going to sh*t in one way or another, and I'm getting to the age where certain doors feel like they're starting to close--windows too.

Sometimes I think about missed opportunities (and hell, I'm not that old) and I envision doing things differently, but that's all just an exercise in futility.

All it really does is focus my attentions on things I cannot alter (the past), and it makes me feel like the whole coarse I'm on is somehow flawed because of all these opportunities I missed along the way (by the way, those missed opportunities are most likely fictional--things I made up to rationalize things like discontent and unhappiness).

This view makes me look at the present and the future in a negative light--like I'm not really supposed to be here in this version of the present--it was all a mistake in the first place--so what the hell does it really matter?

But that's all self-indulgent crap.

Right now is what really matters, as cliche as that sounds--it's really no wonder it's a popular new-age/self-help mantra.

Anyway, the point is, I'm sick of feeling like the world is going to sh*t and all the things I love are going away.

I love slide film.

It's a small, insignificant thing, but I love it, and I want to keep it.

It's sort of symbolic of a lot of things in my life that I feel like I don't have control over.

So the other morning I woke up and thought--

No.

Not this time.


Is it realistic?


Who gives a sh*t?

It gives me a reason to do something I love, and to do it with more conviction.
 
I have found Datachrome in Irvine California for highest quality e-6 processing. If you go to the store they turn it around in 2 hours.

Scanning: I have a Canon FS2710 35mm film scanner that scans mounted slides in about 15 seconds. It doesn't use holders, you just slip the slide in and go. Very fast and very good quality.

Look for Canoscan FS2710 on ebay and shock yourself.

I am now shooting 2 E-6 for each C-41. Let's see how long that lasts. Trying to keep it alive.
 
By the way...

C-41 makes no sense in the current world. Since everything is scanned before printing, slides make the most sense. You scan see them, project them, they have better colors and are easy to store and protect.

That goofy orange mask on C-N film may have been important for optical prints but is useless in electronic scanning and printing.

I say we eliminate all color negative film and replace it with slides.
 
This thread makes me feel, almost, sinful. I am a velvia shooter, i love how it renders the evening and morning light, and yet I will stop using slide film this summer : i have 5 rolls left, and they are the last ones. I can't justify the cost and hassle anymore. 10$/roll, 15$ for processing and add to this the cost of renting a scanner and I still have no prints. To minimize the costs, I rent the scanner 3-4 times per year and spend several NIGHTS at scanning negatives and positives. I will get rid of my film gear and only keep my Canonet. Who knows, maybe wil I feel the urge to burn some valve again in the following years...
 
wblynch, negative film has wider latitude and greater dynamic range than slide film. In my opinion, the visceral appeal of a well-exposed slide can't be matched by any negative film, but exposing transparency film well is a bit more difficult than properly (acceptably) exposing color negative film.
 
wblynch said:
By the way...

C-41 makes no sense in the current world. Since everything is scanned before printing, slides make the most sense. You scan see them, project them, they have better colors and are easy to store and protect.

That goofy orange mask on C-N film may have been important for optical prints but is useless in electronic scanning and printing.

I say we eliminate all color negative film and replace it with slides.
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Get out of my head.

I just had a similar conversation with someone.

Minus the getting rid of C-41 part.



As an aside--
Will your scanner work with a Mac running lion?
 
Wilonstott, picking that ground to stand on is a great idea. I think sometimes a positive focus on one thing of overriding importance may make other things fall into place.

Didn't have time to scan my slides this morning (headed on a trip ) , but did have the pleasure of looking at the crystalline beauty of the images with a makeshift lightbox ( flashlight reflecting on white cardboard ) . There is indeed something special and captivating about slide film .

Randy
 
zauhar said:
Wilonstott, picking that ground to stand on is a great idea. I think sometimes a positive focus on one thing of overriding importance may make other things fall into place.

Didn't have time to scan my slides this morning (headed on a trip ) , but did have the pleasure of looking at the crystalline beauty of the images with a makeshift lightbox ( flashlight reflecting on white cardboard ) . There is indeed something special and captivating about slide film .

Randy
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Have a great trip, Randy.

Take great photos.

Or else.
 
wblynch said:
By the way...

C-41 makes no sense in the current world. Since everything is scanned before printing, slides make the most sense. You scan see them, project them, they have better colors and are easy to store and protect.

That goofy orange mask on C-N film may have been important for optical prints but is useless in electronic scanning and printing.

I say we eliminate all color negative film and replace it with slides.
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C-41 is far easier for latitude. Its forgiveness of, especially overexposure won out over slide film. Again, economics. C-41 salvages more shots. It's also marginally less expensive to produce and process.

Sadly, the better matrix metering is only available on later model cameras. Cameras like the F6 were pretty much designed for chromes. This would benefit slide film.
 
Aristophanes said:
C-41 is far easier for latitude. Its forgiveness of, especially overexposure won out over slide film. Again, economics. C-41 salvages more shots. It's also marginally less expensive to produce and process.

Sadly, the better matrix metering is only available on later model cameras. Cameras like the F6 were pretty much designed for chromes. This would benefit slide film.
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Yea, but don't forget, a lot of Magnum guys made it work with Leicas.

Albeit, guys like Alex Webb and David Alan Harvey (who I've mentioned numerous times on this thread) tended forgive less than perfect exposure if the shot was strong enough--in an artistic/editorial sense, that is.

A center-weight meter can work for slides, and an auxillary incident meter can fill about 95% of the gaps.

I suppose my point is, matrix meter or not (and they are awesome for chrome), you can still get fantastic exposures with a variety of equipment.
 
I started shooting film (properly) last year and bought my slide film from 7dayshop in the uk - back then one 35mm roll or Fuji Velvia 50 cost me £5.45, today the cost of that same item from that same shop is £8.89! - after only one year! - that is why now I tend to shoot slide film a lot less often

Cheers, Richard
 
loquax ludens said:
wblynch, negative film has wider latitude and greater dynamic range than slide film. In my opinion, the visceral appeal of a well-exposed slide can't be matched by any negative film, but exposing transparency film well is a bit more difficult than properly (acceptably) exposing color negative film.
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Everything you say here is true. But whilst I realise a lot of people will not agree with me, personally, one of the reasons I find tranny so wonderful (quite apart from the beauty of the processed film), is that it is harder to expose correctly, and, thus, so much more satisfying than neg, when you get it right.
Regards,
Brett
 
Others have made good points regarding spiraling prices, limited latitude and fewer options for processing, but if you select your subject, lighting and metering carefully then you can't beat the satisfaction of directly viewing large positive film on a light table, or better yet projected. It looks like few film stocks are left and especially Kodak prices are rising sharply. For me, saving one film, Velvia (not 100) might be the best that we can do ultimately and for me that would be good enough. In the U.S. it looks like Dwaynes will be the last lab standing.. much like Kodachrome, but we are talking a very small subset of a subset and soon yet another subset when most shoot exclusively cell phone cameras. Good luck, but most likely if you want to save slide you will lose, but if you concentrate on one , or two film stocks.. maybe it can be done.. at least for awhile.
 
Sarcophilus Harrisii said:
Everything you say here is true. But whilst I realise a lot of people will not agree with me, personally, one of the reasons I find tranny so wonderful (quite apart from the beauty of the processed film), is that it is harder to expose correctly, and, thus, so much more satisfying than neg, when you get it right.
Regards,
Brett
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I will agree with you about that Brett. Done right, there's nothing more viscerally satisfying than a transparency. My comment was really in response to wblynch's suggestion a couple of posts previous to eliminate C-41 in favor of slide film. There are some reasons to shoot color negative, was what I was really getting at.
 
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