Re: [Leica] Fuji Film/Toronto Leica Dealers

[Bud Cook <budcook@ibm.net>]

My gosh!  This is the most lucid, enlightening description of these films I've
ever seen.  Thank you!
Regards,
Bud

Henning J. Wulff wrote:

[Snip]

> This is written from Canada's West Coast, but film considerations are
> generally not influenced too much by 50 degrees of longitude (latitude is
> another matter).
>
> I've used most of Fuji's films (and Kodak's), and find that overall, I
> probably prefer Kodachrome as a travel film. If you know a good place to
> have it processed, that would be my recommendation.
>
> Kodachrome, as well as Kodak's E6 films, tends to have a longer 'toe' than
> films from Fuji, especially Velvia, meaning that shadow areas are separated
> better. Fuji films tend more to the 'black hole' syndrome, where anything
> below a certain luminance level tends to be completely black. On the other
> hand, Fuji films, (especially Velvia again) tend to have a longer
> 'shoulder' than Kodachrome, meaning that highlights are differentiated
> better. The overall result of these two factors is that Velvia in practice
> is better rated at 40, so that you get enough shadow detail, and
> overexposure is not as likely because of the long shoulder. Kodachrome 25,
> on the other hand, with its long 'toe', and shorter 'shoulder', is more
> easily overexposed and less likely to be underexposed, so can be rated at
> 32. This means that effectively Kodachrome 25 is only 1/3 stop slower than
> Velvia. Their resolution is effectively similar, and both are for most
> purposes grainless, but Kodachrome has higher acutance (edge contrast
> effect) which results in Ilfochrome prints _looking_ sharper when made from
> Kodachrome. Color rendition is a personal choice, and somewhat influenced
> by fashion. Advertising demands high decibel levels on TV and shouting
> colors in ads, so Velvia with its higher saturation wins in those areas,
> and I use it for that reason for most of my commercial work, but for my
> personal stuff I prefer Kodachrome 25's color rendition. Some colors on
> Velvia can look downright violent.
>
> All the above comments about Velvia apply to some degree to all of Fuji's
> 100 speed films, except that Astia has especially nice skin tones. For
> travel I would pick Sensia, as I do not prefer either Provia or Astia for
> that purpose. My local pro lab sells all Fuji films with processing for a
> very good price, so I get film stored and aged to perfection with top notch
> processing for $12Cdn.
>
>    *            Henning J. Wulff
>   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
>  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
>  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com