Help with Slide Film

[Axle]

Hm...new look...cool.

Okay. I picked up some Fuji Sensa 400 Slide film to play with. Any tips/pointers for shooting with this type of film? I'll be using a Minolta X-7A as the camera.

[Speed]

Hm...new look...cool.

Okay. I picked up some Fuji Sensa 400 Slide film to play with. Any tips/pointers for shooting with this type of film? I'll be using a Minolta X-7A as the camera.

I've never used Sensia 400, but I've shot more Sensia 100 than any other slide film. It's great stuff, and apparently it's considered the "consumer" grade of Provia.

The only thing you have to watch out for with slide film, is to make sure your exposure meter is accurate. Since slide film has a smaller latitude than negative film, your exposures have to be more accurate.

John Shaw gives a great example of how to check your camera's meter in his "John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide". If your meter is off, you just set your ISO to adjust for it, then shoot like normal.

Slide film will spoil you with it's colors and detail. If I had an E6 lab in my town, I'd be shooting a LOT more slide film!

[Axle]

Thanks Speed. I'll be sure to post up the shots I take with it. Sadly I don't have an E6 lab in town.

[another view]

Never shot it, but Provia 400F is amazing. Put a 100F and 400F slide side-by-side, and it's hard to tell the difference. Kodak's Ektachrome 200 is so grainy it looks like it's snowing, but the Provia 400F is crystal clear. Like Speed says, be careful with your exposure and in contrasty light (like mid-day sun) and you'll be fine. Slide film is a great way to make sure the meter in your camera is accurate, and that everything is working properly (shutter speeds and lens apertures are correct, for example). You can see 1/3 stop of difference in exposures with slide film. It gives you exactly what you shot, assuming the camera is working at 100%.

[freygr]

Thanks Speed. I'll be sure to post up the shots I take with it. Sadly I don't have an E6 lab in town.

E6 is not all that hard to do at home. The tanks, spolls, a timer, and themometer doesn't cost all that much. The ketchen timers now days are so much more acturate than the old mechanical timers, I had it's sicking. For less than $25 the digital food themometer is so much easer to read than the glass.....

GRF

[92135011]

If you are checking out slide films, I would like to suggest Kodak 100G to you

Grain is tight (RMS = 8) and the colors are warmer than Fuji, which makes it a wonderful film for capturing skin tones. Fuji is a nice film, but I find that it never captures skin tones nearly as well as Kodak.

Oh yeah...100G is cheap too.

Freygr, how do you process E6 at home? Perhaps you can teach people like myself who still use film o.o

[freygr]

If you are checking out slide films, I would like to suggest Kodak 100G to you

Grain is tight (RMS = 8) and the colors are warmer than Fuji, which makes it a wonderful film for capturing skin tones. Fuji is a nice film, but I find that it never captures skin tones nearly as well as Kodak.

Oh yeah...100G is cheap too.

Freygr, how do you process E6 at home? Perhaps you can teach people like myself who still use film o.o

I have not done any film processing for a long time (20+ years). You buy the chemical kit, the kit is good for so many days after you mix it, and good for X amount of film. To use it you get all the solutions up to temp, (use a water bath). From here out its timing and agitating, maintaning the temp. and being consistent. I have a lot of slides which I developed. (and I'm very slowly scanning )

GRF

[Stephen Lutz]

One thing I suggest is bracket around the shot if the light is tricky. 1/3 stop up and down is a good place to start. 1/2 stop up and down is even more dramatic. I used to prefer slide film (when I shot film) but hated scanning it. Nothing goes WOW! like a great slide photo.