Why slide film?

[Beltaine]

Having only been recently bitten by the photography bug.(Found an old Canon AE-1 and equipment in my parents' attic) I'm looking into purchasing something new in the next 3 months, leaning towards a Canon Elan 7.

Anyway, as I read, I see more and more people using slide film. How is it deifferent from regular film, and why use it instead?

[Sebastian]

1) Much tighter latitude, exposre mistakes actually matter.

2) What you see is what you get. Colors and exposure are true, not modified by a machine or itnerpreted by a person making prints.

3) It is first-generation. Not a copy of a negative.

If you want to elarn about exposure, sharpness, etc. you will be shooting slides.

[Beltaine]

1) Much tighter latitude, exposre mistakes actually matter.

2) What you see is what you get. Colors and exposure are true, not modified by a machine or itnerpreted by a person making prints.

3) It is first-generation. Not a copy of a negative.

If you want to elarn about exposure, sharpness, etc. you will be shooting slides.

Does slide film use a different developing process? I guess that's sort of a flaky question considering you said the colors and exposure aren't modified by a machine. Does that mean slide film can be developed in your own darkroom? And I'm assuming that scans from a slide are going to be more clear than scan from a negative, or am I totally off?

I need a to find a book or something, otherwise I'm going to bombard you all with silly little questions.

[Speed]

Does slide film use a different developing process? I guess that's sort of a flaky question considering you said the colors and exposure aren't modified by a machine. Does that mean slide film can be developed in your own darkroom? And I'm assuming that scans from a slide are going to be more clear than scan from a negative, or am I totally off?

I need a to find a book or something, otherwise I'm going to bombard you all with silly little questions.

Yes it does! Regular color film is developed by the C-41 process. Slide film is developed by the E-6 process. Ask someone (Like Paul) who has worked in a photo lab, and they can explain the differences.

While it is possible to develop color film, and even slides at home, it is NOT recommended. While anyone can develop black and white film, color and slide film is temperature dependant, making it a more critical process.

As far as the quality of the scan, I believe (I don't know this for sure) that the scanner itself, and the user's capability determine how good the scan is.

To piggyback what Seb mentioned, slides give awesome color and detail compared to print film. And as he also mentioned, it has less latitude than print film. Learn your camera, get a feel for exposure, then give slide film a try.

Hope this helps.

[Beltaine]

Thanks guys for the replies. I did a little digging myself and found some good information on Kodak's and Fuji's website. I can see where you'd want to have a little experience under your belt before trying it. Maybe with a little practice between now and then I can give some slide film a shot when car show season starts up again next year.

[paulnj]

GOOGLE search C-41 and E-6..... E-6 at home isn't much harder than developing B&W. But as Rob said, add temp control to the equation.

The ONLY time I ever developed my own slides was when I pushed them 2-4 stops of light (load 400 speed film and rate it 1600-6400)

[Chunk]

GOOGLE search C-41 and E-6..... E-6 at home isn't much harder than developing B&W. But as Rob said, add temp control to the equation.

The ONLY time I ever developed my own slides was when I pushed them 2-4 stops of light (load 400 speed film and rate it 1600-6400)

Did you get some color shifts when doing that? How did you like the results?

[paulnj]

My results were OK for my needs, but here is a true TEST ;) I LOVED provia 100F(at 100 200 +1, rated 320/ developed +2) and provia 400F at ISO 800(+1)

http://www.vividlight.com/articles/612.htm

at ISO 6400(+4) the grain was too much for me and the colors were muted I do believe, but not too much shift. I wouldn't do it again unless I had NO CHOICE

MIND YOU, I am recalling info from 3 years ago with no slide to loupe in my hands.