Stop what you're doing right now and take a photo

[Kalvaer]

The Fuji Slide is awesome though, The Provia 400F is almost all I used for astrophotography, Unless shooting red nebula, then the Kodak Ektachrome seemed to bring out more of the colour.

Only problem is you cant seem to find it anywhere in SA anymore. The last place I asked could order it for me, if I bought a box of 40 rolls. Kinda stupid since your lucky if you take 2 astro photographs on a good night with film

 

[ldmelsa]

it's quite funny how my shop in EL can sell me 1 roll

 

[Rouxenator]

Film makes mother earth cry....

 

[Kalvaer]

it's quite funny how my shop in EL can sell me 1 roll

Do they have Provia 400 F slide? If so I might ask you to get for me. Right now I have to beg my wife to get for me when ever she goes to the US

 

[koffiejunkie]

The Fuji Slide is awesome though

Agreed. I was mostly using negs though, and on the odd occasion that I did use slide, I couldn't afford to print it, so I can't really judge it. But as far as negatives go, I always felt the the colours from Agfa and Konica were better. I am only referring to the cheap consumer film - whatever you could buy Clicks or your local pharmacy.

The Provia 400F is almost all I used for astrophotography, Unless shooting red nebula, then the Kodak Ektachrome seemed to bring out more of the colour.

I imagine it's similar to Velvia? At least that's the idea I get from the guys who shoot it.

Only problem is you cant seem to find it anywhere in SA anymore. The last place I asked could order it for me, if I bought a box of 40 rolls. Kinda stupid since your lucky if you take 2 astro photographs on a good night with film

I'm sure you could use it for other stuff too?

it's quite funny how my shop in EL can sell me 1 roll

1 roll of what? The Ektrachrome or the Konica?

 

[ldmelsa]

Film makes mother earth cry....

so does e-waste

Do they have Provia 400 F slide? If so I might ask you to get for me. Right now I have to beg my wife to get for me when ever she goes to the US

Yes, they do have it. They just get it from Orms:
http://www.orms.co.za/film.php?a=view&film=38

________________________________________________________________________

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/846/vet.jpg

 

[ldmelsa]

1 roll of what? The Ektrachrome or the Konica?

one roll of Provia 400F 35mm slide film
I was responding to this post: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=3107681&postcount=1321

 

[Krypty]

This is better than work

 

[Krypty]

[noparse]

you wrote it like this:

should be:
[/noparse]

Thank you

 

[Kalvaer]

I couldn't afford to print it, so I can't really judge it.

Its still pretty expensive now. Bieth is the only place I know that really does it well and allows me to specify how many stops to push the E6 development which really helps for astro work. Only reason I use slide for this as well is that it becomes much easier to see WTF is going on with your film afterwards when your shooting a pitch black sky on my little home made "lightbox".

I imagine it's similar to Velvia? At least that's the idea I get from the guys who shoot it.

Never used the Velvia myself. I see its rated as a "ultra-high saturation, intensely vivid colours [and] high contrast" film. Which might not work for astro work. Maybe I should get off my lazy butt, fix my tracking drives on my scope and actually do some film photography to test

I'm sure you could use it for other stuff too?

I could, It just seems a waste now that you all convinced me to move to digital when considering the cost of development. With doing astrophotograhy I can understand the reasoning being film being better (at least until I am rich enough to afford a SBIG camera), but for normal things it will hurt my pocket more than its worth

Yes, they do have it. They just get it from Orms:
http://www.orms.co.za/film.php?a=view&film=38

Ouch...At that price.. its cheaper to import it from B&H

 

[koffiejunkie]

Its still pretty expensive now.

True, but now we have the option of having it scanned in high resolution TIFF which opens up some more possibilities. If you're serious about using film for astro, you could even invest in a film scanner (I'm planning to).

Never used the Velvia myself. I see its rated as a "ultra-high saturation, intensely vivid colours [and] high contrast" film.

The thing is, and this is why I still use it, that the saturation on Velvia looks natural. It's a very different look from pushing saturation in photoshop/lightroom/aperture. It just looks more natural.

The other thing is dynamic range. I read that, according to the DxO tests, most modern DSLR's have a 10-12 stop dynamic range at 100-200 ISO, I don't think that's a very practical measurement. I can push my raw files a few stops, but things easily start looking unnatural, even at two stops over or under. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not particularly good at this - bwana does a much better job - but I can certainly see the limits. The other reason why I kinda doubt the usefulness of those tests, is that even though they show the 40D and 50D to be pretty similar, I get much better results recovering cloud detail, for example, on the 50D.

Ouch...At that price.. its cheaper to import it from B&H

B&H is worth going to even if you don't buy anything

 

[Kalvaer]

True, but now we have the option of having it scanned in high resolution TIFF which opens up some more possibilities. If you're serious about using film for astro, you could even invest in a film scanner (I'm planning to).

I already have one. It can scan in 12 images at a time. The problem is to do that at full res, takes about 5 hours. What I used to do was, ask bieth to scan everything to disc, and then the images I really liked I would scan myself again at the scanners full res. Which turned out to be about 115 megs per photo.

The thing is, and this is why I still use it, that the saturation on Velvia looks natural. It's a very different look from pushing saturation in photoshop/lightroom/aperture. It just looks more natural.

What is natural with Astrophotography though? Its always been something I end up having long discussions about. People say that 100 images, taken over 20 days and then stacked together are natural. I tend to disagree, but the same could be said about grabbing light for a 4 hour session on film?

B&H is worth going to even if you don't buy anything

I've never been, but my wife has a few times to pick up stuff for me when ever she has been in New York. She wont let me go there now though as she says we will be broke for the next 10 years while I pay off all the money I will owe them if I do

 

[koffiejunkie]

What is natural with Astrophotography though?

Not much, imho, but then I was just commenting on my experience with the film. Other than my moonshots, I haven't done any astrophotography.

 

[bwana]

I've never been, but my wife has a few times to pick up stuff for me when ever she has been in New York. She wont let me go there now though as she says we will be broke for the next 10 years while I pay off all the money I will owe them if I do

After my last bout of spending the missus has put the kibosh on future purchases - which is a pity cos with a few weddings on the horizon I've got the craving for glass. I guess I'll have to trade in my 16-35 f/2.8 or rent.

 

[ldmelsa]

After my last bout of spending the missus has put the kibosh on future purchases - which is a pity cos with a few weddings on the horizon I've got the craving for glass. I guess I'll have to trade in my 16-35 f/2.8 or rent.

tell the missus
it's for business

 

[koffiejunkie]

Tell the missus you can claim tax back.

Or just don't tell her

 

[ldmelsa]

Tell the missus you can claim tax back.

mine rhymes

 

[koffiejunkie]

mine's freestyle

 

[ldmelsa]

 

[koffiejunkie]

BTW, Kalvaer, KodakChrome has been discontinued, so buy what you can get. Or start experimenting with Velvia

One thing I like about Film, is there's no rush to finish the roll. And once you've finished the roll there's no rush to develop it either - you can even send them along with your wife if that's a better option.

Just before I moved to the UK, I was packing up my things and discovered a bag with about 15 rolls of undeveloped film. I had no idea what was on it, so I sent it in. Most of it was from high-school days, and considering the absolute POS P&S I had at the time, they came out pretty good!