Side By Side Comparisons - Velvia vs Provia

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

These are quick snaps, and I had decided to shoot the same
general bunch of leaves with both Velvia and Provia. I was at
the end of the roll for the Velvia, so loaded Provia and shot
again.

There is a difference, definitely. The Velvia reds are deeper
and more "orange", and the Provia reds are tending toward the
"blue" or "purple" side of the spectrum.

Just an unscientific comparison, a "field" comparison where there
are many factors in play. But I think in this case, since the red
leaves were already shockingly red, the Provia seems a little more
like the "real thing" I saw.

Both with Pentax 645 and 55mm lens.
Top image is Velvia, bottom image is Provia.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9109 Location: Houston, Texas

Quite a noticeable difference. I've never shot with either, so I'm curious. Since the Provia seems to have a blue bias, then is it safe to presume that objects that are predominantly blue will have better saturation with Provia than Velvia? In any way similar to the old Ektachrome? One of the things I really liked about the old Ektachrome was how wonderfully saturated blues would become, with a slight purple bias.

Back in the day, I used mostly Kodachrome when shooting 35mm slides. It was great for reds and yellows, just okay with blues, and rather dull with greens. In your experience, given Velvia's apparent bias toward yellows and reds, would you characterize its balance to be similar to Kodachrome?

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Velvia colours are nice, but they are more "off" compared to Provia, this at least is my personal experience with the two films.

shauttra · Joined: 17 Nov 2009 Posts: 782 Location: Latvia

wow, there is a big difference, i didn`t know that!

tobbsman · Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 2591 Location: Austria

the provia colors look definitly more natural. But the saturnation of velvia is great, what I noticed with a lot of your photographs.
If I would do the same amount of saturnation with PS, it would definitly look unnatural. There's some kind of magic in Velvia saturnation.

There was once a thread/link with a kind of fake-velvia PS filter/plungin. Does anybody remember, can't find it back ?

Cheers
Tobias

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

velvia colors look more natural on my lcd, provia red are strange
maybe the scanner settings make a diff

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 768 Location: Italy

Indeed a huge difference. Following my taste I do usually prefer a natural color rendition, without having seen the original scene I have to admit the Velvia colors look nice too. This test points out that's important to know each media and use it where it can enhance the predominant colors in the scene, or use it wisely to achieve creative effects. Thanks Larry for sharing your test.

Cheers, Marty.