Provia 400 - excellent!

[PaulC]

My final film type to show is Provia 400, again through the Pentacon Six and Flektogon 50/4.

This is an excellent film and grain does not seem to be an issue at all, which surprised me somewhat:

[Attila]

WOW ! As I know it has more version , which one exactly is this ? Early one is grainy if I know well.

[rawhead]

As long as you give it enough exposure, grain isn't a problem with this film, even when pushed two stops (EI=1600):




BTW, this is the older version, Provia 400F

[PaulC]

Mine is the new 400X

[Attila]

Thank you for both of you!

[cooltouch]

Very nice, Paul. I'm gonna have to try some of this stuff. So far, I've been shooting just slow emulsions with my medium format cameras, except for B&W.

I'm curious -- what did you use to scan your photo with? It came out very well.

[PaulC]

It's always my Epson V500. Medium format is less demanding for it, of course, but film sag can be more severe. Also, this has been cropped down a bit to eliminate vignetting and because I rotated to straighten the verticals.

[spleenone]

[PaulC]

Yes, you have to extend the developing time. It's called push processing. A good lab will do it for you if you tell them how may stops extra you need.

[rawhead]

[spleenone]

[PaulC]

[cooltouch]

Back in the day when I was having to work with short turn-around times, I developed my own slides using the kits you could buy. I found that the hardest thing was keeping temp constant. +/-1/2 a degree Fahrenheit is about all you get before color becomes affected. There must still be quite some demand for this type of developing though cuz whenever I see Jobo processors up for auction on eBay they go for a lot. I just used my bathroom sink filled with warm water and ice cubes to fine-tune the temperature. There was enough thermal mass in a sink of water to keep the temp stable enough. It was time consuming, though, getting everything dialed in to the right temperature before starting the process.

If you buy in quantity and do a lot of developing (so you'll use up all the chemicals before they go bad), you'll see some savings. But it won't be a huge amount. Freestyle has about the best US prices I've seen so far. The only reason why I did it at all was so I could develop my slides same-day.

[rawhead]

Actually, you do save a huge amount. Let me show you the calculation.

For E-6, you will need a good Jobo (or similar) processor to keep the temperature stable. This would cost you maybe $300US.

You need chemicals. In the US, a 5L Kodak E-6 kit costs $60.

So basically you need $360 (give or take $50 or so) to start processing E-6.

For each 5L kit, you can get 20 uses of chemicals, since it take 250ml for 2 rolls of 120, 1 roll of 220, or 2 rolls of 35mm film (up to 36exp). I'll use medium format for my calculations. So, that's $3 per shot.

It costs $7/roll of 120 or $10/roll of 220 film.

If you don't reuse your chemicals at all, you can develop 2 rolls of 120 for $3, so you are saving $7x2 - $3 = $11

So for each shot, you save $11. Since you can get 20 sessions from one 5L kit, by the end of that kit, you have saved $220. You've already paid to make up 2/3 of your initial investment. You till save another $220 with your next kit, after spending another $60 for the chemicals, so

Total spent = 300 + 60 + 60 = $420
Total saved = 220 + 220 = $440

You have now made up for all your expenses. From then on, for each 5L kit you go through, you will save $220 - $60 = $160.



But wait. You can actually reuse the chemicals without any degredation. I almost always do. I've reused them TWICE, in fact, although by that time, things can start getting fishy, so I'd stick with reusing just once. What does that mean? For each $3 shot of 250ml of chemicals, you can develop up to 4 rolls of 120, 2 rolls of 220, ro 2 rolls of 120 + 1 roll of 220.

If you develop 4 rolls of 120 each session (just save up enough film till you have 4 that needs developing), you will save

$7x4 = $28 - $3 = $25.

Yes, for each session, you save $25. By the time you finish your first 5L kit, you will have saved $25x20 = $500.

You have not only saved enough money to pay for all your expenses ($360), but you are now $140 in the black.

For each E-6 kit you go through, from there on, you save $500-$60 = $440.


That is huge.


Now, it's true that in order to make those kind of savings, you need to shoot enough film so that you can go through the chemicals before they go bad. To make those kind of huge savings, you need to shoot and develop 4 rolls * 20 = 80 rolls of 120 before the chemicals go bad. I've personally had chemicals lying around for 3-4 months without any problems. Still you need to be shooting around 20 rolls a month which might be a lot.

I've found that it works great when you're sharing the chemicals with at least one other person. Then you only need to shoot at half the pace.

Anyway, my 2c.

[Scheimpflug]

[peterqd]

Very nice natural colours in your shot Paul. My Provia shots have always had a cold, blue/magenta cast which I don't like too much. Is this a different film? I haven't heard about it till now.

[PaulC]

Well, I don't know what film you were shooting so I can't really say. I think this is the modern version of the emulsion. Maybe the light in Greece favours it. For scanning - and presumably in printing - it is easy enough to twitch the white balance a bit.