Provia 400x 120

[The Great Soprendo]

Originally Posted by My Left Foot

Someone is selling short dated (08/2012) 400x on Amazon Market Place for £15.99 Inc p&p. I ordered some 100F and it came next day. Ordered a pack of 400x this morning. Seller is Jaz-UK.

Nice one, just got some of that myself (both 100F and 400X). I've never used the 400 before but hear good things. Have used the 100 only in 35mm and was very happy with that.

[My Left Foot]

Originally Posted by The Great Soprendo

Nice one, just got some of that myself (both 100F and 400X). I've never used the 400 before but hear good things. Have used the 100 only in 35mm and was very happy with that.

I put a roll of 100F in my Yashica yesterday, but never got round to trying it. Can't wait to try a roll in the Fuji GSW (been waiting to get a light meter). Have you tried your Fuji out yet?

[The Great Soprendo]

Originally Posted by My Left Foot

I put a roll of 100F in my Yashica yesterday, but never got round to trying it. Can't wait to try a roll in the Fuji GSW (been waiting to get a light meter). Have you tried your Fuji out yet?

I quickly put a test roll through when I bought it, just to check the shutter and winding mechanism etc, but that was it until the weekend.

The kids were out in the garden on Sunday and I put two rolls through it (doesn't take long!) chasing them around. I came to the conclusion (which I probably knew beforehand) that it is almost entirely unsuitable for that purpose. I don't have high expectations for the results but wanted to have a play anyway. It will obviously come into its own with more static subjects...

It's a strange camera to use. Not difficult at all, but feels like you're wielding some kind of oversized clown's camera, and while it's clearly very well made and a high quality item (and the lens has a top reputation), it has a kind of toy-like feel in the shutter release etc. But when you see those enormous negatives you are blown away by how much detail is in them.

What light meter are you getting? I had a Gossen Lunasix F which was excellent but too bulky for my liking, so I sold that on ebay and got myself a Digisix. It's a brilliant tiny little meter. To be honest, with my Yashica I more often than not just guessed the exposure myself when using colour print or B&W film, though I wouldn't try that with slide film personally.

[My Left Foot]

I just went for one of these http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-208/Overview.aspx
It gets decent write ups, its small, and I like the idea that you can fix it in the hotshoe. Hopefully it will do for me.

[The Great Soprendo]

Originally Posted by My Left Foot

I just went for one of these http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-208/Overview.aspx
It gets decent write ups, its small, and I like the idea that you can fix it in the hotshoe. Hopefully it will do for me.

They have an excellent reputation, and being small is very important IMO. I don't like to carry bagfuls of stuff around - in fact if I can't fit any extras in my pocket I don't want to bring them.

Re hotshoe mounting: it might work fine for average readings but you'll probably want to do some experimenting. Often you want flexibility to point the meter at specific areas of the scene which might not be so easy with it mounted on the camera, and also not helpful if you want to measure incident rather than reflected light.

[Icarebecauseyoudo]

400x is not a great film imho. Very magenta in some conditions

It just has to be used sometimes because of the speed

[The Great Soprendo]

Originally Posted by Icarebecauseyoudo

400x is not a great film imho. Very magenta in some conditions

It just has to be used sometimes because of the speed

I'm about to find out....but as you say, there is no option if you want faster speed and transparencies. In fact, there is no option but Fuji now for transparencies. Which isn't a disaster, given that it was generally better than Kodak's offerings for some time anyway. I'm still bitter about Kodachrome's demise though...not just the look, but it was far more archival if old family slides are anything to go by.

Do you use any C41 stuff? Ektar? Fuji 160? Might not be suited to your work but Portra is class for people IMO, has magical exposure latitude, and scans beautifully. Also just about the only thing still available in 220.

[Icarebecauseyoudo]

Originally Posted by The Great Soprendo

I'm about to find out....but as you say, there is no option if you want faster speed and transparencies. In fact, there is no option but Fuji now for transparencies. Which isn't a disaster, given that it was generally better than Kodak's offerings for some time anyway. I'm still bitter about Kodachrome's demise though...not just the look, but it was far more archival if old family slides are anything to go by.

Do you use any C41 stuff? Ektar? Fuji 160? Might not be suited to your work but Portra is class for people IMO, has magical exposure latitude, and scans beautifully. Also just about the only thing still available in 220.

The archive quality could be the type of processing you know....

Some use less solutions and can be dodgier. I don't use any print film really.. Bit of Reala before switching to Velvia. A long time ago now. Seen some portra stuff and it looks ok