On Mar 26, 2006, at 11:05 PM, Markus Maurer wrote:
Hi Aaron
thanks a lot for these impressive examples and the other postings, it
does
help me a lot.
But showing me some 6x7 format shots was a bit cruel, how should I
ever like
my "grainy 35mm sauces" again?
See, I'm enabling you. You must now join The Brotherhood.
in which regard is the 800/1600 "Press" series of Fuji better than the
normal "Superia"?
It's not, really -- Press 800 and Superia 800 are the same emulsion,
however the aging and shipping of Press 800 are designed so that the
film, when kept refrigerated at the store and refrigerated until use by
you, will be identical in colour performance from roll to roll, where
Superia 800 is allowed to age on the shelf. It looks good all the way
through its lifespan, and in any practical respect, especially for
concert photography or other low-light applications, you can't tell
them apart. Basically, buy whichever one is cheaper.
In theory, here's how it should work: if I am a pro shooting pictures
of, say, a sweater, and I bought a roll of Press 800 a month ago and
kept it in my fridge, and on the day of the shoot I ran out and bought
another roll of Press 800 from a different store and I shot them both
under the same lighting and processed them the same, theoretically the
colour balance in the prints from both rolls should be absolutely
identical. If it were two rolls of Superia, there would be slight
differences. But this is also in a non-automated printing environment
-- with today's averaging printers, you'll never see the variation.
Now NPZ is a different animal -- lower contrast, wonderful skin tones.
Here is how much I love and trust Fuji NPZ 800 -- my entire wedding was
shot on it, and I took 40 or 50 rolls of NPZ 220 to Prague with me on
my honeymoon. However, I'd pick Press 800 / Superia 800 over NPZ for
concert shooting because the shadows fall so easily away to black.
I did, however, snap a few pictures at a concert with NPZ (in Prague --
it was the only film I had, after all, plus Press 800 isn't made in
medium format):
http://aaronreynolds.ca/gallery/Prague/Jamiroquai_portfolio
NPZ 800, 6x7, cropped approximately to 645. Yeah, I only had NPZ and I
only had a wide angle lens. It was a lot of fun shooting with
constraints like that, actually.
-Aaron
