J. C. O'Connell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Whats the opinions on the finest > c-41 400 speed color in terms of > film grain (or lack of it). I'm not > so concerned about saturation or > contrast.
Hi JCO, Well, I'm a strong 400 film user (well, at least I was until a couple of years ago). I can say I used in the past almost every 400 speed film and for a long time my choice was... the Kodak Gold 400! The choice was mostly due to price vs. quality reasons, but it was not really the best film in its class. Now my default 400 speed film is the Kodak Supra, a winner when it comes to lack of grain, apart from the other good qualities. I did use the Portra 400 NC not long ago, but it seemed to me not really as good as the Supra in terms of grain (but it could be a matter of different shooting environments...). > I've been using Fuji superia 400 > lately which is excellent for a 400 > film, but I'm wondering if theres > something even better. I've had a side by side shooting situation in Siena, when I switched to a Superia 400 (the 4-layer one) after a Supra 400. I prefer the Supra shots of that evening, but it can be that the Superia ones were not as good under other respects, so I could be leaning towards the Supra for 'compositional' reason... I've been told that a great 400 film is the Fuji NPH, but I've never had the chance (nor the will) to try it yet. > Also what gives finest grain: > > Rated film speed? > Slight underexposure? > Slight overexposure? A slight overexposure can give you finer grain, but you should not exaggerate or you would have a shifted rendition of colors (but then, why rate a 400 film at i.e. 200 when you can use a 160 film that gives you better results?). Back to the Kodak Gold 400, once I made a mistake and loaded a roll of it after a Royal Gold 25 without changing the Iso setting on the camera. I was used to overexpose of 1/2 a stop on that camera (a K-1000) so I shot five or six frames at something like 16 Iso... Needless to say, the pictures were all usable, although not the best negative in the world for sure... Hope this helps. Ciao, Gianfranco ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com
