|
|
|
Сайт ФСБ (анарх) Сайт СВР (анарх) Путин, МедиаМОСТ и Диктатура Закона
|
Only if You love color prints! This page is contributed by Russian photographer and traveler
So, which color print film one better buy (not what speed, but what brand)? A lot of my friends confessed that when they try to make any sensible decision standing by the counter at the photo-shop or in a supermarket FILMS section they are really at a loss and what really matters are discounts or other marketing tricks so well used by the vendors. But maybe it really doesn't matter which film brand to buy ? Maybe they are all of the same quality ? Will the actual result be different if one loads Kodak's Gold film instead of Fuji's SUPERIA or AGFA's Ultra ?
Yes, there will be a difference I dare say... Yet there is one very important issue to note. It turned out that there are people who either have problems with delicate color perception or people who simply do not care if their prints have a noticeable cyan tint (for example) so often produced by cheap 1hr labs. Such people better buy ANY film on the market - cheap or expensive, sophisticated or simple.
This memo is for those who are NOT prepared to accept that the spouse's crystal-white shirt becomes dirty gray or cyan or yellow on the final print. It is for those who do not accept stale prints images and demand real color every time. Basing on my own experience I made the following "My favorite color print film" table with comments.
I did not include Konica VX400 into the list because I did not like it . Konica is replacing VX series with new emulsion called Centuria which is claimed to be a major upgrade. It is a real upgrade (not a marketing trick) and people love the film. It may be the most economical way to get premium pictures. Anything that sells cheaper then Konica means really inferior quality (AGFA's mass market negative HDC+/Vista series excluding) or the same Konica or 3M film branded as Jessops, Boots, Vericolor etc.. I did not include AGFA's HDC series because of limited experience with it - it is a great film line, allegedly with the same drawbacks as KONICA and my personal but limited experience with it showed slightly exaggerated yellows. Yet we do not dare to share our judgment since it is insufficient. The Kodak Gold mass-market line was not included into the favorites because it is NOT my FAVORITE. I warn the users that the Gold emulsion (6-th generation by now) inherited such major disadvantage from its predecessors as LOW CONSISTENCY (low stability). Prints from the same batch may turn out different shades because one roll spent 3 days in a different storage environment, prints may have entirely different palette when printed on the same machine in the morning and afternoon. You'd never be certain what You get on Your prints when shooting an object. It would not matter how fine the grain could have been or how nice colours could have been reproduced if Your image is poor even due to the reasons not related to grain and colours. It could be a great film once Kodak solves the consistency issue. And we all in the photographic community are very irritated over Kodak's refusal to publish resolving characteristics of its emulsions using generic system accepted by other manufacturers. Many see that as consent with Fujifilm's superiority (Kodak actually stopped publishing generic emulsion tech-data the year when Fuji achieve overall better results both in negative and slide films line). General tips on printing. Do not print films with important material other then in Your "approved" lab - the lab that You have found really good after trial and error. As a general guidance please note that 1hr labs in the United States - home of Kodak - are not generally as good as might be expected, though not as bad as in Turkey, India and Greece. The best printing quality (both mass market and custom labs) we met in Japan (are You surprised?) and Alma-Ata - the capital of independent Kazakhstan, where every lab tried produced excellent results (we are surprised!). Very good processing and printing encountered in Germany and Sweden. Good 1hr. printing is hard to find in the UK primarily due to low care for proper colour balance , but some chain processing centers like, say, Jessops might produce very nice prints. Technological novelty: hybrid printing systems can produce outstanding results! Scanning of a negative is done by a leaser-beam high resolution scanner, the image is digitally processed and printed on a regular photo-paper using another laser-beam set. The concept is similar to ADA (analogue-digital-analogue) one popular in music industry. We saw astonishing results produced by Fujifilm's Frontier series of hybrid printing machines. Though it will accept the images in digital form on a generic media (ZIP-disc etc) it is advisable that the scanning is done by proprietary Frontier scanner for ultimate results. Hybrid stations are usually not sensitive to a film make so the chances that you "rare" film will be printed O.K. are very high. Excellent results are produced in Moscow, Russia by many (though not all) labs under Kodak Express logo while only few labs "match" inferior level of the US private fast turnaround printing facilities. Consistently excellent results have been yielded by two competing labs (one uses Noritsu/Kodak machine, the other - Fiji Minilab with CRT monitor color/density control) in Sovexpocentr World Trade Center all since 1991! Shall I print the film on the spot or shall I risk to bring it across several borders to my home lab ? Some folks think that it is better to process the film on the spot when out of the country to avoid hitting the latent image with X-rays in the airports. Such approach may be true if supersensitive SR-G3200 (discontinued by now) or likes is Your film. Otherwise X-ray intensity is extremely low in the modern airports and 100 - 400 ISO films hardly show and signs of being X-rayed after 4-5 X-ray passes! See Kodak advisory. But NEVER let you film either exposed or fresh to travel in your luggage !! In any case remember - nothing could spoil Your film as bad as the wrong lab and luggadge scanning machine ! One of my friends spends every annual vacation in the US - Florida, California, Arizona, Alaska etc. . And every time he processes one roll out there on the spot just to make sure that the rest must be processed back home ! If You still need to process Your print film in an alien lab. There are instances when one needs to process print film on the spot yet without quality compromise. A very secure option is to find a professional printing facility. But this option is certainly more expensive, probably will require extra travel to a location and usually takes more time to fulfill an order. And I recommend this option if the filmed material is of REAL value to you. But if it is not and You are NOT prepared to accept inferior quality prints yet not prepared to invest in extra assurance that quality will be adequate - talk to a lab operator BEFORE placing Your order. Sneak over other client's shoulder to see someone's prints. In most cases the operator will show You prints of other clients so that You could assess the lab's quality level. Tell the operator that You are very irritated when blacks are gray and when whites are cyan (most typical faults), tell him that You know that it is the lab but not Your camera or the film to blame for. Just make sure the operator remembers You as a noisy customer. Chances are high that Your prints will be re-printed after visual assessment. Some labs charge one ore two dollars extra per film for "handmade color corrections". Well - that might be a fair solution - take advantage of it ! Good shooting ! Happy printing !
Фотогалереи - присланые Великий Каньон - Аризона. Это нужно видеть своими глазами. Запад - ЛА - Лос Анджелес город ангелов и архитекторов Фотогалереи - присланые. Бородино 190 лет Присланная галерея - Запад - ЛА и Аризона
Top Back to Homepage Back to table
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Index Page - Welcome to the best links! Добро пожалоавать!
|
