Re: [Leica] Color Film and my resurrected Leica addiction

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

Ernie-
VPS is a great film! Unfortunately, unless you take it to a lab that
regularly runs "Trudys", "Shirleys" or what ever, and tweak the film
channels, you may run into a problem. In our lab we do about two or three
rolls of VPS and even then we have to make adjustments despite fine tuning
all the channels each week.
VPS is very sensitive to heat- it is not a vacation film. When I did
weddings, I took it out of the fridge on the way out the door, shot it, and
got it processed the next day or day after.
If your film was kept cool throughout, I would suspect that it didn't print
on the right channel ( the printer will not detect film type of bulk loaded
film, either, and prints any bulk loaded film on the last setting from the
last roll unlest the operator manually changes it!)
Kodak has a new film- Portra. They are attempting to make a series of films,
in this case, the Porta 160NC, 400NC 160VC, and 400VC where the NC stands
for Natural Color, and the VC stands for Vibrant Color. Supposedly the
reponse slopes of all four films are the same, and will print using the same
channel. I believe Kodak is trying this with all their films eventually. The
Fuji Superia films may already be there- I've printed ISO 100, 200 and 400
on the same channel and the results are gorgeous. In fact, you might try
Superia film- it's really nice!
Dan
- -----Original Message-----
From: eferro <eferro@tbscc.com>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Monday, March 01, 1999 8:45 PM
Subject: [Leica] Color Film and my resurrected Leica addiction


>The Leica Users Group is the first news group to which I've subscribed so
>please excuse me if I don't do this posting right.  I don't have any
thought
>provoking philosophical questions to post but I do have a
>technical/preference question.
>
> I had a Leica II f when I was in high school which is about 30 years ago.
>Camera took absolutely beautiful pictures with wonderful contrast.  I
traded
>it in for a used M3 many years ago and when I went off to college, lost
>interest in photography.  Anyway, a few months ago, my daughter expressed
>some interest in learning how to take pictures so her grandfather gave her
a
>Nikon F2A that he's had for about 20 years that's had all of about 3 rolls
>of film run through it.  Anyway, I caught the Leica bug again and bought an
>M6 HM TTL and a Noctilux.
> I had always used VPS as my color film 25+ years ago.  I did some research
>and determined that VPS is still available for now, anyway.  I also
>determined that Royal Gold has a bit of a following.  I shot a roll of both
>through the camera and just as with the II F, the contrast and sharpness is
>so much better than my old Nikon and my daughter's.  What wasn't too
>impressive, however, was the coloration of the VPS.  The VPS had a
>greenish/blue cast.  The Royal Gold was beautiful. Pictures were shot with
a
>flash in a gym at my daughter's baskeball game.    Both rolls were
developed
>at the same time by the same processor.  Anyone else use VPS?  Anyone else
>seen this type of problem?  Anyone else have any comments on their
>preferences for color film?
>
> Also, I just bought a used MC meter for my M3.  I just got it and haven't
>sat down to figure out how it works.  There appears to be a red and a black
>scale of f stops and a switch with a red and black button on it.  I presume
>the switch selects the black and red f stops but what's the difference?
>
> Thanks for any comments.
>Ernie
> eferro@tbscc.com
>