Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello friends, I had the opportunity to shoot a roll of Provia 100 F. I made a comparison on some pictures with E100 VS. Note this is not a test, I used only one lighting condition and on landscape pictures only. Side by side with the E100VS slides, the Provia slides seem washed out. Saturation is far lower. Lower than E100S too. The E100VS slides show excellent details in the shadow areas when the Provia slides loose a lot of contrast in zone III leading to hardly visible dark details. In zones IV to VII, the Provia slides show subtle variations of colors and densities when the E100 create some artificial differences between shades. In zone VIII, the two films present an excellent response with, again, shades rendered with subtlety on Provia slides and punch on E100 ones. The E100 film shows an excellent (excessive?) micro contrast. Provia is far softer. So fine details seem sharper on the Kodak film. But in term of definition by itself the finer grain gives the advantage to Fuji. It can resolve details lost in the grain of E100VS film. The grain is incredibly fine but a little bit fuzzy on the Provia slides. In dark areas, the E100VS grain structure is clearly visible at a 40X magnification and a similar structure appears only at a 100X magnification with Provia. Interesting enough, in highlights, the difference is far smaller (though evident). The grain structure of the Provia F film shows a more regular grain pattern than E100VS, looking somewhat like what we can see on negative films. I'm not sure but I have the feeling that the Fuji film is thinner. Color rendition is far warmer with the E100VS. Provia F seems neutral, maybe very slightly greenish (on brown, blue or white zones, not on gray). Strangely enough, the skin tones are a little too reddish for my taste. A word of caution: it's almost impossible to judge color balance on early production batches of a film. Temporary conclusion: Fuji insists on the thinness of grain of Provia 100F and they are right. Too bad this comes without a real gain in sharpness. The fuzzy grain structure makes me doubt, but I may be wrong, that the same technology could give a high accutance film. Can this grain size be maintained with a higher contrast-saturation film? I don't know. Anyway, the new film is an interesting option when high contrast or saturation is not wanted or useless. And note that if may be easier to scan or print (Ciba) a less contrasty / saturated film. IMVHO, it's not a quantum leap, though... All the best, - -- Jean-Claude Berger (jcberger@jcberger.com) Systems and RDBMS consultant (MCSE) Lyon, France http://www.jcberger.com