Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] [OT] Sensia II vs. Provia. Was: Kodachrome vs Provia

Subject: Re: [OM] [OT] Sensia II vs. Provia. Was: Kodachrome vs Provia
From: Thomas Bryhn <thomas.bryhn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 19:16:09 +0200
At 17:27 26.09.01, Bernd Moeller wrote:
The cited test results were for Provia F 100. My mistake to forget the "F".

I also think that Provia F 100 is the finest film available - it's my favourite.

Funny, however, that the independant test reveals slightly lower resolution for it compared to Sensia. Could be a typo.

Resolution has never been touted as the forte of Provia F100, it's the lack of grain. I would also like to add that the numbers cited for resolution is pure BS (not from the list members, from the testers): They measure resolution with a contrast range of 1000:1, that's about 10 stops. How many of you are shooting under those conditions?!? On rare occasions you can have small back lighted objects (like grass straws against a very bright sky), but you should really look at the second number in the tests, the resolution with contrast 1.6:1, or about 2/3 of a stop. That should be a much more realistic and sobering value for normal shooting.

As to the topic, Sensia II vs. Provia, the earlier Sensia was the amateur version of Provia (not F). Later came Sensia II, the amateur version of Astia. The name has now changed back to Sensia, but the emulsion code is still RA, amateur Astia. I use this film almost exclusively, with some rolls of Velvia for special occasions (read dull and grey light). I really like the soft contrast for landscape, and it's also great for night photos where contrast easily gets out of control. My personal "rule" is to expect detail in 6 stops for Sensia, 5.5 stops for Provia F100, but only 5 stops for Velvia. Unfortunately, Velvia is also much more saturated than the other two, otherwise these three films would've made a great "zone system lite". (Tris, you needed an excuse to have more bodies, didn't you?) A norwegian photo magazin ran an article about pushing and pulling slide films a few weeks ago, and it seemed Velvia could be pulled at least 2/3 of a stop, resulting in much lower contrast, but I suspect that grain would be objectionable if you tried to increase contrast in Sensia to Velvia-level by pushing. Too bad, 'cause I certainly can't afford shooting Velvia as my standard film and then pay for push processing, and I don't like the saturation for normal shooting either.

Regards,
Thomas Bryhn


< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz