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[OM] Back; Kodachrome; Utah (long!)

Subject: [OM] Back; Kodachrome; Utah (long!)
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 09:02:59 -0500
Howdy Zuiks,
I've been back from my week in Utah for a while now but have only just finally got res*bscribed after a week catching up on my life. It's good to see the new TOPE and the interesting thread on the F280.

I shot 11 rolls of Velvia, 2 Provia F, 3 Royal Gold 100 (mostly handhelds with OMPC in the "off" light times), and 6 rolls of Kodachrome 25, almost entirely in Navajo Utah/AZ (there was a brief side trip to Sedona to see Cathedral Rock -- or I should say Cathedral Rock with people and dogs crawling all over everywhere, laughing and the guys with cameras on tripods). The E6 film has all come back from Fuji in Phoenix (where the mailer envelopes take it) and Saturday I got the first 3 of the six rolls of Kodachrome back.

Chuck Norcutt asked if anyone had had a roll of Kodachrome ruined by Qualex in Fairlawn NJ (where the mailer envelopes take Kodachrome). I can't complain about this. I like their online tracking system, although one has to marvel at their candor in indicating that film is due to be returned on, say, May 16 and then is actually noted as having been returned three days later than that. Oh well, it's good to have goals. The goal at the moment seems to be to do everyone else's film before the mailers. But it makes a difference to one's peace of mind when you can see what's going on, even if it points up that the Fairlawn folks are kinda slow. I will keep using Fairlawn, never having been spoiled by much faster turnaround anyway.

And I think I'll probably buy as much Kodachrome 25 as I can find and safely store. I just looked at the Kodachrome on light bench last night. The OM-4 did a great job with it. I mostly relied on the center-weighted averaged reading and shot +2/3 and -2/3 brackets. You either get it right with that film or you don't. In every case there is only one useable frame. Fortunately, I got a useable frame almost every setting where I used it, and it was mostly where the meter said it should be.

That said, I wouldn't say that Kodachrome displaces either Velvia or Provia F. Particularly in slightly flatter light, Velvia is just great. Probably for the same cause Velvia is just too much of a good thing in some magic hour settings (Donald's flaming red cows), particularly within an hour after sun up. This is where Kodachrome is really peerless.

Early on in the trip I tried to shoot the same scene with both Kodachrome and Velvia for comparison. I didn't keep this up the whole trip, instead shooting Kodachrome in locations where I had been successful on previous trips shooting Velvia or Provia F. I will try to web out some comparison images just for fun one of these days.

We had wonderful weather for shooting. Bryce in particular was great. Fortunately I decided to shoot several rolls of Provia F there. I prefer the greens of Provia F to either Kodachrome or Velvia (whose greens are a tiny bit more yellowish than Provia's). The thing about Bryce is the gorgeous intermix of trees among the orange hoodoos. Provia F is just great for this.

At least I've narrowed it down to 3 slide films!  <g>

If you're still with me, I left for Utah having listed all the lenses and bods I planned to take, including 85-250/5 and four primes (85, 100, 135, and 180) within the range of the zoom that I also intended to take. A bit redundant, I know, but I found that I used all the lenses. I enjoyed using the primes whenever I could, primes being more enjoyable to use, but when the zoom gets you a shot you couldn't have gotten otherwise, you learn to love and respect it. The 85-250/5 did me yeoman's service.

Finally, I brought back an amazing amount of data on my exposures thanks to the purchase of a digital voice recorder which allowed me to make quick little voice notations and store them in separate folders representing each camera body and film type for later transcription to paper. Since I've never been good at keeping records, this is a breakthrough for me. The counter on an OM body sure is hard to read at times, isn't it? I'd never noticed that before.

yours rambling on,
Joel W.








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