>
> I agree on all counts, Velvia 50 is sharper, but I use Provia more.
>
Velvia 100 (not 100F) is actually better on the MTF graphs than Velvia 50.
When comparing high-contrast details, Velvia 50 appears better than Velvia
100 or Provia 100F, but when comparing lower contrast details, Velvia 100
pulls out ahead of both. Provia 100F is actually quite poor in this area.
All of the Velvia and Provia 100 speed films suffer from lateral halation,
so bleed-over of higher-contrast details is common.
Provia 100F is typically more "usable" than Velvia 50/100 because it is more
scannable and skintones stay more neutral. Velvia 100F is a lost cause and
simply doesn't seem to have a home--It's like Provia 100F with some
attitude--attitude which can be easily done in post. But Velvia 100F, like
Provia 100F, does give smoother skies.
Honestly, though, in MOST conditions, if you rate Velvia 100 at ISO 80 or
Velvia 50 at ISO 40, you are hard-pressed to identify a slide as being
Velvia and not Provia. They both are pretty saturated.
Still, both Provia and Velvia have more (apparent, in anyway, based on my
> scanning tests) resolution and less grain the Ilford FP4, my ~ISO100 black
> and white film of choice.
>
I've personally found FP4 to have horrid lateral halation issues, but others
seem to do OK. I suspect that part of my problem is the developer (DD-X) and
my agitation method.
> I do also find that scanned B&W have shockingly / disturbingly much
> more grain than wet-printed B&W, which is why I am taking to scanning my
> wet prints (where available). This has its own problems, but the grain is
> much less apparent.
>
I'm perfectly happy with wet-printed B&W and also find that digitizing an
8x10 print to be the best compromise. I can get better tonalities in the
darkroom print and then the scanned print is subject to editing. I haven't
done much of this, though.
> For colour, the only reason I use a hybrid workflow is because I have
> no taken to wet-printing colour (yet?), colour film (all of them) have a
> much wider gamut of colours than any DSLR I've seen, and medium format
> resolution is amazing.
>
I've gone to calling this "Delayed Digital Capture". In the end, it all
ends up as a digital file, but I'm just delaying the A-D step by using an
intermediate technology. This intermediate technology is in essence an
optical filter which changes the colors, contrasts, etc. Sometimes you want
it to be as close to linear as possible, other times, you want to embrace
what it is doing. Inotherwords, Velvia is just another form of Cokin
filter.
I absolutely agree about the wider gamut of colors. Sunset/Sunrise skies
are extremely troublesome for digital cameras. The way the high values
block up and transition is very ugly and HDR is usually the only way to make
the images anywhere near acceptable. Meanwhile, film has a self-attenuation
mechanism with extreme bright sources.
AG
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