Scanning New Fuji Color Negs

[Kirk Gittings]

I have been doing some casual priliminary tests on the new Fuji Pro160S 120 vs. NPS 120 color negative films for scanning purposes. It is supposed to be designed for scanning. My initial tests are very promising and some what surprising. I just cross shot some on some halogen lit interiors for a quicky test. I do not have a proper profile for the new film yet so I just used the NPS profile for both.

The film has a much more nuetral and thinner orange mask.

Very similar contrast.

It has less reciprocity failure or higher effective asa. I'm not sure which at this point. Exposures were 8 sec.

The film is much finer grain, and displays much less shadow noise in the scan. Why a film would display less shadow noise confuses me a bit at this time.

Initially this appears to be a much better film for scanning. I'll let you know when I do more sophisticated tests.

[Roger Richards]

Hi Kirk, I am looking forward to hearing your results. I just got some Pro 160S in 8x10 that I have not shot yet and am hoping that it is indeed improved over NPS, which is a pretty decent film.

[chris jordan]

Hi Kirk, I'm interesting in this subject also. I have been shooting Astia 100F lately, which is incredibly fine-grained and fantastic for scanning, but it doesn't have the long tonal range of a negative film (although it comes dang close, especially in soft light). I have been wanting to try the new Fuji negative film for harsher light conditions that would blow out the trannies, so any results you come up with will be appreciated here.

Cheers,

~cj

[robc]

www.gnyman.com/FujiPro160.htm

[Richard Martel]

I found the site below to be of interest in scanning color negative film. I have had good luck scanning Kodak ultra color 100UC. Using a Mikrotek Artixscan 1800f, I had posterization in the brighter portion of the clouds using Silverfast but no posterization using the Microtek software. This was scanning in 16 bit (12 bit?) and scanning as a positive. After setting black and white point I used curves for contrast adjustment. Picked up some Fuji Pro160S this week and look forward to comparing to the Kodak stuff. Since I'm scanning color neg film as a positive ( 'chrome) I'm going to recalibrate the scanner with a 4x5 chrome calibration target to see if that eliminates the posterization. The colors with the Kodak film is not as saturated as Velvia or Provia but more like they are to MY naked eye. But a very broad contrast range.

http://www.c-f-systems.com/ColorNegs.html

Richard Martel

[Eric Fredine]

Chris,

I shoot Astia when the scene allows it and NPS - now Pro 160s - otherwise. It's a very effective combination. But getting the colour 'just right' with scanned colour negatives is more difficult - sometimes much more difficut. I've just been experimenting with the tool Richard references above and the preliminary results are very encouraging.

I've shot a few sheets of Pro 160s and Pro 160c - no formal tests but they don't seem to be dramatically different from NPS.

Cheers,
Eric

[Kirk Gittings]

Here is a detail from the text at the right 6x9 film. NPS profile adjusted for color and density only. At 100% from a 4800 ppi scan on a Epson 4990 Silverfast with no sharpening.

[Ed Richards]

Great looking show!

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks Ed. It came down today!

[julian_4860]

>>http://www.c-f-systems.com/ColorNegs.html

I use NegPos and it is the biggest single improvement I've ever made in scanning colour neg. Takes a whil to get to grips with, but worth the effort. It is th eonly app that gives you total control of the neg to pos conversion process