Which do you prefer and why - Kodak E100VS or Fuji Velvia?

[Ross Martin]

Hi Adam! Look forward to shooting alongside you again this year! Thanks for thoughtfully weighing in on this issue.

And to everyone else who has shared, especially Kerry in his typically thorough and well-researched way, thanks again. All of your opinions have been valuable to me, though I got a chuckle at how "dreadful" these saturated films appear to some of you

I have decided that for now I will carry both E100VS and Velvia along with their respective Quickload/Readyload holders and will use both films as the scene and my personal taste dictates.

Best regards to all,

[Michael Mutmansky]

Kerry and everyone,

As a followup question to the excellent article in VC and the comments here, I was wondering if you could comment on two aspects of 100VS WRT Velvia.

I have been thinking about trying some VS for a while, primarily because of the additional speed of the film, but also because of the slightly different pallate. Now that they have finally worked the bugs out of the RL holders, I am going to try it for myself.

The first question is filtration. My experience with Velvia is that it takes filtration more readily than other films, presumably because of the higher color saturation. When I used to use an 81B, I now use an 81A, for example, because the 81B will be too much for Velvia. "Black Skies" is another example of the film taking the filtration more than another film would in the same situation, and is related to the higher contrast of Velvia. What have you seen in the 100VS? Do they take filtration in a similar manner? It'll require some retraining if they differ...

The second question has to do with UV sensitivity at altitude. Ths is tied to the above issue, I believe. I find that Velvia goes excessively blue at higher altitudes (starting around 7500-8000 feet). I always use filtration to counteract that effect, however, I don't like to do so, because it slows down the process, and puts another piece of glass in between the film and the subject. Unfortunately, this will cause flare problems at times. What is your experience with 100VS at higher altitudes?

I will try the film for myself, but I won't be able to try it at higher altitudes until I get out to Colorado this summer, so I thought I might gain some insight from your experience.

This discussion, and your article in VC is all that I needed to convince myself that it is worth the effort to try this film myself.

Thanks for any thoughts anyone may have.

---Michael