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

[Ross Martin]

Hi all,

Looking for opinions, observations, comparisons, comments, subtle pros and cons of these two transparencies films, especially for landscape photography. Let me say that I have used Velvia almost exclusively for the last several years, but have recently gone through a couple hundred sheets of E100VS. In direct compari sons from the same composition, I'm seeing the VS pull out intense color in brow ns, reds, oranges that Velvia doesn't and to my eye the VS really pops on the li ght table. Jack Dykinga and other landscape pros have reported that VS is sligh tly less contrasty than Velvia. But we all see differently and I would love to hear from some of you regarding one or both of thes two films, which one you pre fer for landscapes and why.

Thanks for your input to this discussion,

[John Burnley]

I am nont thrilled with either of them for shooting large format, actually. I prefer Kodak Ektachrome E100S due to its lower contrast image and (still) high color saturation. I also appreciate its amazing reciprocity characteristics. To my eye the colors of E100s (or sw) are more real than Velvia or VS (some batches of which I found to be excessively grainy).

[Nathaniel Paust]

I tend to shoot Velvia because I get a huge thrill plunking my transparencies on the light box and looking at them with a fairly powerfull loupe. E100VS looks pretty grainy to my eye.

[Scott Bacon]

I shot a box of E100VS when it first hit the market. I experienced a blue cast in the shadows and in low light situations. So I haven't used it since. I'm happily shooting away with Velvia, Provia 100F and E100SW. Perhaps Kodak has made some improvements since the first release? If you like you're results, by all means, keep using it! And maybe I should give it another try.

[Ted Harris]

Take a look at the article in this month's View Camera on this very subject.

BTW, why jsut those two? I used to use Velvia almost exclusively for landscapes but now find my self using Provia almost as much. 

[heidis]

I've tried E100VS and don't really care for it...anything illuminated by "blue sky" became overpoweringly blue, and red subjects such as red maples fused into a solid mass of red with virtually no shading or variation. It's also noticeably more grainy than Velvia.

I prefer Velvia overall, and consider it my standard, but if I need the extra speed I'll use Provia 100F. I haven't tried E100S - perhaps I should - but after trying E100SW in 120, I decided not to bother with Kodak color film anymore. IMO it gave everything a sickly yellow cast rather than the warmth that would come from natural early/late sunlight.

Regards, Danny Burk www.dannyburk.com

[DJACKSON]

Dykinga does deserts. Dykinga shoots browns, reds and oranges. That perhaps is when he finds E 100 VS useful. The landscape that I shoot is green. Ferns, mosses, foliage, green canopy forests, wet weather grasses. Velvia vitalizes green in a way that E 100 VS lacks. At 8 second exposure I open up 1 f-stop, the cumulation of using Velvia 40 film speed rather than the listed 50 ISO rating, and adding another 1/2 stop because of reciprocity failure. I stopped using the magenta filtration gels that I bought. For the forest/foliage scenes that I shoot, I like the green shift that Velvia (absent magenta filtration) gives with exposures longer than 1 second. Provia is a real contender especially when I need extra speed or depth of field. No reciprocity failure. Virtually no color shift with long exposure. Sharper resolution than Velvia. But greens are not as intense/vibrant. Where I live I do not experience the intense blue skies like you find in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico; here the sky tends to be hazy and pale blue, sometimes almost pastel blue-white. I am talking about at the coast, not in the mountains. Velvia boosts the blue at the coast just enough to render the sky more picturesque. Up high, say at 8000 feet, this boost might be unacceptable. Both Velvia and Provia are very demanding. If exposure is 1/2 f stop under or overexposed, it will be apparent. But I lack skill at measuring correctly. I usually bracket at + 1/2 f stops 2x above metered exposure. This compensates for the warming or skylight filter that I usually add. I would assume that with E 100 VS you would not want to use warming filters, as it already has a warming bu

[David A. Goldfarb]

Both look like the old Las Vegas strip to me. Absolutely lurid except in the the flattest of light, and then maybe not even then.

I like more neutral films like Provia 100F, Astia even, EPN. They look more like the world to me.

The super-saturated films might sell more to tasteless art directors and calender publishers, but I'm not shooting for them.

[Thilo Schmid]

Ross,

I agree that E100VS "pops on the light table", even compared to Velvia. But unfortunately is this not the usual way to look at pictures. On the one hand, it is very difficult to transfer this impression onto paper. On the other hand, in a digital print / on a monitor any film may yield any color saturation.

Because of the Color Side Densities, conventional prints from slide film usually look not as good as those from color negative film, especially when looking at the deep saturated colors that look so good on light tables.

Regards,

[dan nguyen]

I use mostly Provia and Velvia and tried E100VS a few times and it seems to me the saturation is a bit too strong and yes, the colors lean towards warm tone...For consistency sake I use only Provia or Velvia...