I currently use only b/w film in 4x5 format as I want to be in control of the en tire process from exposure to final print and do not have a color darkroom or ex perience. That said, I can well imagine doing color work (for hobby art photogra phy -- landscapes and still-lifes) in the future when I can better afford high-e nd digital printing.

So I am tempted to make color exposures this year with the plan of ultimately making high quality scans of the more successful exp osures and working further with those. I've read what I could find in the archiv es and one terse magazine article, but would like further opinions.

I would prefer a film that will likely be available for years in 4x5 sheets as I would prefer to have a single calibration. Negative film seems to require more careful calibration at the time of scanning but perhaps this is not much of an issue if I can keep to a single film (under similar storage conditions). On the other hand, slide film if pulled for low contrast might give most of the range o f negative film. E.g. Ektachrome Pro 100 (EPN) at EI50 might have most of non-pu lled negative film's contrast range with all of the advantages of a positive image on film and easier calibration. I 'd lose a couple stops compared to e.g. Portra 160NC though...

Since I don't expect to be making the scans for a couple years this might involv e some forecasting about what the optimal parameters for scanning will be in the future. Also, color fidelity does not seem particulary important, but capturing as much information on the film does.

So with that orientation, what should I load my holders with? Thanks in advance for all your conflicting opinions!! :-)