Color neg film for landscapes

[Dick Clark]

I know some of you out there use color negative sheet film for landscapes. I wa s thinking it might be the ticket for high contrast situations or when I have to make each shot count (more lattitude than chromes) Fuji NPS seems to be popular , but what about the Kodak Portra VC 160? Or any other brands?

THe other thing I am concerned about is the reciprocity shifts during long expos ures. I remember seeing the film data sheet for VPC and VHC and for multi-secon d exposures, it said NR, for Not Recommended. Can you shoot today's color neg films at 2-20 seconds and still get decent color ?

THX

T

[Glenn Kroeger]

Todd:

I used to shoot alot of VHC... then shot with Kodak Pro100. I think the higher contrast Portra film is pretty similar to Pro100, and it had better reciprocity characteristics than the old VPS and VHC. With all of these films, I got my best results when rating them at 2/3 stop slower than Kodak. Haven't used NPS in the field, but keep waiting for it in Quickload to try.

[David.R.Williams]

Todd: I do not own a large fomat camera, but I am looking at getting one before summer get's here. At that time I will be trying out differ'nt films. Anyway, the reason I wanted to give you a response was to tell you that I've used KODAK PORTRA 160 VC in many differ'nt enviorments. Even though last time I was up in the Pacific Northwest I shot mostly with FUJI PROVIA 100 & ASTIA 100, I did test out some PORTRA 160 VC, up to 10 seconds, with great results. It's 35mm film that I was using with a NIKON F5 system. I'm not sure how differ'nt the make up of 35mm vs 4 x 5, but the 160 VC in 35mm is pretty good stuff ***IF*** you need negative print film. GOOD LUCK!

[Dick Deimel]

Try Agfa Optima 100. I find it very satisfactory, besides being cheaper. I haven't used the new Agfa Optima II yet, but it's supposed to be even better.

[Leonard Metcalf]

Would love to hear peoples current comments on this topic.

NPS or Porta VC? What are the characteristics of each.

Long exposures? 1 minute?

Will be scanning for printing, and would prefer quickload or ready loads...

Is there anyone out there using these films for their colour landscapes on the forum or do you know of anyone? Would love to see some of their work.

Thanks

[Juergen Sattler]

Hi,

yes I do use Porta 160VC for landscape photography - I rated it at 100 though - I think consistent with most people using that film. I never had any problems with reciprocity failures - and I did use the film in low light situations. The colors are vibrant and the latitude (foregiveness :-) of the film is really impressive. I do my own darkroom work and pretty much standardized on the 160. For portraiture I use the 160NC - has better skin tones than the 160VC. Sorry no scans - I have not come around buying a scanner yet. Hope this helps.

Juergen

[Sal Santamaura]

"Haven't used NPS in the field, but keep waiting for it in Quickload to try."

Glenn, NPS Quickloads have been available for years.