New Velvia 50 (RVP50) film

[AVCHD]

Just receive the new Velvia 50 (RVP50) 8x10 this morning. Will try it later. Everything in the box looks similar to the old one.

I remember in the past that some people rated Velvia 50 as ISO60. Should I also rate the new film as ISO 60?

[Mark Stahlke]

Should I also rate the new film as ISO 60?
Try it and let us know. :D

I'm looking forward to your review and comparison to the old Velvia 50.

Cheers,
Mark

[Brian Vuillemenot]

I remember in the past that some people rated Velvia 50 as ISO60. Should I also rate the new film as ISO 60?

Most of the people I knew who used the old Velvia 50 rated it as ISO 40. The reason it was rated ISO 50 was so it would be underexposed to increase the color saturation. For most people, myself included, rating it slightly slower, at ISO 40, was the ideal exposure, leading to saturated colors without excessive underexposure. I'm not sure about the new stuff.

[Baxter Bradford]

If it is truly identical to the original RVP50, then rate at ISO40 as Brian has said.

[Ben Chase]

I'm sure there are A LOT of us waiting to hear the field reports about this film.

Good Lord, shooting LF landscape lends itself to slow enough exposures, I don't know whether or not the ISO 40 version's return is going to be frought with joy and celebration, or instead the utterance of colorful expletives when a wind kicks up and blurs your foreground vegetation because your exposure times have doubled from what we've become used to.

Either way - I plan on trying some.

[Ted Harris]

Tests finished and the new Velvia 50 is ALMOST identical to the original Velvia 50 .... well maybe more than almost. I say almost because on very close examination two of us saw what might be a slightly, very slightly higher saturation of magenta on the new but it could also have been a cahange in the light. MIGHT have been there in two of the three scenes shot but definitely not there in the third. So, for all intents and purposes identical is the word.

Look for the images and a full report in the July-August issue of View Camera. Also a big thanks to Dïrk Rossler of megaperls for getting the film to me so fast!!!

[Scott Rosenberg]

ted,

original velvia is notoriously difficult to scan... do you have any feel for how the new stuff scans?

scott

[Dave Parker]

Well I have shot the old version since about day one and never rated it at ISO 60, but 99% of the time rated it at ISO 40..

Let us know how it works, and how it compares to the old version of ISO 50

Dave

[Paul Metcalf]

Most of the people I knew who used the old Velvia 50 rated it as ISO 40. The reason it was rated ISO 50 was so it would be underexposed to increase the color saturation. For most people, myself included, rating it slightly slower, at ISO 40, was the ideal exposure, leading to saturated colors without excessive underexposure. I'm not sure about the new stuff.
The lower rating was to really utilize the same processing times as other E6 films, as fujifilm requires a bit more time in the developer. So at ISO 40 you're really overexposing and underdeveloping if you use the standard first developer time. Tetenal suggests 16% longer in first developer over Agfachrome or Ektachrome.

[Mark Stahlke]

How you rate the film really depends on your meter. When I started shooting Velvia 50 in 135, I always bracketed by plus and minus 1/3 of a stop. It didn't take me too long to figure out that if I rated the film at ISO 64 I got the exposures I liked with that meter. I heard a lot of people rated Velvia at ISO 40 and I wondered if they were crazy. No, they're not crazy. It's just that their meters read a little different than mine. When I started shooting LF (using a different meter) I found that I got satisfactory results rating Velvia at ISO 50.

Bottom line: try a few shots at different ISOs and pick the one you like.

Cheers,
Mark

[roteague]

I remember in the past that some people rated Velvia 50 as ISO60. Should I also rate the new film as ISO 60?

I've never heard of anyone rating it at 60. 40 and 50, yes.

[Jim Rice]

Count me among the 40 crowd. Damn, now I need to start saving for a box of 8x10.