Holy SH*T!!! Seen the price of 8X10 Fuji lately?

[Daniel Stone]

Was just on B+H's site, holy moley!!! 8X10 Provia is up to $220/box!!! I thought that $179/box was a lot, sheesh.... Gotta really be choosy now for color shots.... Or go back to shooting more 4x5(which I really don't want to do, 8x10 provides SOOOOOO much better scans....)

$260 for Velvia 100 8x10

same prices over @ Badger too:

https://www.badgergraphic.com/store/cart.php?m=product_list&c=252


eek!!!

[vinny]

good thing you sold your 4x5 gear. We're lucky there's any for sale at all. I for one, won't be buying any more 8x10 color film. I've got a ton in the freezer and at this rate, I'll be making e6 chems from scratch buy the time I anywhere close to the last box.

[Daniel Stone]

I've got some E100G stashed away, but I was counting on Provia being there when that supply runs out... But at these kind of prices, I'm going to have to win the lottery if I want to shoot it...

-Dan

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

You think stuff is expensive now? Wait! As the value of the dollar gets hammered you will see the price of everything go up, including the price of film and the chemicals to process them.

[ROL]

But what do you do with your scans? Are you making billboard size prints intended to be seen at arm's length? If you're not printing it optically, what is the point of large color transparency film these days? Maybe it's time to downsize if the prices are too much. Enquiring minds want to know.

[Daniel Stone]

@ROL

I'm drum scanning them, with intention to print via lightjet onto Fuji glossy/supergloss when I have something wall-worthy. Not "huge" prints, mostly 16x20's, but after looking at comparison shots between 4x5 chromes and 8x10 chromes(shot with comparable FOV focal length lenses between the two formats), the 8x10 shots had more "space". Its kinda hard to write in words, but to my eyes, the tiny details that were in the 8x10's were easily resolved, where as with the 4x5, they were not as sharp or well-defined. Just what MY eyes saw.

I know that many here feel 4x5 is "enough". I'm not one to just do the "minimum", I want to know I got it... I shoot primarily rollfilm these days actually, and have taken some of those 6x6(HB) shots up to 30x30" @300dpi output. I feel this is the maximum for MY image quality requirements, where details are still very well defined, but film grain is not overpowering... I don't look to make my shots "grainless", but smooth tonality is what makes me continue to shoot film...

After seeing these prices this morning, I'm now re-considering selling some of these remaining lenses I have for sale...

-Dan

[tgtaylor]

Actually the Fuji prices are in line with the competition and, as always in the past, priced below Kodak. Kodak packages in 10 sheet boxes which works out to around $14/sheet whereas Fuj's come in 20 sheet boxes for around $11/sheet. Still expensive, of course, and I would make damn sure that I wanted that shot before tripping the shutter.

Thomas

[Joseph O'Neil]

Was just on B+H's site, holy moley!!! 8X10 Provia is up to $220/box!!! I thought that $179/box was a lot, sheesh.... Gotta really be choosy now for color shots.... Or go back to shooting more 4x5(which I really don't want to do, 8x10 provides SOOOOOO much better scans....)
eek!!!

-snip-

When the price here in Canada for a 50 sheet box of 4x5 tri-x jumped form $59 to $129 in about a two year time span, you know, I had pretty much the same reaction as you did. But then the price of a *good quality* 32GB SD card for my D7000 is $100 up here in Canada, and my camera takes two of them, and can you ever fry one of those suckers real fast with the slightest "carpet shock", so , maybe the film isn't so bad afterall....
:)

[vinny]

But what do you do with your scans? Are you making billboard size prints intended to be seen at arm's length? If you're not printing it optically, what is the point of large color transparency film these days? Maybe it's time to downsize if the prices are too much. Enquiring minds want to know.

I own a couple drum scanners as well. 8x10 is just better, but you already knew that.

[timparkin]

I own a couple drum scanners as well. 8x10 is just better, but you already knew that.

Is this from experience of scanning the same shot taken on 8x10 and 4x5 and printing both? I've done this and I can't see a difference until I reach 30x40 and then it's very, very close. This excludes grain in c41 or neg though - even then it's almost a match at up to nearly 30x40. I tested against specific targets and with a landscape shot. I've tested with Inkjet prints on an Epson 4800. I applied 'appropriate' sharpening to each image - the thing to be wary of with an 8x10 scan is that it gets sharper as it is reduced. This can make it sharper than the equivalent 5x4. Also the tolerance for good lenses is less - The test I made was the big cameras comparison done last christmas - 5x4 with a Schneider 110mm SSXL, 8x10 with a Fuji 240A. We also shot the landscape image with a Fuji 180A on the 5x4 and a Schneider Symmar 360 on the 10x8.

This is not to say that the 10x8's weren't substantially better - yes they were!!

Tim

[vinny]

I see a difference (detail) in my darkroom enlargements at 11x14 and the same with lightjets. I don't know how you wouldn't see it. What I can say is that my enlargements from 8x10 film (both darkroom and drum scanned), blow my mind and I'm only 35 years old and have terrible vision w/o my glasses. I'm gonna drink a beer to that right now.

[ROL]

Its kinda hard to write in words, but to my eyes, the tiny details that were in the 8x10's were easily resolved, where as with the 4x5, they were not as sharp or well-defined. Just what MY eyes saw.

Your process. Right on.

[Greg Y]

Thanks ROL ..... You read my mind.... :)

[Robert Jonathan]

I've been out of the large format world for a few months now, and I recently saw those new prices for the Fuji 8x10 film... Holy SH*T is right. Still cheaper than Kodak though.

But it made me laugh, because I had bought 3 boxes of 8x10 Provia (60 sheets) at the $169 per box price, which made me very happy. They're still sitting in the fridge.

Also, E100G in 4x5 and 8x10 at B&H is GONE, and Astia in 4x5 is GONE (there used to be some boxes in stock not too long ago).

[Brian Ellis]

I don't know what 8x10 color negative film costs these days but if it's a lot less than slide film you might switch to negative film. With 16x20 prints I never noticed any difference in the final print between enlarged 4x5 and 8x10 negative film.

[Brian C. Miller]

I recently did a test for myself with Ektar and E100VS. Never mind the price difference, what's truly important is how the films render the scene. I found the chrome to essentially highlight the subject by dropping off the shadows. (I was photographing flowering bushes in the shade) The rendering of the scene is really so different, that chrome and negatives really aren't interchangeable. Yeah, they're both color, but chrome material is effectively as unique as infrared.