Is velvia discontinued?

[Peter York]

The E6 party isn't over yet. The cover charge is pretty steep, though. Provia and Velvia 100 are available, and I believe Velvia 50 can still be purchased from Japan. All are excellent films when used properly. You may have to send your film out for developing as the number of labs offering this service has shrunk considerably.

[Lachlan 717]

You can also process it yourself.

[koh303]

and might be trickier to scan if that is what you have in mind.

There is nothing easier then scanning color negative, and nothing harder then scanning slide film.
Since color negatives today offer such excellent base structure tone and contrast, and if it is being scanned anyways, there is almost no reason to shoot reversal.

[Wayne]

Hi all,
I was calling some local (Cleveland,Ohio) labs to check on processing prices. One lab told me that velvia was no longer an option because the chemistry was to be discontinued. Did I hear him right? If Velvia is gone then what color films negative or positive will be reliably available? Thanks,

Bill

I don't think Velvia has been that reliably available for a while, so the answer to what color films will be reliably available is and has been Ektar and Provia. Expensive to buy but cheap to print. I'm putting all my eggs in the cheaper Ektar basket and if you liked Velvia you probably should too. Not that you'll confuse the two, but it is the more contrasty and saturated of the Kodak color negative sheet films.

[Drew Wiley]

Ektar isn't cheaper anymore. In fact, it's doubled in price since I last put some in the freezer. Don't know any solution to that, except shoot 4x5 when I don't actually need an 8x10 shot, and shoot roll film when that will do. But that concept doesn't work too well out on the trail, when I realistically carry only one given
format at a time. It's been a long time since any color sheet film had fully reliable supply. Even when it was routine, and every serious camera store sold a selection of three different brands (Kodak, Fuji, and Agfa), these companies would drive me nuts because they were constantly altering the specifics. Constant "new and improved" implied an endless learning curve for any critical application. And I have always hated anything on acetate base because it isn't dimensionally stable. Ektar has a few distinct color issues, but it is the most versatile color neg film I've ever encountered for non-portrait applications.

[B.S.Kumar]

If Velvia (or any other Japanese brand film) isn't available in your area see this thread.

Kumar

[Corran]

There is nothing easier then scanning color negative, and nothing harder then scanning slide film.

Pretty much everyone says the exact opposite. The only difficulty in scanning slides is having a scanner that can push through the density, while getting accurate colors and a good scan from negative film is more dependent on the scan operator's skill.

And no matter how hard you try, negative films just don't look like chromes.

Choose your tools as you see fit, of course.

[Duolab123]

I'm resigned to Fuji pulling the plug on Fujichrome. I am dreading the day but it's coming, I'm surprised it's lasted this long. The volume required to run these coating lines just isn't there anymore. Suppliers go broke, no one steps in to make some of the exotic chemicals required.
I give it a year, maybe two.
I hope I'm totally wrong, but with Cibachrome gone, I mostly shoot Kodak color negative film it's so easy to make ra-4 prints.
I still have a fall ritual every year of going out and blazing away with my Bronica making 6x6 slides, project them with an old Kindermann projector and listen to my wife ohh and ahh.
My Dad recorded my entire childhood with beautiful Kodachrome slides, I have them all nicely stored in Carousels. Used to make Cibachromes, now I scan with a Nikon Coolscan, never ceases to amaze me at the resolution of ASA 10 Kodachrome, mostly done with an Argus C-3 .
I love to process slides, I started in 9th grade process E-3, a photoflood for the reverse exposure. Now I have a nice Jobo CPP, still great fun..
Enjoy it while we can. And pray for Ferrania and a new generation of kids shooting film
Best Regards Mike

[Tim Meisburger]

I suspect we will see a fall to almost zero as the massive production lines become uneconomical, but hope that when the old machinery is finally abandoned that modern small-batch production techniques will be adopted to make color film at an economical sustainable and sustainable level. With computer controlled production I envision a day when you order up a batch of any old film whose recipe is in the database (even Kodakchrome) and a machine just cranks it out. Maybe I'm living in a pie-in-the-sky dreamworld, but I suspect the future of film is bright, colorful, and vivid.

[Fr. Mark]

I hope to shoot some bigger slides some day even if only MF (NB, I don't own a MF camera yet...nor roll film back yet for the Sinar I have). Mainly, I'm so impressed with old slides projected on the wall that my dad shot and I shot as a kid all 35mm stock a fair amount of it kodachrome that I'd love to see what 6x6 looks like or, better 5x7 or 8x10. At least 4x5. That's gotta be something to have slides you can (start to) appreciate just by holding them up to a well lit wall or on a light table. Maybe I could get part way there by reversal processing some LF Xray film...