Velvia 50 4x5 and 8x10 and Fujicolor 160NS Professional 120 discontinued

[Drew Wiley]

Sergey - If I was young today and could afford it (which I certainly couldn't have when I was actually young), I would have jumped at the opportunity now available to cross back and forth over the line between still and video using the same portable equipment. The line is blurring. But I am grateful in another way that it never happened. I enjoy the challenge of being corralled within a single frame, which sure doesn't stop me from admiring some of the things being done with the democratization of moving images these days, but which I tend to look at as a completely different family of art genre. I'm also grateful to have restricted myself to actual film and darkroom printing.

Whether or not digital capture does a good job with color objectivity is almost a moot point. The bottleneck is trying to deliver equal quality in the print. So by "images" what do you mean? Some halfway point where you've just got an ethereal cyber image, or something on a screen? Inkjet?? - now that's hardly a satisfying media if one expects good reproduction of subtle hues, even if it is convenient for many. "Accurate" colors that manner? - who ya kidding? I'd rather be dealing with the idiosyncrasies of specific film signatures, and at least have the opportunity to still print them directly, optically. Yes, I'm aware of certain alternate paths, if one has enough budget and is willing to jump through enough hoops; but I'm running out of time for the learning curve of any more wild goose chases. To each his own.

[Drew Wiley]

Alan - It's hard to compare printable chromes from just web effective ones. Hopefully you'll start whittling on that stick soon. But it does appear you are getting comfortable with the restricted high-contrast scale of Velvia, which means you'll probably do fine with the slightly wider latitude of E100 Ektachrome if Velvia has the rug pulled out from under it completely. Enjoy it while you can.

[SergeyT]

Drew, I have nothing against video, other than , despite many similarities, it is in a different realm from still.
You can find many examples of "quality video" produced by photographers (vlogs of their photographic adventures) to only notice over time that it becomes more about video than photography and then the point of making video becomes to make the video [on time to keep the crowd visiting ?]. I am not looking to make a diversions at this point. Ever tried to work with 2 cameras at the same time, especially in changing light or circumstances?

[unityofsaints]

I wonder if this guy will do another big buy?
https://petapixel.com/2013/07/04/thi...rapher-100000/

[SergeyT]

Do you want to guess his name ?
Drew probably knows him...
My take - his initials are likely CB.

[Drew Wiley]

I don't think he'd be the one. He's getting old, no doubt is having difficulty with bigger cameras like 8x10, and either unable or unwilling to transfer from Ciba once his remaining inventories of that inevitably either soon run out or are outright outdated in terms of reliability. And Velvia is NOT a very friendly film for Ciba at all, due to its already excessively high contrast, though I have certainly printed my own share of Velvia onto Ciba - sometimes requiring a whopping .90 max density contrast mask! Velvia really had to be beaten into submission, and that required an especially powerful colorhead too. I suspect CB learned way back that other chrome films are a lot more cooperative, though I never personally met him. His specific set of masking protocols is quite a bit different than mine anyway, and now Ciba is a moot point anyway; it's almost totally extinct.

The biggest problem with any kind of color sheet film when masks are involved is keeping them in register, which ideally needs a polyester-based film and not triacetate, which is miserable in that respect, being dimensionally unstable. Fortunately for me, Kodak's color sheet films are now finally on superior Estar base, including Ektar, which along with Fujiflex Supergloss, is the "new Ciba" for me, and even distinctly easier to print.

But I wonder if that stash of film is all actually for personal use. Seems doubtful. There are way more sheets in that pile than I've ever shot in my entire life. 8x10 cameras don't come with illegal long clips and bump-stocks, ala Al Capone Tommy gun shooting style.

[Michael R]

If I remember correctly “CB” said he was done when his Ciba stock fails. It has already shifted enough that there are certain images he will no longer print.

Did he even use Velvia? I’d be surprised. Granted he’s as good as it gets with masking, but still.

Or maybe he has a new plan.

I don't think he'd be the one. He's getting old, no doubt is having difficulty with bigger cameras like 8x10, and either unable or unwilling to transfer from Ciba once his remaining inventories of that inevitably either soon run out or are outright outdated in terms of reliability. And Velvia is NOT a very friendly film for Ciba at all, due to its already excessively high contrast, though I have certainly printed my own share of Velvia onto Ciba - sometimes requiring a whopping .90 max density contrast mask! Velvia really had to be beaten into submission, and that required an especially powerful colorhead too. I suspect CB learned way back that other chrome films are a lot more cooperative, though I never personally met him. His specific set of masking protocols is quite a bit different than mine anyway, and now Ciba is a moot point anyway; it's almost totally extinct.

The biggest problem with any kind of color sheet film when masks are involved is keeping them in register, which ideally needs a polyester-based film and not triacetate, which is miserable in that respect, being dimensionally unstable. Fortunately for me, Kodak's color sheet films are now finally on superior Estar base, including Ektar, which along with Fujiflex Supergloss, is the "new Ciba" for me, and even distinctly easier to print.

But I wonder if that stash of film is all actually for personal use. Seems doubtful. There are way more sheets in that pile than I've ever shot in my entire life. 8x10 cameras don't come with illegal long clips and bump-stocks, ala Al Capone Tommy gun shooting style.

[Drew Wiley]

I suspect he'll retire. Where he came up with all his money to begin with, I don't know, and would never ask anyway. But not everyone starts out with a 90K enlarger and 11K lens - in fact it doesn't make a whit of difference in terms of actual print quality over something say, in the 20K Durst range at the same period. But I could afford neither, and improvised, quite well, in fact. The sheer irony is that usual suspect who actually equipped to CB to begin with, but ripped me off, did sell a lot of big Durst equip to someone locally, and I got some of that for free once once the lab owner partially retired! Full circle.

[Michael R]

CB got his Durst stuff from that guy?

[Drew Wiley]

Yep. Jens needed a few legit artist endorsements in order to fleece the rest, as CB lived just a short distance away, maybe 5mi. What Jens really was after was mandatory equip maintenance contracts with each sale, which meant really only honoring those big commercial customers which paid his travel expenses too, every six months in the case of his Govt customers. He couldn't make it on sales alone, but did have quite a run at that until he just couldn't get components anymore, and started taking deposits on orders he couldn't fulfill. It became a shell game of diminishing returns.

Anyway, the most likely candidate for that big volume Velvia order would be a certain 8x10 individual with enough cash, assistants, and reckless bad taste to warrant machine-gunning film that size. But for every sheet of film he buys, he also seemingly orders of a case of Krylon fluorescent spray paint, because he's already maxed out all his PS saturation sliders. No further comment needed.