Posted by Mel Ladewig on April 4, 2008 at 12:33 PM
When you get some new film, you usually want to test it to know how it compares to the film you are accustomed to using. Or at least this is the case with me. The conditions don't have to be great, you just want to get a couple test shots.
So far, every time I've done this, something has gone terribly wrong. Here are my recent experiences.
1) Load holder with a sheet of outdated provia you just picked up on fleabay and a sheet of provia fresh from B&H. Go out to shoot a quick sunrise and drop off the film. Metered at ISO 400 (instead of 100) and the film came back black.
2) New quickloads of Provia and Astia. I've never shot Astia before and haven't seen much of it, so I wanted to compare to the Provia I know. Setup the shot. Metered fine at the correct ISO (learned this the last time). My shutter fired short somehow. It seemed short at the time, but I noticed later that it was slightly off the 1/4 mark and somehow ran fast like 1/30th. Result, two almost completely black sheets to compare.
3) Same quickloads, test #2 (cause I learned from the 1st go around). This time the shots were timed correctly. Everything was going fine. And then the Astia QL tab snagged on something in my bag and pulled out the film. I now know what the inside of a Quickload looks like. I got a real nice exposure on the Provia sheet and no Astia sheet for comparison.
I must be cursed when I try to test films. Thank God I don't fly hang-gliders.
I thought it would be fun to hear your stories of camera settings or gear testing gone wrong.
Posted by Doug Andrews on April 4, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Well it wasn't film testing, but on my one and only visit to Glacier NP 10 years ago I was still shooting film. Brought a brick of Velvia and a leftover roll of Kodak E100 SW with me. With my N80 I would overide the DX coding and manually set the ISO of the Kodak E100 SW at an EI of 125. So I shot my first roll in the park with the Kodak at an EI of 125. Somehow I had inadvertently disabled the custom function that resets the DX coding when a new roll of film is loaded. After this first roll I preceeded with using the Velvia. Remember, this was when Velvia only came in 50 speed. It wasn't until the second to last day in the park that I realized that I had been shooting all that Velvia at an EI of 125. I actually managed to have a few of the shots that were worth keeping.
One morning I was driving the road from Gardiner to Mammoth (YNP) There was a beautiful buck antelope on the hillside. All conditions were perfect! I parked the vehicle with my wife in it and started up the hill. I setup the tripod and the buck charged me. I kept on firing at the fastest speed the camera would handle. Just before the buck got to me he swung off.
Talk about some great shots,,,,whoops, every evening I always clean and load my camera systems for the next day. I got in late the evening before and guess what I didn't follow my routine,,,,NO FILM IN THE CAMERA.
One other time I predicted where a grizzly and her cubs would come up the valley towards the road. There were about 80 photographers just down the road waiting. She came out right were I thought she would and I was the only photographer full framing her and the cubs as they forded the creek and came toward me. (600f4 w/1.4x) My camera jammed and I missed most of the shots. The camera setting had somehow been bumped and switched to the timer! Oh well,,,,thank goodness Minolta went out of business.
Mel - I don't really have any film mishaps to share, but if you haven't yet been able to compare Astia to Provia, Darren and I did some comparisons about a year ago before going on our Canada trip. That was going to be the first time either of us planned on shooting a lot of Astia, and we wanted to be sure that we understood the differences. We came to pretty much the same conclusion - aside from a wider range of ~ 1/2 - 1 stop, the main difference was a noticeably cooler rendition of the scene, with a slightly blue/green bias. Warm hues didn't pop as much compared to Provia. Nothing that couldn't be addressed in processing, but visible to the eye. The trannys I got back from Canada reflected this as well.
I use Provia when contrast in the scene allows because I simply like the warmer look, but keep Astia for more challenging scenes knowing that I can warm it up easily if desired.
Thanks Rick. Its still good to see for yourself and I will eventually as I have 3 boxes of QL of each now. Perhaps I should make sure I keep that warming filter handy with the Astia, or maybe get a stronger grade of 81 filter.
Discussion
4 repliesSo far, every time I've done this, something has gone terribly wrong. Here are my recent experiences.
1) Load holder with a sheet of outdated provia you just picked up on fleabay and a sheet of provia fresh from B&H. Go out to shoot a quick sunrise and drop off the film. Metered at ISO 400 (instead of 100) and the film came back black.
2) New quickloads of Provia and Astia. I've never shot Astia before and haven't seen much of it, so I wanted to compare to the Provia I know. Setup the shot. Metered fine at the correct ISO (learned this the last time). My shutter fired short somehow. It seemed short at the time, but I noticed later that it was slightly off the 1/4 mark and somehow ran fast like 1/30th.
3) Same quickloads, test #2 (cause I learned from the 1st go around). This time the shots were timed correctly. Everything was going fine. And then the Astia QL tab snagged on something in my bag and pulled out the film. I now know what the inside of a Quickload looks like.
I must be cursed when I try to test films. Thank God I don't fly hang-gliders.
I thought it would be fun to hear your stories of camera settings or gear testing gone wrong.
Talk about some great shots,,,,whoops, every evening I always clean and load my camera systems for the next day. I got in late the evening before and guess what I didn't follow my routine,,,,NO FILM IN THE CAMERA.
One other time I predicted where a grizzly and her cubs would come up the valley towards the road. There were about 80 photographers just down the road waiting. She came out right were I thought she would and I was the only photographer full framing her and the cubs as they forded the creek and came toward me. (600f4 w/1.4x) My camera jammed and I missed most of the shots. The camera setting had somehow been bumped and switched to the timer! Oh well,,,,thank goodness Minolta went out of business.
I use Provia when contrast in the scene allows because I simply like the warmer look, but keep Astia for more challenging scenes knowing that I can warm it up easily if desired.