Review 1 of 4
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$6.00
from B&H Summary:
I've been a working pro for over 30 years. For the last many years I've been a devoted shooter of the Velvia 50 and was certainly disappointed when they decided to discontinue that film. So I did some research and it would appear the Velvia 100 Professional (NOT the F series film) was the way to go. The F series 100 Velvia didn't seem to have many fans. Well...I shot this Velvia 100 Pro alongside the old Velvia 50 and also some Kodak E100VS. I tested film from two different emulsion batches, just to be sure. Cameras used were several Nikon F5s, F100s all with latest Nikkor lenses. Processing was done by A&I color in Hollywood--a top drawer pro lab. Both times this film was a terrible disappointment. I did mostly outdoor shooting with plenty of blue sky, white snow, green trees along with my wife dressed in various shades of reds, blues, oranges, yellows, you name it. I used the same lens on each of the cameras with the different films in place. The Velvia 100 Pro has a strong shift to a red cast which made green trees a bit on the brown side. Reds of different shades and oranges nearby just ran together providing for very poor color contrast. Even though Fuji claims this to be sharper than Velvia 50, they are kidding themselves. I took my results to a master printer who frankly was stunned at how disappointing the results were. His comment was that the film just didn't seem to "capture all the information" available in the image. The Kodak E100VS was actually fairly similar in sharpness and general characteristics to the Velvia 100 Pro. But perhaps the Kodak had a tad less of a red cast. I also shot these films indoors with Bowens studio strobes in reflective umbrellas against a medium grey backdrop. My wife's hair is dark blonde to light brown. Her hair was almost reddish and the grey backdrop had a distinctive red cast to it. Her skin tone was terrible. While many will say how bad skin tones are on Velvia 50, it nearly looked like a portrait grade film (though it certainly is NOT that) next to the Velvia 100 Pro. The Kodak E100VS was very poor under studio strobe as well. I wanted to like this film, as I really need to keep a high quality product going forward for my clients. But I will either have to seriously consider going digital, or I am currently keeping things rolling by finding suppliers who still have the old Velvia 50 left in stock. For casual vacation & travel photographs, this film would probably suffice. But it certainly does not warrant the "Professional" designation. Strengths:
The old Velvia 50 was/is probably more like an ASA 40 film. This Velvia 100 Professional is right on the money 100 ASA. That's about all I can say that is good for it. It is handy having the 100 film speed, but not at the loss of the quality degradation compared to old Velvia 50. Weaknesses:
While some would diss the old Velvia 50 for its "funny" colors, they were at least true in the sense that green was green and blue was blue. No strange shifts of greens turning kind of brown like this new Velvia 100 Pro does. Also, this film has poor color contrast--causing similar colors nearby one another to blend together in a harsh interpretation of the original image. It just doesn't have the snap, color integrity, and overall sharpness that gets an editor's attention. If you are selling a pro film, that is mandatory. Similar Products Used:
Kodak Professional Kodachrome 64, Kodak E100VS, Fuji Provia 100F, Fuji Velvia 50 Customer Service:
When I called Fuji for information before I actually bought a bunch of this film, I was told one of their tech people would call me back within a half an hour. A guy from LA called me back a WEEK later. He talked so fast and gave me such an intense rap, I couldn't really tell what he was trying to relay to me--lots of "downtown" lingo and salesmanship with little concrete information. He promised to send me some samples of the two Fuji Velvia 100 products (both the F and the Professional). Of course they never showed up and I just went ahead and purchased the film outright for the tests.
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