Fujifilm Astia 100 Slide Film

Fujifilm Astia 100 Slide Film 

DESCRIPTION

  • An ISO 100 color reversal film that offers smooth and natural skin tones - the ideal tool for fashion photography. Outstanding color fidelity is also well-suited for commercial use.
  • Available in 35 mm, 120, 220, Sheet, and QuickLoad Formats

  • USER REVIEWS

    Showing 1-10 of 23  
    [Mar 06, 2006]
    ajuk
    Casual

    Strength:

    Fine grain, looks real, Good at being cross processed.

    Weakness:

    Exposure latitude, can be hard to find.

    Very nice film, looks natural, Also very good Xprocessed, had a classic cross processed look and no hugh colour shift like wqith Sensia, Just a random wierd rusult, I had 2 pictures one with w purple sky the other with a yellow sky :)

    Similar Products Used:

    Sensia

    OVERALL
    RATING
    4
    VALUE
    RATING
    3
    [Sep 21, 2003]
    Killerbee
    Intermediate

    Strength:

    VERY fine grained, low contrast, wider lattitude than older version. soft muted colour for portraits, faithful colour reproduction.

    Weakness:

    Too expensive, muted colours not good for general use. Low contrast can be bad when you want some punch.

    I previously wrote that Provia 100 was one of the finest grained films I had ever used, but up here in Toronto we didn't get the new velvia or Astia as yet, well a Photog who was visiting me from the States gave me a few rolls of astia to try. First impressions were not great, muted colour and low contrast so I tried this as a fashion film. Now here is where Astia shines, over powering backgrounds that would leave a colour cast on the models skin work fine now! I told the makeup artist to go nuts with the colour now that the effects would be mutted. Another note is my polaroid scanner bit the big one so I had the scans done on a 2820 dpi unit and compared it to rescaned provia slides, now I thought provia was fine grain, I will have to take that back, this stuff really has almost no grain, none that you can see at 2820 dpi while proiva still showed a few grain specks in contrasty areas at this resolution. Also in comparison Astia is much more neutrally balanced, a tad warm but the provia cold blue is gone. This is very welcome since you don't want blue skined people. The lower contrast lets you worry less about blowing out highlights. The older Astia was a great fashion/portrait film and this one is just better, finer grain, a tad more lattitude and all the good qualities the older one had, with out the cold blue cast it's Provia brother has! Now don't use this stuff for landscapes or where you want colour that jumps out at you, this isn't meant for that but if you want to shoot nice soft portraits that show no grain and would make wall sized posters from 35mm ( or larger in larger formats ) this is what you want to use. Looks like Kodak will be missing me buying their 160 porta stuff. The down side is this stuff costs as much as 2 rolls of sensia 100 with processing, I can't wait for the prices to come down tho. I have to give it a 3 for value it's just not cheap despite this is probably going to be the fashion film of choice. I wonder if they'll do a 400 iso version? I have not tried to push this yet but if it behaves like provia it should do well.

    Customer Service

    not needed

    Similar Products Used:

    sensia 100, provia, older astia, kodak portrait films ( since this is a portrait film )

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    3
    [Jun 19, 2003]
    LongLiveFilm
    Expert

    Strength:

    Little Apparent Grain Clear Images

    Weakness:

    Muted Colors, lacks the liveliness of Velvia. This is good for portraits, not for landscapes.g

    I bought a roll of this film to compare it with Velvia. While Astia has fine grain and clarity, it lacks the overall brilliance of Velvia. This film was obviously made for portraits, not for the outdoors. For portraits it's obviously great judging by the neutral colors it offers, and also by the reviews. I don't do portraits, though..

    Customer Service

    n/a

    Similar Products Used:

    Fuji Velvia 50D Kodachrome 64i

    OVERALL
    RATING
    3
    VALUE
    RATING
    3
    [May 05, 2003]
    Mike
    Professional

    Strength:

    Dead-on color accuracy. Reasonable price. Very easy film to work with. It handled a 2-stop meter failure without getting too muddy when pushed.

    Weakness:

    I have some trouble feeding it through one camera body; it hangs up and tears the sprocket holes after about 15-18 exposures. (This is in an older camera, and it is starting to show it's age and getting ready for retirement.) Works fine in my other bodies, though.

    I've been using Astia to shoot orchid flowers (botanical record for awarded plants) for about 7 or 8 months now,a nd have gone through probably 50 rolls. The color rendition is very accurate, and the whites come across very pure. Very slight gradations in the white pallette show up well in the image. I switched from EPN after doing some testing. I *much* prefer the very smooth look of the Astia, and the local price is about 50% of the EPN. Side-by-side comparisons with EPN, using studio flash as a light source showed that the colors remained faithful and true to life.

    Similar Products Used:

    Kodak EPN (Ektachrome Professional) Fujichrome Velvia

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    4
    [Feb 24, 2003]
    JJ Jackson
    Intermediate

    Strength:

    Good color, likes warm and cool light

    Weakness:

    Lacks in the shadows. But that's why they reccomend it for fashion photos

    Excellent people shooting film. Works well in outdoor conditions also. Colors accurate; shadows not as well defined as I'd like.

    Customer Service

    Nope

    Similar Products Used:

    Fuji Velvia, Astia, Sensia, (ecch!)Kodak

    OVERALL
    RATING
    4
    VALUE
    RATING
    3
    [Jan 22, 2003]
    Mongoose
    Intermediate

    Strength:

    Wide exposure latitude. Good color balance. This whites are excellent.

    Weakness:

    none

    An excellent film for Winter Scenery! It renders all the shades of white in the snow accurately and the color balance is very accurate. Where most film has a blue tinge to it, this film is pure white. The exposure latitude is very wide too. I can get a blue sky along with a properly exposed snow field, trees, mountains, etc. This is my new winter scenery film!

    Similar Products Used:

    Velvia. I use velvia for non-snow scenery.

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    5
    [Sep 25, 2002]
    David
    Expert

    Strength:

    Exposure latitude. Smooooothness. Scanability (?)

    Weakness:

    For it's intended purpose, I can think of non.

    This really is a lovely film with a greater exposure latitude than any slide film that I have used. I used some a short while ago to shoot a portrait and then shot some landscape scenes on this film with a Singh Ray ND filter (I would normally have used Velvia) and was VERY happy with the results. They give the clouds a beautiful pastel feel and allow for a lot more detail due to the lower contrast. Those same slides also scanned beautifully on a Nikon LS2000 and ended up as a very impressive 40x27 cm print. I have now invested in a 6x7 medium format camera and am waiting for a softly lit morning to use try this setup on. I am expecting good things from the Astia. My main landscape film is still Velvia, but I have discovered a very worthwhile tool in this film. With very soft gentle light, this is the film that I will be using from now on. I am also very keen to see how it performs with snow scenes.

    Customer Service

    Have never needed.

    Similar Products Used:

    All of the Fuji slide film and most of their print film (although I hardly ever shoot neg colour). A few Kodak products.

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    5
    [Mar 20, 2002]
    erike
    Professional

    Strength:

    Capable of beautiful subtleties, smooth skin tones, neutral color balance. Good for almost any scene if you are looking for realism.

    Weakness:

    Can get cool and a little gritty looking in not-so-ideal conditions.

    The smooth results Astia is cabable of can be truly amazing. However lighting has to be correct or the effect can get gritty and unpleasent on skin tones. Is one of the most accurate contrast and most neutral balanced films around. There is a marked improvement in detail in the shaddows over Provia 100F. Astia is also a little bit more grainy than Provia F though, but not too bad. A film for those who want truth without exgageration of colour (unlike Velvia!). It is still capable of startling levels of colour, but the scene has to have that colour to start with.

    Customer Service

    N/A

    Similar Products Used:

    Fuji Provia 100F, Provia 400F, Sensia 100, Velvia 50.

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    4
    [Nov 21, 2001]
    Craig Norris
    Intermediate

    Strength:

    Reliable performance. What you saw with your eyes is what you see again in the slide. It scans beautifully on my Nikon Coolscan 2000.

    Weakness:

    Price is a bit high, but worth it.

    I changed to using slide films because I found negative films too grainy, especially in the sky. My previous favourite, NPH400, always gives a dirty grainy blue sky. NPS160 was better for the sky, but the shadows were grainy. Then I tried Provia100F and was completely disappointed by the blue cast that I ALWAYS got on every roll. It might have been the Kodak lab I use screwing up the chemistry, but when I tried Astia, Bingo!! - beautiful accurate colours. Beautiful grainless gorgeous blue sky! Fantastic smooth skin tones. I shot twenty rolls on a trip to a scenic part of China a few weeks ago. I am blown out by the quality of all the slides I got back. My enthusiasm for photography has been completely rekindled because of this film. It works well under every condition. The colours and vibrance and sharpness and absence of grain have totally satisfied my needs.

    Customer Service

    Not needed so far, but I have downloaded the spec sheets from the Fuji web site. Fuji''s spec sheets are better than Kodak''s and Agfa''s.

    Similar Products Used:

    Provia 100F, Kodak E200, Agfa RSXII 200, Provia 400F

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    5
    [Aug 11, 2000]
    Steve Steele
    Expert

    Strength:

    I have used this film a few times, and here are my impressions:

    - Good latitude. I think it has the most latitude of the slide films I have tried.

    - Nice grain, almost seems grainless in a smoother way than Velvia.

    - It handles color well, slight saturation, but accurate.

    Weakness:

    A bit expensive for some reason.

    This is a good film - I'm not sure where it fits in for me, but I'm always pleased with the results. Its like a Kodachrome with more latitude.

    Customer Service

    Never Used

    Similar Products Used:

    Kodachrome
    Velvia
    EPP

    OVERALL
    RATING
    5
    VALUE
    RATING
    4
    Showing 1-10 of 23  

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