Tips for shooting Fujichrome Provia 400X

[ted_smith]

Hi

I've just bought my first pack of Fujichrome Provia 400X to go with my shiny new Hasselblad 501CM, having being told by many at APUG that I should get some chrome through it and be amazed by how it looks.

So I toyed with Fujichrome Provia 100F and Fujichrome Provia 400X and decided that, given most of my shots will be in the next few winter months and most probably of my young children, speed is of the essence (otherwise I would have gone with 100F). (PS - for those UK photographrs who are interested, I bought it from http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/fuj...-film-77-c.asp who seem to be a great shop and have reasonable P&P costs).

I have done an APUG search for the film and note many of the threads are old, dating back to 2007 mostly. So, not wanting to bump old threads that are not directly related to what I am asking, I want to ask for any advice or tips based on the experience of others with regards to shooting with this film? With regard to development, do any of you give instruction to your lab? If so, what?

Ta

Ted

[Poisson Du Jour]

This should be an interesting thread, Ted.
I have shot just one roll of 400X a fortnight ago — accidentally grrabbing it assuming it was Provia 100F (but in hindsight, providently 400X!) and now awaiting the results back. Something here on APUG mentioned that it could easily be bumped up to EI800 with no ill-effect. I'm sure I've read this someplace on APUG, possibly even EI1600 with a push? I exposed it at box speed, mostly as the proverbial litmus test of meter exposure of my 67 at 'chrome tolerance. I plan to get more 400X and expose at EI800, with no push processing.

[keithwms]

Great stuff! Buy plenty while you can. You can find good push examples on rangefinderforum- it can go to 1600 quite well, with good colour. Good contrast tolerance, not as good as astia, but still good. I feel that it is somewhat better with mixed / non-5000K light than provia 100F (of which I am not such a fan).

No special dev required, standard E6 will do.

400x rocks, buy many bricks of it!

[Poisson Du Jour]

So there! I must have read something from Keith W somewhere here!
My plan in future is to use 400X for those times when I must use my 67 handheld rather than tripod. I need to check other things though from the first roll. Prodding it to EI1600 sounds exciting and enticing enough to me to buy more of it.

[keithwms]

Here's the RFF thread. Quite impressive, I think.

And here is one of my own shots with 400x on a mamiya 6. I think it rendered the bizarre colorings of Death Valley quite nicely and with good contrast. The frame can be enlarged enough to clearly see the license plates on the cars.

Please buy lots of it! I am going to be sad when it's gone.

[Poisson Du Jour]

The pallete in those representative images on RFF is very strange, Keith, but the overall push results appeal to me. The hues are almost aged film-like in their soft luminance and quaint colouring. This is to say I like that too, so now I'm taking notes of future use for this film. Not so keen on the EI3200 push images.

[Tim Gray]

I only ever shot a roll or two of it. Didn't do anything special (I'm not even a chrome shooter) and they all came out great. It's a great film.

[keithwms]

C41 cross-processed 400x also yields some "interesting" results...

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/r...ji-provia-400x

[Poisson Du Jour]

Provia 400X is $27.00 per 120 roll here in Australia (as is commonly observed here, all films are strangely more expensive). What's the going price up there in the US?

EDIT: Never mind, never mind. Found from Freestyle's web some alarming comparisons: $7.29 a roll!? Sh—...!!
AND, here, 5 rolls of 400X are $146.50 (!). What the hell's going on!? Even at parity, this pricing is extreme.

[keithwms]

You might check JapanExposures (Megaperls)... I don't know how the yen/A$ rate is, but maybe it's not too bad...

http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/index.php?cPath=28

I get stuff from there every now and then. 8x10 astia even.