Milestone Films

The good news is that our aging cameras get a state-of-the-art modernisation every time a breakthrough in film technology arrives. A ten or twenty year old camera is as good as the latest film in its back, and the old classics are now taking better pictures than they have ever done. The bad news is that we appear to be shackled to the film and processing ball-and-chain for some time yet.

Colour negative film is now so advanced that very fine results are possible in 35mm with 800 ISO speed film. Though transparency film lags well behind this, Fuji has recently introduced two milestone emulsions: Provia 100F and 400F. Kodak and Agfa have also re-written their books in their own way - Kodak's E100VS ("very saturated") is not a bad film, and Agfa's RS100 emulsion is much improved (no doubt the initials stand for something German, not English!).

I have to confess up front that for nature photography I think Velvia is still Top Dog, head and shoulders above the rest. Slow as a wet week, contrasty as hell, and so cool it needs a permanent 81 series filter (making it about 32 ISO), Velvia is a difficult tool to live with but a very beautiful medium on which to record the richness of nature.

But the new kids on the block have plenty of potential so I took the Provia twins on a road-test on Fraser Island recently (should I say sandy track and beach test - not many roads on Fraser!).

I shot RDPIII (Provia 100F) at 100 ISO in a Fujica GS645W medium format camera and at both 100 ISO and 160 ISO (pushing it 2/3 of a stop) in 35mm. That covered the gamut of nature photography situations from aerials to closeup, wildlife and landscape. I made no lab tests or scientific analysis, so this is just a subjective assessment based on the twenty rolls shot and compared with some rolls of RDPII (the superseded Provia 100) which I shot as well, and on my past experience with the older Provia extending over countless rolls.

[Fs] The smooth gradation of the new Provia 100F does wonders for subjects with many subtle highlight tones, such as this Fraser Island sand blow.

My impression was that RDPIII is quite a different film to RDPII (sounds like a regal dynasty - the king is dead, long live the king?). It has lost the gutsiness of the old Provia and actually reminded me of the finery of Astia (RAP). Colours were clean though a little muted, gradation was well attenuated into the highlights, and it had a "velvet media" look which made Velvia, which started this trend, look rough by comparison. It actually looked finer grained than Velvia, although Fuji isn't claiming this. In a word, this new Provia is smoooth.

Contrast appeared fairly low for a tranny film, and the rolls pushed to 160 ISO looked of "normal" contrast - they didn't look like pushed film. Next time I'll be pushing it to 200 ISO. My impression is that the film will handle this well, and if correct, wildlife photography may have an important new tool - a very fine grained, incredibly sharp and tonally accurate 200 ISO transparency film.

On the downside, though, it may have widened the gap between Velvia and Provia for rich coloured landscapes and closeups. My Velvia landscapes shot on the little Fujica 645 camera were richer and more impressive than the Provia 100F landscapes, though these were good. I'm not saying the film is drab, its just that we've been spoilt!

[C47.14e]

[F10.6e]

I only shot one 35mm roll of 400F (RHPIII), following a dingo around the Dundubara camping ground in low light one overcast late afternoon with a Nikon and 105mm f2.5 lens. We all await a useable 400 ISO transparency film, but my (again subjective) impression is that we may have to wait for RHPIV. Fuji is getting there!

400F is very much better than older 400s. The main improvement I noticed was in colour. The film had the brightness of a 100 ISO film. The rich yellow-tan of the dingo and the green watered grass were as seen, not drab renditions common to fast film. Grain was still what I would call intrusive, but probably acceptable for a subject with real content. No editor would reject an pin sharp, close up, well lit action shot of a wedge-tail eagle seizing its prey taken on this film, just because it was a bit grainy.

[Fs] 400F is colourful and sharp for a 400ISO film, though there is still room for improvement in tonal reproduction and granularity.

Fuji still need to overcome the gradation problem - Provia 400F images have the tonal look of all other fast film images to me, with a rather short, jumpy grey scale. The fine gradation of highlight details around the dingo's muzzle in close ups was lost to this film, leaving a burnt out highlight on an otherwise perfectly exposed tranny in low contrast light. But even with its shortcomings, Fuji 400 The Third is a milestone film.

If you are interested in others' experiences testing these new films, log on to the North American discussion group http://photo.net/photo/nature. For example, one photographer reported finding Provia 400F very fine grained but not colourful, perhaps a function of processing. My films were all processed in Agfa chemistry.