Higher speed color negative film in 4X5

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I'd really like to see a 400 speed color negative film with normal contrast and saturation in 4X5. Maybe even an 800 speed film like NPZ or Portra 800. The only 400 speed 4X5 color neg film in the US is 400NC, a nice film but suited more for brides than anything else. Does anyone else wish for a fast, slightly punchy color negative film?

-- Henry Ambrose (henry@henryambrose.com), March 04, 2002

Answers

Hi Henry

I would also be happy if I had one for my aerofotos. From time to time! Now I take the NC but sometime I also push a slide film to 200 or 400 ASA. I would be happy with the Portra VC!

-- Armin Seeholzer (armin.seeholzer@smile.ch), March 05, 2002.


Henry: For years I wished for a 400 speed, normal to high contrast color neg film... but it's never going to be. No high speed reversal films either, best you can do there is ProviaF pushed 2 stops. The problem now is hanging on to the few emulsions that exist in sheet film sizes.

-- Glenn C. Kroeger (gkroeger@trinity.edu), March 05, 2002.

We use the 400NC and I like it. Try printing on a higher contrast paper. Kodak makes 3 grades of color paper. Boost it up a notch or print on Fuji...

-- Scott Walton (walton@ll.mit.edu), March 05, 2002.

Like Scott Walton, I use 400NC a lot, and think it's great for a lot of things, including landscapes without brides. Pumping up contrast or saturation at the negative just needlessly undercuts the primary advantage of using negative film in the first place. If I need more "punch," it's available at the print stage via paper, as Scott suggests, and where it belongs. Mostly, though, the "NC" looks like "normal contrast" to my eye.

-- Lyle Aldridge (dridgee@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

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