 Martha Meier |
Best Film Choice; Speed/Brand I am planning a trip to Peru. I will be going into the Amazon and may need to take action shots, sometimes at night or early morning. I will also be in bright sunlight at places like Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. What film speed and brand do you recommend for these settings?
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Ken Pang |
I read that the new series of Fuji Press film is quite good. Both the 800 and 1600. I was very dissapointed with Fuji Press 800 about a year ago, but the magazine said there was "marked improvement". I do know that NGH II 800 is also very good. In the bright day light, you may have to stop down to get a realistic shutter speed. However, this more than makes up for the flexibility of being able to shoot early morning/night, without long exposures.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
I see these questions all the time. My answer (and many other's) is the same. Use what you would normally use. A special trip like one to Peru is no time to be trying some new film that you aren't familiar with. Besides that you haven't told us what you are going to do with the pictures and what kind of equipment you will be using. How big are you planning on enlarging? How fast are your lenses? Will you be using a tripod? Will you have time before the trip to get accustomed to a new film?
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Martha Meier |
Thank you for your responses. I realized after I submitted the question that I hadn't given enough information on my camera. I only have a 35mm camera with no special lens features other than a manual telephoto lens. I was told to just use 100 speed as it would give me better clarity with enlargements (10x12 or 11x14). I was also told that I could shoot pictures in the "night mode", but that once I used that setting I would have to use that setting for the entire roll. Does that make sense?
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
For most situations 100 or 200 speed film is more than more than sufficient and will provide greater image quality than faster films. I am not familiar with "night mode" but the only time you would have to worry about shooting a whole roll a certain way was if you were pushing the film. I have never heard of a camera that has an auto mode which pushes the film for you. If you do push the film you must tell the lab so they can adjust the development.
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Martha Meier |
Jeff - What does "pushing the film" mean exactly?
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Ken Pang |
I agree with Jeff that you shouldn't try a new film in a "once off" trip like Peru, but I strongly disagree with Jeff's evaluation that 100 or 200 speed will be sufficient. Martha's mentioned she'll be using film in low light, action shots on a telephoto lens. Unless that lens is ridiculously bright, I doubt she'll be able to get the shutter speeds she needs for the action shots - if she can even hand hold the camera under those conditions. Pushing film means that if you know the film has not received enough light, either intentional over rating of the film, or unintentional under exposure, you leave the film in the developing chemicals longer. The image then becomes more visible, but also more grainy and contrasty. Some people use it artistically, more people use it to recover images when they didn't have fast enough film to cover the situation they wanted.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Pushing a film means to rate it at a higher ISO than it normally is. For example, say you are out shooting and all you have is ISO200 film but you need to shoot in low light and can't use a flash. You can push the film to 400 and shoot the roll that way. Once the roll is done you take it to your lab and tell them it needs to be push processed for ISO400. It's good in a pinch but the results are generally not as good as they would have been had you used actual 400 speed film.
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Martha Meier |
Thank you, now I understand what it means to "push" the film. Just so you know, I have a Vivitar TEC155 with auto focus, zoom lens 35-70mm f3.5-6.7 I have 3 modes from which to choose: auto (camera selects proper exposure,automatic flash if needed),daylight (feature in which you can "flash fill" a subject when the sun is behind the subject or when you are shooting in the shade), and non-flash(lets you take pictures without the automatic flash feature; useful for evening scenes, shooting in museums which do not allow flash, or available light situations in which you want to preserve a more natural lighting effect.)
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