Re: reversal film advice or at least opinion

[Steve Shapiro <sgshiya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: Re: reversal film advice or at least opinion


You speak as if "Europe" was some far away and undeveloped land.  The
biggest hazard is the X-ray machine at Aberdeen (or XXX) airport.  Your
biggest problem will be finding that elusive yellow object somewhere in
the sky if you come to the north.  Someone said light is not important.
Well to us it is!  When we get it.

59 degrees north dull and rainy.  Even Velvia just makes dull pictures
in this light,

Charles


In that vein, I speak of Salt Lake City as some far off undeveloped land.  I
can make the same claims about carrying baggage, camefras, exposed film and
extra, unesposed film acrosstheparking lot to my van; and I'm still
uncomfortable until the slides comeback to me and Ihave them in their little
slide pages.

What I implied, and maybe some ofthe european pano photographers can
contribute to this, is how advanced the European photography processes are
and they shave film made in limited supply because ofthe particular
environment that is different that our wide open skies.

The urban looking, clear coupler ofthe Agfa R 2  that was shown in an early
issue of Shutterbug was of a quality that was deep, rich and intimate of a
type of light and life style we rarely enjoy here inour country where
openness and light is the current mode.

Our films which have oxidizers to restrain different saturations as the
emulsion is developed is very accurate and velvia is simply a richly
sensitive film.  The latter works well in situations where the sky is often
cloudy and sunshine is a commodity that doesn't raise exposure diversities
more than one and a half stop.

I climbed and skiied in the Alps, and there's nothing to compare with the
range of light in theTtitons; and our dessert landscapes evenurban scenes of
vacant lots expose the light upon the subject far brighter than in Europe.

My father had a bag of film stolen in Italy because of the XRay proof bag,
film was returned by mail when they 'found his film,' unexpectedly.

I'm not claiming there's any difference indevelopment, just that carrying
one more 'thing' is less attractive to me, in my experience, I'd recommend
buying film on the road -- as PART of the adventure.

We can go on about film choices, personal choices and maybe,just maybe the
members of thislist willhear of a personal opinion, change their habit or
try one; and it may be just what they always wanted.  After all, there is no
one perfect fix for every occasion.

Does anybody know about the Agfa R 2 film?

Steve