Fuji Velvia

[P3D Derek Gee <73157.2172@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg writes:
>I believe that Velvia's colors are *extremely* saturated only when it 
>is exposed at ASA 50, which, IMO, is significantly under-exposed. 
>It's been mentioned on this list that even Fuji believes Velvia to be 
>an ASA 32 film. 

Er, um, NO!  Fuji does not believe Velvia to be ASA 32.  If you had 
bothered to check Fuji's website or their Forum on C-Serve you would
have found this document(which I have edited for length):
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                     The Speed of Velvia(RVP)
(snip)
General Comments:

ISO speed is an internationally standardized film speed
evaluation method and film manufacturers are obligated to use
this speed rating on their film products.

This method is very different  (It only treats B&W and gray and
tends to evaluate white areas as the most important areas) from
how photographers check the effective speed of a film.

When films of normal contrast and moderate color saturation are
evaluated, effective speed and ISO speed rating on the product
matches nicely.  A good example of this would be Fujichrome RDP
(ISO 100).

However, Velvia is not a typical reversal film.  Because it's
high contrast with even higher color saturation, there appears to
be a discrepancy between the procedures. (ISO procedure VS
photographers normal way of checking effective speed of a film.)

Specifically, Velvia's high contrast results in bigger density
differences between different exposures.  In addition to this,
color density of mid-tone areas of Velvia is higher than that of
gray densities. (Remember, the ISO method only deals with grays
and photographers usually use many different colors for the
evaluation of film speed.)

Fuji knows that majority of professional photographers set their
cameras at E.I. 40 when they shoot Velvia.  We think this is very
reasonable.  At the same time, Fuji recommends that photographers
try E.I. 64 when you shoot high key images where whites are very
important.  Also, we recommend trying E.I. 32 or lower when
shooting low key images with Velvia.

At any rate, Fuji strictly follows ISO procedures to determine
ISO speeds of all Fuji film products including Velvia.  In
addition, because of our high level quality control, our factory
meets the stringent ISO 9002 standard for all our film products.

Specifics on Speed Determination
(snip-tells you how to do)

Many photographers rate Velvia as an E.I. 40 film because the
color density of Velvia is a little higher than the gray density
in the mid-tone area.  However, this does not mean that the ISO
speed of Velvia is 40.
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Hope you find this info useful.  See Fuji for further details...
 
                                Derek Gee
 


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