Alkahest my heroes have always died at the end

May 10, 2007

Waaaaaa… I want my Velvia 50

Filed under: Personal,Photography — cec @ 6:47 am

K and I are going through the preparations for our trip out to Yellowstone and I was looking into the photography setup. I headed over to B&H, found the circular polarizer for the lens of my new digital camera, then went over to the film section. For a number of reasons, I still think that landscape shots should be taken using slide film, preferably slow slide film, ideally Velvia 50. It does things with greens and browns that make my heart all fluttery (yes, I know this makes me a big photography nerd). But when I got to the slide film section, I couldn’t find Velvia 50. Velvia 100, yes, but no Velvia 50 – it has been discontinued. Now, Velvia 100 is a nice film, but it’s really just not the same as Velvia 50. For landscapes, it’s too fast – I would rather have the slower speed. After all, my digital can imitate 100 speed film, I want something slower. I bought the 100 speed anyway – I still think that slide film is better than digital for landscapes.

There is a happy ending to this. Looking around, it seems that there were a number of other people complaining when Fuji discontinued Velvia 50. So they are planning to restart production. Unfortunately, they are not shipping until July. I guess the lesson for Fuji is that when you are catering to a niche market, you have to accommodate that niche’s strange preferences. 🙂

Powered by WordPress