Last year I
posted about a batch of Astia film I had found that was for sale from frozen stock. I took a chance and bought 100 sheets of Fujifilm Astia 4x5 film. Imagine my disappointment when I ran one test sheet and it looked like the following...
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| Test of expired frozen Astia 100F (from box 1) 150 mm lens |
To my eye this looked like expired film. More likely than a light leak and the photolab I use has never failed me before in processing.(
Update from original post: The above image is the result of light leaks. I finally diagnosed the problem as presented here.)
I had spent enough money that I contemplated several options including selling the remaining film as expired for lomography fans as this is not my 'thing'. I had at the same time acquired 40 sheets of Fuji Velvia 50 from frozen stock so I decided that I would test the Velvia and give the Astia another try and also open the second box of Astia to see if there was a difference there.
I ran out to Fen Drayton a local spot to make some simple test shots. I made 2 each from each box of Astia and 2 from the Velvia 50. I did this before Christmas and this combined with some business travel meant I had to wait until mid-January to see the results. I was extremely pleased to see that the test picture above was not replicated at all. Indeed I was extremely pleased to see the film seems to have no color shifts.
The scans below are pretty rough. I was not meticulous in the dust removal which is evident. Also my film holders I used are new to me as I had purchased from the same seller as the Astia. He had unfortunately put double sticky-back tape on the film holders I guess to keep the film tightly in place. The result is s sticky mess on the back of the film and some real trouble cleaning them up. I can't complain too much though as I got a great price of $7.5 each. The day itself was very windy so I am sure the images are not very sharp as a result.
Here are the results. I have done minimal processing just cropping them and using Colorperfect to match the transparency as close as possible before saving. For the Astia this shows the neutral palette
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| Astia 100F (from box 1) 210 mm lens |
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| Astia 100F (from box 2) 210 mm lens |
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| Astia 100F (from box 1) 150 mm lens |
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| Astia 100F (from box 2) 150 mm lens |
Next are the Velvia. The second I under-exposed one stop as I did not reset the meter from the Astia which is 100 ASA versus the Velvia at 50 ASA.
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| Velvia 50 150 mm lens |
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| Velvia 50 (over-exposed 1 stop) 150 mm lens |
The light was changing as I finished shooting and on the drive home the evening sky got quite dramatic which I think accounts for the differences between the two Velvia photos. Under-exposure may account for some of the difference as well however.
I am very chuffed to see the results and now have a good store of large format. I also got a box of Ektacrhome 100VS (10 sheets) and some Porta 160NC (10 sheets) both of which are no longer available and I can have some confidence shooting them have come from the same seller.
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