Kodak Kodachrome 25 vs. Fujichrome Velvia...Let the Film Wars Continue

by Jack and Sue Drafahl

For years, discriminating photog-raphers have required a yard-stick with which to compare

films to one another. This yardstickis usually the one film that clearlystands above the top of the heap.With color-negative films, this yard-stick continually changes from onefilm to another depending on the newadvances in color-negative technolo-gy. But, with slides, Kodachrome 25has always been the film to match.

Is there a new color-slide yardstickto replace Kodachrome? We are re-ferring to Fuji's newest slide-film re-lease, Velvia. This newcomer was in-troduced at the 1990 PMA show inLas Vegas, and promises to be one ofthe most exciting E-6 films of this, orany year.

Before we start the shootout, weshould note that Kodachrome is aunique patented process, and has nocompetition in its type of film proc-essing. What we will be comparing inthis shootout is the final results of thefilms, not the process required to getthere. In each test scenario, we willdescribe the scene and how we per-ceived the test results, and give youa subjective look at how each filmworks in a specific situation.

THE CONTENDERS

KODAK KODACHROME 25: Koda-chrome was introduced in 1935 andhas gone through several changes un-til reaching its present form today,namely Kodachrome 25. Koda-chrome 40, 64, and 200 are manufac-tured in the same way but with high-er ISOs, larger grain, and less sharp-86 PHorographic/July 1990

ness. Kodachrome is a black-and-white layered film with no color dyesin the emulsion. When the film isprocessed, the color dyes are chemi-cally introduced in a special K-14process. Kodachrome can withstandconsiderable heat abuse, because it isa black-and-white film. Archivalquality of Kodachrome 25 is trulygreat, with a life span well over 50years after processing.FUJICHROME VELVIA: Velvia is anE-6-process slide film introduced in1990. It boasts some of the newesttechnology on the market today. Vel-via is a 17-layer film that uses theDIR couplers found in most color-negative films today. These newcouplers enhance color edging andimprove inter-layer effects. Combin-ing these new DIR couplers with Fu-ji's double-structured silver-halidecrystals, creates a very fine-grain,high-resolution color film that repro-duces color in an unparalled manner.Velvia has an ISO of 50 and can beeasily pushed to El 100 with littleloss of quality.

EXPOSURE LATITUDE

Using two Nikon N8008 bodieswith MF-21 backs and a single60mm macro lens, we set up our firsttest for exposure latitude. We set thedata back to ± 1 stop and made a 5-step bracket of various flowers. Lay-ing each film strip out on the lightbox, we noted that Velvia had at leasta '/3-stop greater exposure latitudethan Kodachrome on both the underand over sides. We felt that the ± 1exposures on Velvia were more than

usable. Kodachrome, on the otherhand, appeared to have a usable ex-posure latitude of ±0.7 stops. We al-so noted that even though Velvia hasa broader latitude, it also has a high-er contrast, which is somewhat of acontradiction of facts. We had al-ways assumed that increased contrastin slide films results in narrower ex-posure latitude.

FLASH TESTS

A clown at a nearby market pro-vided the material for our flash test.The higher color saturation of Velviamade the clown's bright colors standout more than did Kodachrome. Thedifference in exposure latitude wasagain evident when we looked at thedifference between the clown and itsbackground. The Kodachrome back-ground was noticeably darker thanVelvia, even though both had thesame density in the foreground. Oncloser inspection, we noticed that theKodachrome reproduced the back-ground wall more accurately (truerto life) than Velvia.

NEUTRALITY

That made us wonder, whatwould happen if we tested both filmson a subject that had very little col-or? A fountain in front of a colorlessbuilding made a perfect test site for

A 30 X blowup from a section of each ofthese identical images shows that Velvia(top photos) compares very favorably toKodachrome 25 in terms of image reso-lution and grain.

PHOTographic/July 1990 87

SUPERFILMthe colorless test. The light-blue skyseemed to be the only recognizablecolor in the scene. When we firstlooked at the Velvia slides, theyseemed to have reproduced the neu-tral tones very well. That all changedwhen we laid the Kodachromes next

88 PHOiographic/July 1990

to them. Kodachrome had definitelyreproduced the neutrals better andtruer than Velvia, but did not repro-duce the blue sky as well as Velvia.Confused yet? Wait till we get to thered-failure test.

RED-FAILURE TESTOne of the primary concerns Fuji

had when creating Velvia was to cre-ate a film that would not have colorfailures. This is when there is somuch saturation of one color in a

subject that detail starts to blend intothat color, obscuring image detail.Red seems to be the color that mostfilms have trouble with, and redflowers are typically where most col-or failures appear. We tried bothfilms on various red flowers and no-ticed that both Kodachrome and Vel-via separated the reds very well, butat high magnification we did noticethat Velvia tended to distinguishslightly finer detail in the red thanthe Kodachrome did.

SHARPNESS/RESOLUTIONOur sharpness and grain tests

were derived from extreme enlarge-ments of various images taken onboth films at the same time underidentical situations. Several sets weretried to eliminate the possibility ofmovement in one of the shots. Weeven swapped camera bodies andused the same lens to validate ourtests. We finally settled on a shot ofa brick building with several win-dows at the top. With a 10 X loupewe thought we could see all the detailpossible, but still could not see anydifference in grain or sharpness.When we got to a 30 X enlargementwe discovered that both films had re-solved enough to show that the win-dows had Venetian blinds. Closelycomparing grain and resolution at30 X we could not find one film to bebetter than the other.

1.&2. A half-stop bracket test with eachof the films shows Kodachrome (2) to bevery neutral, while Velvia (1) is highlysaturated. Both films, as one might ex-pect, have slim latitude; although Velviahas slightly more latitude in the opinionof the authors. One interesting note isthat the ISO of Kodachrome (25) was notfast enough to stop the moving water,while Velvia, one stop faster, was able todoit.3.&4. Sometimes, when you compareVelvia (photo 4) and K25 (photo 3), thereis very little difference. Here, reds aresupersaturated, detail is crisp, and graysare neutral. About the only differencediscernible is that Velvia has a little morefine detail visible, especially in the dis-tant rows of pink flowers.S.&6. Here is a comparison where Velvia(photo 6) and Kodachrome 25 (photo 5)look completely different. The differencehere is in the contrast and the renditionof this particular shade of pink. Velviaseems to be more saturated than K-25.7. One of the reasons pros and amateurshave cherished Kodachrome all theseyears is its unique palette. Note here thepunch of the subtle splashes of green inan otherwise completely neutral field ofbrowns and grays.

1. One of Velvia's strengths is its abilityto concisely differentiate adjacent col-ors. Look at the local contrast betweentones on the mailbox.

2. Velvia has the ability to hold a longtonal range. Note the detail in the slightlyoverexposed highlights of the windsockand the deep blue of the wall.

3. One of Kodachrome 25's greatstrengths is its neutrality. The Velvia ver-sion of this photo, while more saturated,had a slight green cast.

90 PHOiographic/July 1990

SOME THOUGHTS ON AWINNER

With this type of test report, wetry to present the facts so that youcan make the proper decisions onwhich films to use. We hope that youcan do so from the information andphotos we present. Keep in mind thatever since we have been in photogra-phy, Kodachrome 25 has been one ofour mainstay films. We feel that withVelvia's high color saturation, wideexposure latitude, higher ISO rating,and grain/sharpness levels equal toKodachrome 25, we would chooseVelvia in most situations. This is pri-marily because we are part of the "Ineed it yesterday" crowd. We thinkthat most photographers no longerwant to wait the extra time it takes toget Kodachrome processed, when anE-6 processing lab is probablyaround the corner and would haveVelvia done in a few hours. An addi-tional point in Velvia's favor is thatthe film comes in 35mm, 120, 220,and sheet films up to 11X14 inches.With the introduction of Velvia, wefeel that the competition in the slide-film market will definitely heat up,and you the photographer will be thebenefactor.

Keep in mind, however, that Ko-dachrome has been around for 55years, and a product that good won'tand shouldn't go away gracefully.There are reasons why pros and ama-teurs have been so faithful to Koda-chrome. The unique palette that Ko-dachrome 25 produces is unmistaka-ble, and as good a reason as any whyphotographers continue to use thisfilm. Second, not everyone wants orneeds their film back "yesterday."Many people are content to wait theday or so extra that Kodachromeprocessing takes; and in some largecities, Kodachrome labs with two-hour service exist. Lastly, since Ko-dachrome is a three-layer black-and-white film, that, when processed, isconverted to a color image using spe-cial crystalline chemical dyes whichare extremely durable, processed Ko-dachrome images have been provento last more than 50 years whenproperly stored. Velvia, which usesnon-crystalline dyes, of course, doesnot have the proven archival perfor-mance. Time will tell, but certainly,Kodachrome 25 aficionados willpersist...probably well into the nextcentury. ffl

New Umbrella Takes theRibs Out of the Catchlight

Ordinary photographers' umbrellas arenothing more than rain umbrellas withwhite fabric to serve as a source of reflectedlight. The trouble is that along with thereflected light, outline images of theumbrella and its ribs are projected intothe picture.

Now, there is an effective, simple answerto this common shortcoming. The newEclipse is fitted with white reflective fabricso arranged as to cover the ribs. The effectis to kill a major portion of the "ghost"image projected back into the picture.

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PHOTographic/July 1990 91