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Your favorite film for snow + wintersport ?


DigitalM7

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Can you recommend me a good film for snow conditions. I think iso 400 would be the best choice. I'm planning a ski-trip in Grindelwald, Switzerland and will take my M7 + one lens (50 mm Summicron) with me on the ski-slopes.

 

Most pictures will be typical holiday/family pictures and also a few landscape shots of the beautiful scenery. Weather conditions can change rapidly from grey overcast to bright sun/blue skies in a matter of minutes.

 

I think for most pictures the M7 will be perfect, the biggest challenge will be to take sharp pictures of the fast moving kids on ski's. Any tips ?

 

Thanks !

Eric

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Well, there are basically 7 or 8 ISO 400 emulsions available. Ilford HP5 with its lower inherent contrast would be my choice. Do you develop / print yourself? If not, go for one of the chromogenic emulsions, like the recently discontinued Kodak BW 400 CN or the Ilford XP2 Super. Any C41 lab will develop these films and they scan beautifully, too.

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Thank you all for the advice. I prefer color print film.

 

Stefan and Chuck you guys are right, sunny conditions and snow will give plenty of light, ideal for a slower film. So I will take iso 100 and iso 400 and use according to the weather conditions. I still have plenty of Porta 400 and Ektar 100 in the fridge. Has anyone experience with Ektar and snow ?

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I would go with KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 160 Film

 

For sunny days where the landscape is snow covered, taking along a B+W 39mm 0.9 ND MRC 103M Filter 66-024576 B&H Photo Video for your 50 'cron would be a good idea.

 

Unlike the M240 which has a 1/4000 top shutter speed, the M7 tops out at 1/1000. You could easily find yourself in need of the 103 ND filter, even with ISO 160 film.

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Most pictures will be typical holiday/family pictures and also a few landscape shots of the beautiful scenery. Weather conditions can change rapidly from grey overcast to bright sun/blue skies in a matter of minutes.

 

 

Take a grey card to meter from, or an separate incident meter. Either will ensure you over expose properly for the snow. And don't feel dull weather is a waste of time, step up and think of it as a challenge, use it to create atmospheric shots perhaps?

 

Steve

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For all things white I have a weak spot for the Ilford Pan F and its seemingly infinite highlight shades. Not certain that's fast enough for kids on ski with the lens closed for depth of field or when it snows. If you like the rendering of the chromogenic films, they could yield flexibility from 200-800 ISO. I have yet to try Delta 400 at 200 ISO but read good things here and am eager to try, but that's probably better for home development. For colour I would take Provia 100F slides (and an incident meter), giving you in addition to the film's finesse even at 200 (400?) ISO the option of screening.

Cheers,

Alexander

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For colour I would take Provia 100F slides (and an incident meter), giving you in addition to the film's finesse even at 200 (400?) ISO the option of screening.

 

Alexander, I considered to take Provia 100F with me, I got fantastic results with it in the past. For most of the pictures I will be on the ski's myself and taken a incident meter with me on the ski-slopes is not practical. Maybe I could use the iPhone as a lightmeter, is anyone using one of these lightmeter apps ? Are they good enough for slide film ?

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Eric, true, an external meter can be impractical. I'm using an android phone and wouldn't rely on the LightMeter app. I don't think to have ever used it in practice, other than to compare its creative reading with those of my accurate Gossen lightmeters or cameras. Others had better experiences.

 

But then, when I'm at the seaside, I rarely use the meter I carry because the M5's spot meter helps to interprete even very contrasty situations. The larger blob pattern of the M7 (same as on my other metered M's before) is quite reliable as well in this regard, especially if you go with one lens only and therefore know well what it meters. I wouldn't worry to much in the end.

 

Others will fine tune this remark, but you can imagine how much the area you are metering is (in the case of snow) above the medium grey and overexpose accordingly. For a bright beach it seems to be mostly in the well known range of +1 stop to max +2 stops to retain highlights (e.g. the Contax T exposure adjustment button is +1,5 stops). If half of the measured area is filled by someone wearing a darker than medium grey apparel, you may even be good straight from AE. Did you already choose your kid's ski jacket's colours?:D

 

Alexander

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Did you already choose your kid's ski jacket's colours?:D

 

Alexander

 

Clothing, not a bad idea. If the palm of a hand is a good grey card substitute perhaps a ski glove could also substitute if it is tested before the holiday to see how much exposure compensation needs factoring in?

 

Steve

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