I confess: I am helplessly addicted to Velvia ever since I shot my first roll of slides, which was, how convenient, the Velvia! I have tried other films, but have never been happier with Velvia. Or, put it the other way: if I shoot a landscape with any other film, I always feel that I am missing something, and the word "reshoot" flashes on my mind. Bold, brilliant, fresh..., especially the drippingly saturated greens! I could use all good words about slide films to this one. I found that there is almost no color shift for long exposures up to 2 minutes. It is also the film of the finest grain. The short coming is that it is slow at ISO 50 (and some people shoot it at ISO 40), so you almost have marry to a tripod. Contrast is high.
This films has now become history. It uses the same emulsion as the professional version, which is Provia 100 (RDP II), except that the film base is slightly thicker. Colors are very faithful tending slightly to cool (blueish) side, and slightly more saturated than the actural scene. Contrast is normal. Skin tone is rendered very well, but tends a little pinkish for cucasion skins. A very good all-around film which I can often find a roll or two at the bottom of my camera bag.
Basically the same as Sensia 100. ISO 200 version has slightly larger grains, while the ISO 400 version is significantly larger. When I got the first roll of Sensia 400 back, I was quite shocked to see that slides looked by naked eyes is so much like looking at the ground-glass viewfinder of the camera! When Sensia II 100 was introduced, both 200 and 400 vesions remain unchanged but repackaged as Sensia II 200 and Sensia II 400.
This films replaced the Sensia 100. Rumor has it that this film is the consumer version of Astia. But I kind of doubt the claim since Astia came out later than Sensia II. I popped the question to a Fiju representative, she only smiled, saying that the only way to find out was to use it. I used several rolls of this film, and didn't notice any significant difference between the new and the old versions, except maybe the grain size. If I looked hard enough, maybe I could said that the contrast is very slightly lower and blue color tends to be a little more saturated.
Again, the same emulsion as their respective professional versions. I tried two rolls of each, and that was the end of it: I knew they are lengendary films with many loyal fans, but I was not impressed. Pity. First of all, it is not conveinent to use, since the processing has to be sent out somewhere. Second of all, I don't like the color tone. Overall the color is not as brilliant as those E-6 films. Slides look brownish, as if the photos were taken 10 years ago. Grain sizes are pretty large, I think. My preliminary observation is that, roughly, the grain size of Kodachrome 64 is comparable with, or may even be slightly larger than, that of the old Sensia 100. Grain size of Kodachrome 25 is definitely larger than Velvia. But, the Fuji's are one or 2/3 stop faster than Kodachrome!
I used one roll of each, and wasn't impressed, either. Actually, I was quite dismayed. Kodak designed this pair to compete with Velvia, or more precisely to gain the higher speed end of the market. They got some mildly warm receptions. The "S" stands for "saturation", and "W" stands for warm, as the effect of adding an 81A filter. But I found the effect is subtler than the 81A filter. Both films handle blue color nicely, but greens are particularly bad: tends to either yellow or blue, and it appear to have a small range to go from shadow to washed-out. Overall, the slides have the tint of magenta, which also make them look old, but not as old as the Kodachrome. For skin tones, it gives everyone a free sun-tan: a pale white boy would appear very healthily tanned. And the worst of all, I was totally shocked hen I get the fist roll of each back: there was a same scene shot by two films, and the image on the E100SW appear much COOLER then the E100S version! (See my Random Thoughts and Anecdotes on Photography page for photos and more shooting info.) I bought two rolls of each, used one each, sold one to a friend, and the remaining one is still in the freezer.
It is said that Elite II 100 is the consumer version of E100SW. I also doubt that claim since I feel it is not as warm as E100SW. It is quite close to Fuji's Sensia II 100, but with a subtly different color pallete, which still lacks bright green and has too much of magenta. They both render cucasion skins very well (and fashionalby heathier in the way similar to E1100SW), but renders oriental skins too reddish to my taste. Elite II 50 is very similar to ISO 100 sibling in amlmost every aspect, except a smaller grain size. Looked carefully, Elite II 50 seemed to be a little bit less warm. I had a hard time distiguishing the two films from mouted slides. I would not hesitate to use the ISO 100 version if I am running out of Sensia.
Bought one roll, still in the freezer. Used one roll with pther people's money. Impression: I don't like it. Pinkish like Kodakchrome, lower contrast, no much color saturation, impressively fine grain.
The is not the consumer version of E200 as I used to belive. This is a brand new emulsion from Kodak, in its vain attempt to mimick Fuji's Velvia. The first time in my life to see a free sample coming from Kodak. I gave it try, and was quite impressed. The color pallet is similar to, but more saturated than, those of E100SW or Elite II's, and probably we can call it "Kodak's color pallet". Color saturation is between E100SW and Velvia. Red, yellow and blue colors are beautiful, bold, thick, and sometime give a feeling of being sticky. Green is still not Kodak's cup of tea. Overall the slide gives magenta tint quite close to Kodachrome. Skin tones have similar characteristics as Elite II's, albeit a little more saturation. Grain size is very impressively small: comparable to old Sensia 100, and only slightly larger than Sensia II 100, but this is an ISO 200 film, and is designed to be quite pushable. Although I don't like the way Kodak renders the warmth in all of its series recent offerings, I like the color saturation, and it is ISO 200!