Topic: Film for a skiing trip

[Yglotte]

Hey everyone !
I'm going on a 1-week skiing trip this saturday and I think I'll my M4 and my F2 (and probably my Konica Big Mini) ; and I was wondering what film I should bring and I don't what to bring portra 400 (too expensive)
I only have one roll of expired Agfa Vista, but I can choose from this list:
Kodak Gold 200
Trix 400
Ilford HP5
Tmax 100
Fuji superia 200 and 400

So what would you buy ? And do you have any advices ? (I already brought my M4 to a skiing trip, but I'd love to hear some stories/ tips'n'tricks)
Thanks 

[Late Developer]

Bit of an eclectic mix of options, there, Paul.

Ask yourself what you're shooting. If it's day-lit snow scenes, you can probably get away with 100 / 200 ISO film. If you want to shoot the evening's apres-ski, then something a bit quicker (ideally, something that you can push).

Colour or black and white?

My suggestion is not to do as I did when I was your age. Don't take a load of cameras and a load of various films. "Start with an end in mind" is always a good piece of advice from where I stand. One reliable camera and a few suitable lenses is plenty.

A Leica M4 is always a cool piece of kit for a trip - as is an F2. As the F2 has a meter (which I'm presuming is still working) I'd tend to go for the F2.

Incidentally, if you're shooting snow scenes, add 1 to 2 stops to the camera's exposure reading. If not, the reading will be based on the snow - which the camera will try to turn mid-grey. Consequently, you will end up with muddy, under-exposed photos with no highlights and blocked out shadows.

Better still, if you can get your hands on a hand-held meter that provides incident readings, use that as it measures the light falling onto the snow (much more accurate with snow and water scenes), not the light being reflected off it.  A camera's on-board meters provide "reflective" readings.

Enjoy your holiday......

[Urban Hafner]

As you're from Europe you should be able to get the new Agfa Vista. It's just rebranded Fuji but it's also quite cheap. I love to cross process the Agfa Precisa CT 100 (at ISO 200) and the Vista 400 (color neg film) for everything else. And the Precisa is a decent slide film, too ... But I guess it's too late to get that stuff now

[Yglotte]

As you're from Europe you should be able to get the new Agfa Vista. It's just rebranded Fuji but it's also quite cheap. I love to cross process the Agfa Precisa CT 100 (at ISO 200) and the Vista 400 (color neg film) for everything else. And the Precisa is a decent slide film, too ... But I guess it's too late to get that stuff now

Hi Urban (see you on caffenol, it was a nice interview  ), where do you find Agfa CT Precisa in Europe, online ?
Thanks

[Urban Hafner]

Thanks

The cheapest was a german retailer. Unfortunately the whole site is in German:

Vista 200: http://www.spuersinn-shop.de/index.php?page=product&info=156
Vista 400: http://www.spuersinn-shop.de/index.php?page=product&info=157
Precisa:     http://www.spuersinn-shop.de/index.php?page=product&info=158

[Yglotte]

Bit of an eclectic mix of options, there, Paul.

Ask yourself what you're shooting. If it's day-lit snow scenes, you can probably get away with 100 / 200 ISO film. If you want to shoot the evening's apres-ski, then something a bit quicker (ideally, something that you can push).

Colour or black and white?

My suggestion is not to do as I did when I was your age. Don't take a load of cameras and a load of various films. "Start with an end in mind" is always a good piece of advice from where I stand. One reliable camera and a few suitable lenses is plenty.

A Leica M4 is always a cool piece of kit for a trip - as is an F2. As the F2 has a meter (which I'm presuming is still working) I'd tend to go for the F2.

Incidentally, if you're shooting snow scenes, add 1 to 2 stops to the camera's exposure reading. If not, the reading will be based on the snow - which the camera will try to turn mid-grey. Consequently, you will end up with muddy, under-exposed photos with no highlights and blocked out shadows.

Better still, if you can get your hands on a hand-held meter that provides incident readings, use that as it measures the light falling onto the snow (much more accurate with snow and water scenes), not the light being reflected off it.  A camera's on-board meters provide "reflective" readings.

Enjoy your holiday......

Thanks for the tip, I'll probably take the M4 for B&W and F2 for color, probably both at 400 (or maybe some pushable B&W ? I know nothing about pushing.) and switch between this 2 every day.

[byron]

My suggestion is not to do as I did when I was your age. Don't take a load of cameras and a load of various films...One reliable camera and a few suitable lenses is plenty.

This is spot-on.

However, if you're dead-set on bringing multiple cameras, one body for b/w and one body for color is a good idea. It's very tempting to bring along everything you could possibly need, but I've found it's better to only bring a small amount of stuff you know will work and just use it. Less of a focus on gear and more of a focus on making photographs!

If I were in your shoes and definitely going to bring multiple cameras, I'd probably do Tri-X in the M4, Superia 200 in the F2, and Superia 400 in the Big Mini. Some fast b/w for the rangefinder, slow-ish color film with wide exposure latitude for the SLR, and fast film for the point-and-shoot so you won't have to worry about your shutter speeds being too slow. Switching cameras each day is a good idea -- nothing keeps you from taking pictures more than having too many cameras with you and having to decide what to use.

Do be careful with metering the snow!

[Aksel]

I`d go Big Mini + tri-x all the way.
Not thinking about what to chose, just stuff it in pocket. Let the little devil do the trick. Point and shoot 

[Francois]

In the snow, colors tend to be relatively dull. So a film that gives pop colors is usually welcome.
If you're going to the mountains, remember that high altitude and a lot of reflective surfaces will give you a lot more light than you'd expect. I went shooting this morning in a snow storm with some 320 ISO film and I simply couldn't get my F90x to do anything at an aperture wider than f/8. And even then, it was a bit on the gray side of things. For daytime, 100 ISO would most probably be plenty.

To get an idea, just download and assemble the Expomat cardboard computer. It's a big help when you want to choose a film.

[Yglotte]

Thanks yall for the tip, I might bring my Foca for some french rangefinder action !

@François: Do you know where I can find it ?

I found out that my awesome film dealer is willing to give me 2 rolls of expired Kodak BW400CN ! Do you think I should bring them on my trip, or leave at my house ?

[Late Developer]

Thanks yall for the tip, I might bring my Foca for some french rangefinder action !

@François: Do you know where I can find it ?

I found out that my awesome film dealer is willing to give me 2 rolls of expired Kodak BW400CN ! Do you think I should bring them on my trip, or leave at my house ?

Shoot 'em dead....!! What is the stuff there for?? Just don't mix it up too much.

[Francois]

http://expomat.tripod.com

Tu vas voir, c'est très facile à utiliser.

[mcduff]

I am also hitting the slopes this weekend. Speaking of 'hitting' if I was lucky enough have an M4 I would probably not snowboard with it ;-)

I usually take something like my XA2 with me when I am skiing or snowboarding and I usually have pretty fast film in it despite it being a bright sunny day. I like to take some action shots and shots while I am riding. While I usually like shallow DOF, when I am careening down a hill trying to shoot a pic of my kids I want a high aperture and fast shutter. So I usually take some 400iso BW for that. For the shots in the less crazy environments that depends on if they will be chalet shots (more fast film in my books) or thoughtful walks in the outdoors (where it could be whatever film you are in to).

There is a saying that is usually associated with bikers: "ride it like you hate it" (or stole it). While I still have my OM2 from when it was new (a million years ago), I have a group of cameras that I don't mind beating the crap out of. My XA2 is like that as it is durable, they are still afforable, and I have a couple of them. So I make sure I have a 'beater' camera with me on my outdoors adventures.