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Author Topic: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them  (Read 3243 times)

Sherie

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Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« on: November 09, 2011, 10:48:43 am »

My question is how do you read the film data sheet?
Thanks,
Sherie ???
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2011, 02:56:15 pm »

Hi,

From top left to down right...

The data sheets tend to be on the technical side, so you need to have some basic understanding of photographical  theory to understand the data.

Best regards
Erik

My question is how do you read the film data sheet?
Thanks,
Sherie ???
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Erik Kaffehr
 

wolfnowl

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Re: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2011, 04:07:51 pm »

A better question might be (this being the Beginner's Questions forum, after all) what is it you want to know?

Mike.
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Sherie

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Re: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2011, 06:53:59 am »

Re_Reply
A better question might be (this being the Beginner's Questions forum, after all) what is it you want to know?

How to use the information, to get the best out of the film & lens.
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2011, 02:06:36 am »

Hi,

If you are developing your own film the data sheet may give you some indication on how developers work and development times for different contrast index. The characteristic curve could tell you how much you can overexpose a given film. Using film data sheets for anything useful is probably very hard.

My favorite slide film was Fujichrome Velvia, great for landscapes but horrible for portraits. I don't see that any of these characteristics would be obvious from the film data sheets.

There is some stuff that may be useful:

1) Reciprocity failure data, when using long exposure times

2) Resolution rating may possibly be related to real world resolution

3) RMS rating of grain

Unfortunately, I'm not really sure that the above data correlate with real world experience very well.

Best regards
Erik


Re_Reply
A better question might be (this being the Beginner's Questions forum, after all) what is it you want to know?

How to use the information, to get the best out of the film & lens.
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Erik Kaffehr
 

Kerry L

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Re: Data Sheets Film & Lens: How to read them
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2011, 08:12:05 am »

Re_Reply
How to use the information, to get the best out of the film & lens.

Sherie,
With transparency film there's not a lot in the data sheets that will help you maximize the film. There may be some reccommedations about the intended use, some are better for portraits or landscapes or product shots. Things like "vivid" or "saturated colors" generally mean more contrasty and not good for portraits.  It may be that one film has a couple of different versions 100 & 100F with the F designating a finer or smoother grain and better suited for skin tone.

Usually there are some basic film specs and handling both before and after exposure. For colour neg there is a bit more, generally around grain and intended use. There may be some advice about exposure under different light sources. Both films will give some info about reciprocity failure, i.e exposure compensation for long exposures. The full tech sheets, available from the manufacturer will have a bunch of graphs outlining grain and spectral sensitivities.

With B&W films, there will be all this and some basic development reccommendations, these are just starting points. Likely there will be some info regarding exposure adjustmments for the standard B&W filters. Kodak use to supply suggections about which filters to use for skin tone, landscapes etc.

The best info would be your own notes. Keep good notes while shooting and then review them while looking at your images.
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