Film Speed

[pbk917]

With all of the outdoor photo's that we will be taking on our upcoming cruise of Alaska, I would like to get the most out of my pictures. Any suggestions as to what speed of film I should buy.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[tee_wrecks]

You'll most likely have changing weather. Take some 400 speed for cloudy days and some 100 or 200 for sunny days. And watch the shutter speeds on the ship...it's easy to blur a shot.

[hvsteve1]

It can get pretty dreary,so I would go with 400 speed. The newer films are a lot better quality at high speed than years ago. Most good nature photos you see are taken with telephoto lenses,which drop your speed and require a fairly high asa. 400 is the minimum I would use with a long lens. If you are really fussy about quality,you might want to get some filters that cut down the birghtness if you are using fast film and you get a lot of sun,especially on a glacier or water. I also was a bit upset I did not have a polorizing filter for all my various size lenses as that cuts down a lot of glare on water/ice/snow situations. I think you can still find a lot of information on films speeds,filters,etc. on the Kodak web site. Also,old but good SLRs are cheap on Ebay and I picked up an additional one before the trip so I could have both slide and print film available. I also bought a disposable aps camera for panoramic snapshots which are kind of gimmicky so I'm not that fussy about quality. Of course I also had my camcorder for video and digital shots to e-mail. As I posted on another board,one of my great discoveries was cargo pants with those big pockets on the legs. I stuck most of my spare cameras,film,etc in those so I didn't have to carry a camera bag.

[Grafx]

When I took the 6hr Kenai Fjords boat trip on a cloudy, rainy day I found that even 400 film was not fast enough with my 70-200mm lens. The combination of the weather, being in the shade and the boat rolling side to side made getting sharp photos difficult. Using 800 speed film would have helped. When the weather was bright and sunny, I switched to 100 film in mid roll with my Olympus OM4 camera (not practical with autoadvance, rewind cameras).

[lmcd]

I have used 400 speed film for everything except the bear watching at Anan Creek where I used 800 speed film. Michelle at Island Wings had told me ahead of time about how dark it can be in area where the bears are. The area is under a canopy of trees. Otherwise I use 400 speed and a circular polarizer on bright sunny days or snow/ice. I carry 100 speed just in case the day is really bright and would be landing on a glacier. Haven't used it yet though.

 

Larry

[Host Caroline]

We have used Fujifilm 800 on last 3 cruises and got excellent pics in all sorts of weather..don't have to have two cameras for different light and indoor/outdoor. Color in our Alaska pics is crystal clear.

[hvsteve1]

Just keep in mind that 800 is getting to the speed where the TSA x-ray machines may be a problem. Have the film checked by hand. And,of course,never tranport your film in checked luggage as those x-ray machines are more powerfull. I also use some slide film which gives you the option of pushing and pulling when you have it processed.

[Host Caroline]

TSA screeners at the airports we went thru (GSO, PHL, SEA, ORD) all said 1600 film could be damaged and local camera store (not chain) said that as well. YOu should never put exposed film in checked luggage though as x-rays there are stronger..and many screeners will let you keep film separate although they do not have to do this.