Film Test Data
Dec 14, 2004 by Don Westergren
Some of the newFilm Test Data now incorporates a blue-green LED in addition to the RG&B LEDs. This blue-green LED is about 502 nm, very close to Oxygen III light The data for each film is on a separate page, with annotation as well as the test photos and Bar Graph data. You can click on any film name in the summary below and go to that film page. Then click “Back” to come back to this page. Second, the bar graph data now evaluates the red, green, and blue response of each film compared to PhotoShop® saturated pure color.
I have added test results for Kodak Max Versatility 800 and Konica Centuria 400 color negative films. the films listed in red below are no longer in production. Most of them are also now out of date, but may be usable if kept in cold storage.
Many of these films were tested in actual night sky conditions by Pat Freeman with excellent examples of raw and processed images.
His web site is http://home.woh.rr.com/pfcf/astro_photos.htm
Summary Results Color Negative Film
The following data is a sample of the pictures taken with each film at the same total exposure. Each picture was scanned and color intensities measured with Photoshop, all using the same settings and procedures. The color intensity measurements were graphed in Excel to make the Bar Graphs. The graphs tell the real story for each film. The height of each bar shows a measure of light sensitivity compared to PhotoShop saturated pure RG&B colors (scale up to 255). The LED light image measured was selected to give unsaturated measurements for all films tested. The bars indicate sensitivity linearly, so 1/2 height is about 1 stop down. Each film has a designation like H0 or H12, which indicates the hypering time at 30°C, 3 psig in forming gas. Designations like H12-50 indicate hypering at 50°C.
The ratings are based on the levels of the bar graphs for
each film and exposure. The best films
have a reasonably even color level across the red-green and blue, and have the
highest light sensitivity.
Old Royal Gold
200 H36 Good/Great Needs Hyper Rebate Change, more B&G than PPF
New RG 200 H1450 Good+ Needs Hyper Rebate Change, more B&G than PPF
PJ
400 H12 4-22mth old Good + Slightly
better than fresh hypered
PPF
400 H0-H12 Good + Outstanding for unhypered film,
hypering helps little
Old
RG 400 H0-36 Good + Outstanding unhypered, hypering
looses short sens.
PJ
400 H12 Fresh Good + Very even colors, needs hypering
Supra
400 H0-H31
Good + Outstanding for unhypered film,
hypering helps little
LE
400 H0-H48 Good Slightly less than Supra, hypering
doesn’t help
Supra 800 H36 Conditional + Very blue/green –Comet, Gal. &
Reflection Nebula?
Portra 800
H24 Conditional Very blue/green –Comet, Gal. &
Reflection Nebula?
Agfa Optima II 400
H36 Conditional - Very green –Comet, Galaxy & Reflection
Nebula?
KonicaCenturia400
H0 Acceptable About 1/2 stop less than Supra400, very
low blue-green (OIII)
Portra
800 H0 Acceptable Low reds, green & blue are good
Old
Royal Gold 200 H0 Acceptable About like hypered Royal Gold 100
Fuji NPH 400
H0-H80 Acceptable About 1/2 stop less than Supra400, no
hypering effect
Agfa Optima II 400
H0 Acceptable - About 1 stop less than Supra400
Fuji Superia
400 H0-H36 Poor Good green, very low red &
blue
PJ
400 H0 Poor Very even colors, very low
sensitivity
Royal Gold 100 H0 Poor Very low red & Green, extremely low blue
Supra 800 H0 Poor Good green, very low red &
blue
Summary
Results Color Slide Film
Two slide films were tested in the unhypered condition, but
processed with either standard or push+2 E-6 chemicals. The slides were scanned on the same scanner
as the negative film tests, however the comparison with color negative film is
an eye-ball comparison. The relative
comparisons of the two films with each other are sensitive and accurate. Both
35mm and 120 roll tested push+2 both films.
Both sizes tested the same.
Fuji Provia400 push+2 Good/Great Very even colors for > 17 min (short
are more B&G)
Fuji Provia400 std develop Good Very
even colors, ¼ stop less red than E200+2
Kodak E200 push+2 Good Very low blue, good red and green
Kodak E200 std
develop Good (-) Very low blue, good red and green,
red like Provia std
Kodak announced a change to their Royal Gold films in early 2002. The first of the new RG 200 was available around June 2002. The new film tests with reduced red light sensitivity and takes about 3x to 4x longer to hyper.The old RG 200 was terrible unless fully hypered to the point of rebate (the orange background on the negative) turned slightly brown. The new RG200 is a bit more tolerant of being under hypered, but is best when the rebate color is changed. Hypering @ 30°C required 36 hours for the old RG 200, it now takes over 96 hours (try 110 hrs) @ 30°C or (slightly better) 12 hours @50°C. Incidentally, RG 200 is the only currently available color negative film that really needs hypering for astrophotography. The new RG 400 isn’t tested yet. Kodak has now announced changes to their Supra films for this fall. Click here for a comparison of Supra400 unhypered with new RG200 hypered 36 hours @30°C.
In evaluating films for your own use, consider the height of each color bar for the exposures you use, the subject matter and overall color balance desired. Having all the color bars at the same level will produce the most accurate colors. But if you are shooting a blue nebula, you don't need high red sensitivity so a film rated as poor overall may be the best choice if it has high blue sensitivity (try Supra800 H36). If you are shooting with a fast F ratio, using short exposures up to 16 minutes or so, Supra 400 (H0 and H31) and Old Royal Gold400 H0 are the most sensitive and have good color balance. Longer shots up to 4 hours show significant reciprocity losses in light sensitivity for all films. Old Royal Gold200 H36 is the most sensitive for long shots (1 to 4 hours+) but has increased green sensitivity. New RG 200 is slightly less sensitive to reds than the old RG 200, but is still better than any other color negative film. Supra400 both H0 and H31 are good, as is Royal Gold400 H0 and LE 400. RG400 and LE400 are less sensitive than the old PPF400 for 1-4 hours, but they are better thanthe other films tested.
A surprise result is the film response to hypering and storage in a freezer. I had a few old rolls of PJ400 H8 and H12 left over from planned astrophoto sessions that got clouded out. I have religiously used only fresh hypered films in the past. The 4-month-old PJ400 H12 tests better than fresh hypered, and the 22-month-old PJ400 H8 does too. I store all my hypered film in the freezer after placing the film back in its plastic container with a few grains of water softener salt (for absorbing moisture) and sealed with plastic electricaltape. I mark each container with the date of hypering. Hypering helps some films a lot, like Royal Gold200 and Supra800 H36 (green & blue, not red). Other films like Supra400 benefit a slight amount from hypering, but are very good unhypered. One film is actually hurt by hypering; Royal Gold400 loses sensitivity up to about 1/2-hour exposures.
The Future: I plan to explore the storage of hypered films to include New Royal Gold 200. This investigation of storage affects will necessarily take some months. This testing is sensitive enough to evaluate any differences in film response to hypering at 50°C vs. 30°C. I also plan to evaluate Tech Pan, hypered both fresh and stored.
Acknowledgement: I want to extend my thanks to Bert Katzung and Joe Mize, both on the APML. Bert put my early film test results on his page to make them available on the web, long before I could setup this page. Joe helped review the data and gave me a lot of help understanding how to setup this web page.
Don Westergren
Westergren@netzero.net E-Mail Don Westergren
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