My wife and I recently took a short trip up the Pacific coast, and since my Ricoh GR III was in the shop, I only brought along one camera, the Voigtlander Bessa T, and one lens, the Color Skopar 35mm f2.5. While not the smallest combination, it did fit into a couple of jacket pockets on the way, and proved quite versatile for the kind of casual shooting I wanted to do on this little vacation. I brought along both Ilford HP5+ for B&W and Fuji Superia 400 for color, a film I’ve shot off and on for years, and which I have always really enjoyed. I used one roll of Superia, afterward switching to HP5+ which I did not finish. Color seemed the order of the day for the nice February weather we had.
Superia has the classic Fuji character. Contrasty, with vibrant reds, blues and yellows, a touch of magenta, and deep greens. Fuji can look colder than Kodak, but I have always preferred it. Kodak is so golden that its look always conjures nostalgia, while Fuji Superia has a bit of a cyberpunk, dystopian look that I find intriguing, with a Matrix green to the shadows sometimes.
Superia still renders sunlight warmly, more so than digital sensors, but not so much golden hue as Kodak.
In the past, I shot Superia at box speed exclusively, but have heard that overexposing color film often improves color saturation and results in an overall more pleasing image. I shot this roll at a tick under 400 on the Voigtlander’s ISO dial, so it was exposed at 320 but developed normally at 400. This indeed resulted in extremely vibrant colors which I am quite pleased with.
I have to say, the lab which is used by my local Fred Meyer (I’ll have to look into it, as I don’t know whether it is Fred Meyer-owned or contracted elsewhere) has been turning out some excellent JPEG scans, which is the only service provided now with development. If you want prints, you make them yourself from the disk which they provide. I am liking the color and sharpness tweaking which they apply to their scans (using a flatbed scanner for B&W film has shown me how corrections post-scan are a crucial part of the film scanning process).
I am quite satisfied with my return to Superia 400. This once-common film stock is getting a little harder to find, but it can still be had from outlets which still sell film. I can tell that I will want to keep matching Fuji film stocks up with the Color Skopar 35mm, which offers up a very pleasing look and excellent color reproduction.
Color film is perfect for making snapshots, especially when you pay attention to color and vivid light, and fill the frame with complementary shades. The result is a sensory pleasure that helps remind us why photography is a joyful pursuit!
The Sprocket Docket 