Rating Reviewed by: Thomas Bailey(Unregistered User)
(Expert)
Review Date April 6, 2003
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 4 of 5
Used product for 3 Months to 1 year
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
1 votes
Review 1 of 114
Price Paid:
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Summary: I have used this film with tungsten light, and noticed that it does not have the orange cast I was expecting. Tungsten was indistinguishable from daylight.
Summary: I dropped into Jessops to pick up some Kodak Royal - but the stuff they had was, er, dated (a week to go...) so I asked for advice. The salesrep recommended the Fuji Reala.
Now, I haven't had any recent experience of 35mm film from Fuji - the last stuff I tried would have been back in the mid 80's - results were good - but I ended up sticking with Kodak.
I told the salesrep what I wanted the film for - to take some outdoor pictures, of the autumn, at Westonbirt Arboretum. She had no hesitation in recommending the film – pointing out it was slightly cheaper than the Kodak Royal – and pointed out I would be more than pleased with the results.
Well, the results speak for themselves. In 20+ years of photography I have never taken four x 36 films with such consistent results. The colours are fantastic. They're not so much warm, but real. There's real depth to the photographs. There’s no blending or merging of tones.
Seriously, I couldn't believe the results when the prints came back.
Some pictures I took with a polarizer to get extra depth in sky/cloud backgrounds, and these pictures are simply awesome.
Everyone has seen slides taken with Kodak Ektra – well the Fuji seems to do as good a job with prints as Ektra does with slides. Not a similar job. But as good a job. Not worse. not nearly. But as good as.
The price is competitive. The value is great. I was simply stunned.
Thanks Fuji.
Strengths: Fantastic colour repro, spectacular sharpness. No blending, blurring or merging. Very, very sharp. Detailed.
Summary: I have to disagree about the "hard to find" and "need a pro lab" comments. I can always buy this from Ritz camera, B&H or my local camera shop. As for the lab...well Fuji mailers from B&H performed great as did 1 hour from Ritz Camera/Camera shop although very pricy. I haven't yet had the confidence to drop it off at K-Mart yet though.
Summary: All I can say is that you got to try this film. It’s simply the best 100 speed film in the world. In professional photography, your clients will love the results and the film will increase your business. When taking pictures for fun, your friends and family will be amazed. I primary shoot weddings, and forget Kodak, Fuji’s Reala film produces very accurate colors, especially skin tones. Whites are never washed out during wedding shots, and shadow detail is amazing. The secret is to shoot at ISO 64 for indoor flash photography and ISO 80 for outdoor photography. For indoor shooting at ISO 64 you need big powerful flash and fast sharp lenses, but it’s worth it. I recently went to a wedding, and decided to take pictures to present as a gift. The groom and bride thought they where better then the professional’s Medium format work… mine where all done in 35mm. The thought the colors where much better then the pros – who was using NPS 120. In case you’re wondering, the pro used a Mamiya 645 with 80/2.8 and flash, and I used a Minolta 7 with 28-70/2.8 G lens and a 5400 flash.
Strengths: Very accurate colors
Perfect skin tones
Extremely high resolution film
Excellent shadow detail
The very best print film you can use
Weaknesses: Performs best when overexposed 1/3 – 2/3 stops
YOU NEED A GOOD (PRO) LAB TO BENEFIT
Similar Products Used: Kodak Supra 100, 400
Fuji Superia 100, 200, 400
Konica Impressia 50
Summary: Up to this point I've been using nothing but consumer film for my everyday/special occasion photography (the best one probably being the Fuji XTRA 400/800).
Reala's very hard to find (at least in Toronto), and it's my first crack at a premium-grade film, but once you find it you'll absolutely love it.
This film has everything you could ask for in a 35mm film. Skin tones are among the nicest ones out there, color saturation is amazing, contrast isn't either harsh nor soft, and--a strength of all Fuji films--excellent sharpness. And there is practically NO grain.
This film works best for outdoor landscape pics, and it does a more then adequate job with skin tones..as a matter of fact Reala's film excels for non-caucasian people pics.
Another thing about Reala that I like (compared to Fuji's consumer lineup) is that Reala doesn't have oversaturated reds nor does it have a blue/cyan tinge.
If your really getting into photography, (like me) and you want the best pictures and you already own a high end SLR camera, this film is perfect for you.
However, point-and-shooters shouldn't really bother because while Reala is a great film, it is expensive and hard to find. Besides, ISO 100 doesn't bode well for tiny cameras with miniscule flashes and shutter speeds. You can still get nice pictures from Fuji's XTRA lineup, which is available just about anywhere. (check out some reviews about that)
Strengths: - strong, vivid colour saturation
- very sharp and grainless
- great skin tones
Weaknesses: - none from what I see
Similar Products Used: my first premium-grade film...I plan on trying many more to compare
Customer Service: none...one last thing, for optimum results, please dont buy this film and develop it at the 1-hour mall photo...try Black's!
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