Today we’ll be reviewing Fuji’s Provia 100F (RDP III) color slide film. Provia 100F is one of my go-to slide films when I want flexibility and true-to-life color. I always have a roll when I’m out and about shooting in medium format.

The preservation game

Provia 100F and it’s cousin, 400X were both updated by Fuji with archival storage improvements in mind. Whilst neither stock may be as saturated as Fuji’s Velvia, these films’ balanced color palette, decent grain and great color reproduction make them both great film stock, in my opinion.

Let’s take a quick look at what Fuji have to say about this film:

“FUJICHROME PROVIA 100F Professional [RDP III] is an ultra-high-quality, daylight-type ISO 100-color reversal film.

With the finest grain (an RMS granularity value of 8) among ISO 100 color reversal films and an extremely high sharpness, it captures details with unprecedented clarity, while providing rich gradation, vivid and faithful color reproduction, and well-controlled gradation balance.

These characteristics make it an ideal choice for a wide range of subject matter, from product and outdoor photography to fashion work and portraiture.”
Fuji Provia 100F
NameProvia 100F
VendorFuji
TypeSlide (Color Reversal)
Format35mm, 120
Speed (ISO)100
Exposure latitude–-1/2 to +2 stops
Push processing2 stops
Cross processingGreens and blues

What’s it really like?

Put simply, Provia 100F is all fine grain, great color reproduction, nice contrast and rich tones. It’s a daylight color slide film that works well indoors and it pushes well, and handles both highlights and shadow in a very pleasing way. All in all, a rather and versatile stock.

If you shoot portraits, this film will give you great skin tones. Shoot landscapes and you get lovely, rich greens and blue skies. Shoot at golden hour and you’ll be rewarded with beautiful gold and amber highlights.

It really is an everyday slide film and doesn’t mind getting pushed about.

Provia 100F’s colors are generally very balanced and true to life. Unlike many slide films, you don’t get a sense of hyper-reality when it’s shot in normal lighting conditions. That said, if you shoot it in very bright light, you’ll get a little shift to the blue end of the spectrum and skies will pop an amazing hue of blue.

Fuji recommends stopping down 1/3 of a stop in really bright light but I tend to leave it as is, in order to overexpose a touch. See below for an “accurate” exposure compared to one where I didn’t stop down as per Fuji’s orders, suggestion.

The image above was exposed as per Fuji’s Provia datasheet and whilst the results are pleasing, there’s not enough separation between the center foreground leaves and those in the middle distance. Let’s ignore the datasheet and see what happens.

Look at it. Simply stunning (in my humble opinion). The top right quadrant is completely blown out, leaving only a suggestion of what was actually there. The highlights are much softer and the shot has gone from strong shades of red to becoming almost pink.

It’s also worth noting that I shot this roll at EI 400 – a two stop push, as well as the extra overexposure. Very versatile indeed.

Provia 100F also has an added bonus up its sleeve – it has a great resistance to reciprocity failure, meaning that you can take both very short (1/4000th sec) and very long (128 sec) exposures without worrying about adjusting your exposure, or adding filters.

In conclusion

I really like this film. By which I mean I really, really like this film. I carry it every day because I know that given even the slightest sniff of decent sunlight, it will give fine-grained, natural results.

Want to take a shot of a sliver of light in an otherwise dark scene? Use Provia 100F. Want to push slide film? Use Provia 100F. Want to take wonderful, landscape scenes, or beautifully balanced portraits? Use Provia 100F. It (nearly) does it all and is what I’d terms a slide film workhorse.

You can still you can buy this film fresh and in-date until late-2021 (updated early 2019). If you want to buy some, check out eBay, Adorama, Amazon, or drop me a line for a hand.

So, to sum up:

Fuji Provia 100F is a wonderfully balanced and versatile slide film, which delivers consistent, natural color and fine grain. It’s happy to be knocked around by push and cross processing and will very rarely let you down.

Equally at home in your Hasselblad, or your Holga.

Thanks for reading,

~ EM

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14 responses to “Film stock review: Fuji Provia 100F (RDP III) color slide film in 35mm, 120 and large formats”

  1. Provia ISO 100, shot at ISO 400 and overexposed by 1 stop. …….so you basically shot it at 200, underexposing it by 1 stop from box speed.

  2. Won’t shooting it at 400iso and then overexposure would be pushing it at 1.5 stops (assuming half a stop of overexposure)?

    1. Hi Grev, it would technically still be a two stop push, as it’s still pushed in development by that amount. Adding the 0.5 stop overexposure would then make it a push AND overexposure. Hope that clears things up and thanks for the comment!

  3. Thank you for your recomendations !!

  4. Thanks a lot for this nice article. Your photos are really good looking.
    I was wondering which scanner you use and at which resolution to get such great scans.
    Maybe you have an article on that on your site? Haven’t checked yet.
    Thanks for letting me know.
    Regards,
    Shaan

  5. You can’t knock it; fresh, old, or heavily expired.

  6. I love everything about Provia 100F. Such an incredibly versatile film.

 

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