Fujifilm Velvia 100

Velvia 100 arrived in 2005 as a direct successor to the original Velvia, which Fuji had discontinued that year citing raw-material shortages, and it brought the Velvia look within reach of handheld shooting. Velvia 100F continued to sell alongside it until 2012. The original Velvia 50 is a tripod film; one stop more speed changes what you can do with it in practice. Handheld at 1/125 in open shade, available-light portraiture in golden hour, midday city work without a tripod: all of that becomes possible without giving up the core Velvia rendering.

The color signature is close to Velvia 50. Greens read electric, reds read warm-to-hot, skies push toward deep cyan. Saturation is aggressive but not quite as aggressive as the 50; if you put both on a light table, the 50 is louder. Whether that difference matters depends on the subject. For landscapes and natural history work, most shooters cannot see it in the final print. For fashion or still life where color accuracy has legal or commercial implications, neither film belongs in the camera anyway.

Contrast is high. Latitude is narrow, probably a stop of headroom in either direction before the image suffers. Incident metering and careful zone placement are the right approach. Place the important highlight on Zone VII, let the shadows fall, and trust the curve.

The reciprocity exponent is 1.05, slightly better than Velvia 100F. For exposures past one second, Zone Light Meter calculates the corrected time. The color crossover behavior that plagues Velvia 50 at long exposures exists here too, though it appears a little later in the exposure curve. Past about six to eight seconds, shadow areas start drifting magenta. If the scene requires a multi-minute exposure, Provia 100F is the technically safer call.

Available in 35mm, 120, and sheet film. Production is ongoing but quantities have tightened. It is the Velvia that working assignment photographers have stocked since 2005, and for good reason.