Fuji stocks - grainy or not?

[Patrick Cooper]

I am planning to use some Fuji Eterna 250D for a 16mm project in the near future. I was quite impressed by a high res music videoclip I saw online which used a combination of Fuji 250T and Kodak 250T films - shot on 16mm. The 250T segments looked very clean and fine grained. Bear in mind that this was the tungsten version of this film so theoretically, the daylight version would be finer grained (though probably only slightly.)

 

However, I am puzzled by a number of peoples' comments on this forum about the graininess of Fuji's stocks, including 250D. Are you in fact referring to the current Eterna 250D or the older 250D? Someone once described Fuji's 250D as being way too grainy for their tastes. I have also watched a sample of 250D on Fuji's demo dvd - the one which features mock army games in a forest setting and this footage looked remarkably fine grained. Then again, that particular footage was shot mostly on 35mm so that is not a true representation of how it would look in 16mm. There is another website where I saw stills from 16mm Fuji 250D film and these stills didnt look particularly grainy at all. There seems to be quite a difference between what I see from samples of this stock and the kind of descriptions that people write about it. Are there any people here who would actually defend Eterna 250D as a fine grained stock?

[Stephen Williams]

I am planning to use some Fuji Eterna 250D for a 16mm project in the near future. I was quite impressed by a high res music videoclip I saw online which used a combination of Fuji 250T and Kodak 250T films - shot on 16mm. The 250T segments looked very clean and fine grained. Bear in mind that this was the tungsten version of this film so theoretically, the daylight version would be finer grained (though probably only slightly.)

 

However, I am puzzled by a number of peoples' comments on this forum about the graininess of Fuji's stocks, including 250D. Are you in fact referring to the current Eterna 250D or the older 250D? Someone once described Fuji's 250D as being way too grainy for their tastes. I have also watched a sample of 250D on Fuji's demo dvd - the one which features mock army games in a forest setting and this footage looked remarkably fine grained. Then again, that particular footage was shot mostly on 35mm so that is not a true representation of how it would look in 16mm. There is another website where I saw stills from 16mm Fuji 250D film and these stills didnt look particularly grainy at all. There seems to be quite a difference between what I see from samples of this stock and the kind of descriptions that people write about it. Are there any people here who would actually defend Eterna 250D as a fine grained stock?

 

Hi,

 

I just saw some 250T 35mm 8552 projected today. I rated at 160 asa and the grain was minimal.

 

Stephen

[John Holland]

I think you will find grain very same to Kodak , Fuji just has such better range of tones , flesh tones is just the best , anyway whats wrong with a bit of grain ?? Can make images look sharper !! . John Holland ,London

[John Pytlak RIP]

I think you will find grain very same to Kodak , Fuji just has such better range of tones , flesh tones is just the best , anyway whats wrong with a bit of grain ?? Can make images look sharper !! . John Holland ,London

 

Some might have a different opinion. ;)

[Dan Salzmann]

Good to see you back with us John!

I think a bit of grain can help the impression of sharpness because we are seeing the grain sharply rendered as a reference to gauge sharpness.

OTOH, there is the whole acutance thing which contradicts this.

I feel that a bit of grain helps cut the similarities with video in super16 which for me is the most difficult film format to shoot. 35mm is the format that I personally feel offers the most control over what I wish to achieve.

Slightly "overexposed" 250D is a reasonably fine grained stock.

Why not test it before you shoot your film and see for yourself. We all have different ideas about what fine grain is. Especially if you are weighing ASA and graininess.