Kodak Supra 400 Quick Test
This picture is a sample from a test roll of Kodak Supra 400. I scanned a full frame using my Nikon LS-1000 set
at its full scanning resolution. The only adjustment made was an auto-levels adjustment in the scanning software.
The full frame is compressed with about 70% quality using ThumbsPlus. The zoomed reason was saved at about 92%
quality to avoid JPEG artifacts. The most significant thing I note about the film is the excessive bleeding of
light around high contrast edges. This is also a pretty good picture for showing how much grain there is in the
film. The worst grain seems to be in dark green areas.
I should also note that this is my first roll of film using a Tiffen polarizer. It is possible that some of
this light bleeding is from the filter. I will expose another test roll more carefully, and without the filter,
using a greater variety of test subjects.
Someone commented that the colored fringe around the scanned highlights might indicate a problem with the scanner.
My response to that is that if that were the case, I would see similar artifacts with other scans. Here are some
sample scans of Kodak Royal Gold 100 film scanned using the same scanner. I tried to find an image that has similar
characteristics.
To further illustrate the problem, I scanned a section of the edge of the frame, where a high contrast area
intersects the edge of the frame. The first sample is taken from a Kodak Supra 400 negative. The second is taken
from a Kodak Royal Gold 100 negative. Both samples are scanned at the same resolution. There is light bleed
evident in both samples, but the Supra 400 has much more pronounced bleed.
I hope these scans are sufficient to show a light bleeding problem with the Kodak Supra 400 film. I may try to do
more standard tests with various films, but this will not be any time soon. I encourage others to do similar testing
and report on your results.
Note that the images made on Kodak Royal Gold 100 film were made with a different camera (an inferior one, actually),
thus potentially invalidating this comparison.
I conducted some more tests to see if I have another scanner problem, and it looks like I do. First a scan of a
scratch made with the point of a sharp pair of scissors. Note that Kodak Supra 400 has a protective coating, so
this scratch chips off the emulsion layer and the protective layer together. The other pictures are scans of the
edge of the film using the following procedure:
- Mount a string normally, with half the frame showing white, the other showing black, from the edge of the
canister at the time the film was loaded into the camera. With some part of the negative covering the entire frame,
do a prescan to get levels.
- Reposition the negative so that the writing is visible to the scanner.
- Refocus the scanner.
- Scan a selected area containing the preprinted text on the negative.
- Rotate for a horizontal display.
Films used are indicated in the text. I think the last one is consumer grade Kodacolor 100 film.
Finally, a couple of high contrast color scans of black and white negatives, to see to what extent a color shift
may be being introduced by the scanner.
