Slide film is considered to be the best film for astrophotography because it renders the best color-balance for the night sky. I decided to try the highly touted Ektachrome 200 (exposed at ISO 320) for astrophotography. No, I wasn’t trying to photograph some far-off galaxy or supernova–just some star points in the night sky. Unfortunately, Kodak discontinued its production so I decided to try Ektachrome 100, exposed at ISO 320 (another excellent film for general photography). As you can see in the above photograph (f/1.8 @ ~15 seconds), there are no stars. Push-processing didn’t work so well for image quality, either. Most of my 36 images tended to be flat looking and underexposed (even with careful light metering).
If you have found a good alternative for astrophotography I would be glad to hear from you. In fact, I would be happy to post one of your photos with your watermark and I would add a “Courtesy of” statement, below.
You will find some of the better photos from this roll at the first five photographs in Portland Streets, and Maplefest Fair.
Stephen Fielding Images 