Fuji Astia FilmCard

It seems that Fujifilm are doing something I actually didn’t anticipate.

One of the things that makes the Fuji bodies so damn cool is the film emulation modes that the S3 and S5 have in them: that is, the camera can emulate some of Fuji’s most well-known films.

This is a great idea for those of us that really do love using Velvia, Provia, Astia, and Neopan.

But what about those of us who don’t have an S series body or who can’t afford one?

Well, Fuji have an answer to that.

[img]https://www.leighlo.com/random/images/2007/03-FujiToy-01.jpg[/img]

Presenting Fujifilm FilmCards. I admit, I was a skeptic too when I heard the name. My immediate thought was “how the hell did Fuji manage to get the word “film” repeated right next to each other?” but that didn’t matter since no one seems to pay my thoughts much attention. Don’t worry, I tend not to either.

As someone who edits an online photographic magazine, I’ve been given some free stuff to try out from time to time. As someone who reviews Nintendo DS games on his blog and then posts them on Gamespot for… oh, about five people to look at, I’ve taken on the notion that I like reviewing.

So it wasn’t that much of a surprise that with both of those elements in play, I got a little parcel a month or so ago from Fujifilm containing a Compact Flash card with a letter asking me if I wouldn’t mind doing a review of this product, the Fujifilm FilmCard.

My first thought (after the name issue) was… “wait… “film-card”… that can’t be what I think it is, can it?”

And guess what? It is.

It’s a card with the Fujifilm film-type printed over it and some design that imitates the art usually found on the Astia packaging, as well as a size count of 1gb.

I had expected when I received this package that the card would be part of the generation of write-once media, a new form of storage that is theoretically better off as a long-term storage medium but has the negative quality of film in that you can only write each shot once to the card (so chimping and deleting is practically thrown out the window).

And I was right. But imitating film’s “write-once”-edness isn’t just where this thing really does become digital film.

[img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/03-Astia-Compared-1.jpg[/img]
[i]If you love the reds and greens that Astia has always put out on the shots you’d get when you used it, it’s all here. The glowing sense that greens in the grass and trees would put out, as well as the sheer vibrancy that skin tones would have with it.[/i]

Mind you, I’m still not entirely sure how this works so I’m going to do my best to describe it for you:

The card, like all cards, has its own firmware in it.
For these cards, the firmware talks to the cameras’ sensor and drive writing controllers to tell what algorithm and information is parsed over the image you have just shot that is in the process of being written to the card.

It’s a lot to take in so I’ll try and give you a step-by-step breakdown of what is occuring using the Astia 100F as an example.

Each FilmCard has in it a set of algorithms designed to reproduce the qualities of that film. For instance, Astia 100F will boost the yellows and reds a bit by way of a formula. Think of it as an imported curve that sits on the CF card and affects JPEG files written to it. This is a very cool idea, especially if your camera doesn’t support multiple curves or (even if it does) you can’t find an Astia curve for your camera (or the film of your choice).

So, I decide to take a picture of a person in a park. If I shoot it with a regular CF card (run of the mill what-have-you), the camera just writes the data with whatever curve the camera had at the time (except with RAW which avoids the curve and uses stock colour from the profile).

When I use the FilmCard, the camera (apparently) contacts the FilmCard first, if there’s a curve it tells it to disregard it, and then as it saves, it applies its own curve from the algorithm to the image that’s being saved.

Now, here’s the catch in all of this: it seems just like it’s using a curve, albeit one that is guaranteed to respond just like its film-type.

As such, it only makes a difference on the non-RAW media, or it did on my D70 and 5700 anyway.

[url=https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/03-Astia-Compared-2-Large.jpg][img]https://www.leighlo.com/uploads/random/2007/03-Astia-Compared-2-Small.jpg[/img][/url]
[i]If you plan on using one of these cards — especially the Astia one — try not to use it at night. Astia is great for people among the environment but doesn’t give quite the rich tones that Velvia puts out. As such, a night-time industrial shot barely makes a dent. On the left is the regular shot and on the right is the identical shot with the Astia card. Click on it to get a larger version.[/i]

So if you’re using one of these cards, best to use either JPEG only on a D70 (since RAW + Basic kind of wastes the curve on a Basic-level JPEG) or something like RAW + Fine on another camera, a mode where you’d have both the original RAW file AND a great JPEG to use with that curve applied.

I’m actually understating it… it’s not just a curve. It does apply grain, but since the majority of testing I’ve done was based on ISO 100 film-types (and since the D70 only goes down to ISO 200), the grain doesn’t seem to make that much of an effect. I imagine it might if you blow your image up, but with this article being more of a “preview” of sorts, I haven’t tested every part of this medium as such and I can’t say if the grain forms a better look or if it modifies the presence of noise, as such.

This is a preview, mind you, as Fuji are apparently set to announce this within weeks. I know I’m not the only one to receive a FilmCard and I’m sure someone out there will be like Ken Rockwell or the guys at DPReview and release a proper review / preview of this unit or ones like it within the next day or two like myself.

So what is this and who is this for?

Well, this is probably for the film people: people like myself who never really got over the wet mediums and who want something to make them feel they are shooting on something more true. There is chimping on this format, but you can’t delete anything. It’s like film and you’ve got to make sure each shot counts for something just like on film.
Much like the keyboard that was released primarily for geeks and had no markings on it for letters, this is a format for photographers who don’t care that they can’t chimp.

Because it’s a write-once card, however, it should be a lot less expensive to manufacturer so theoretically, it should be a less expensive memory card when it comes out as well as the great storage medium that write-once media is being touted as.

I know that I’ll be buying a few when they come out. :)