Kodak Ektar 100
Smoth Tones and Smooth Color
Ektar is not as flexible as Portra 400, it’s not as flexible as most films. What it is happens to be a high resolution film that provides sharp results and makes for an amazing fine art film. The doesn’t mean you shouldn’t love Ektar. Like Kodak’s T-Max P3200, it’s a film for a specific purpose.
If you are in the studio, then Ektar provides a great film stock to work with. it’s sharp details, smooth tones, and unique color provide an almost digital like output.
Fine grain and sharpness make for a great macro film
Overview
Where to start with this film. First of all it’s very sharp. It looks great in all sizes ranging from 35mm to 4x5 large format. It’s tons are buttery smooth and colors look fantastic. The biggest issue I’ve seen with Ektar is the accuracy of the colors, but it’s not enough to be a significant issue in most cases. It only comes in the speed of 100, so low light shooting isn’t the best situation for this film. I generally prefer Ektar in the studio, where it can be on a tripod capturing all that beautiful detail and color.
The thing is, Kodak’s Ektar seems to be a film more with the idea of scanning in mind. I find it scans with amazing detail. It looks like a clean digital image after scanning. Ektar is best described as a negative film posing as color reversal -or slide- film. It has the flexibility of C-41 development and editing like color negative film. It has the colors, grain, and sharpness of a slide film. This leaves it square in the middle of the two in both performance and price.
Shooting situations may change how elgar behaves, and sometimes in the studio my strobes like to give it magenta cast with saturated greens and yellow, and somehow Ektar still looks like a cool toned film. This film is daylight balanced, and probably would be great for street photography where you want to print large.
This film doesn’t do as well as Kodak Portra, or even Kodak’s consumer films Gold and UltraMax, when recovering details. This is a film meant for people who understand exposure. If you are looking for a film to get started with then look els ware. Color films like Gold, Portra, ColorPlus, and UltraMax from Kodak provide a much more affordable approach to learning color film photography.
I’m pretty pale, and this film makes me look quite red in the studio. That being said, I love how it renders the colors in the images it creates.
Grain, Sharpness, and Color
What grain? This film is advertised as the worlds finest grain color film by Kodak. It doesn’t disappoint, and I haven’t shot enough color film to argue this point. It’s a very fine grain that almost looks like slide film in it’s granularity. Despite the low grain, there is great detail. I was always told that “details live in the grain.” For some reason, this film pulls off stunning detail without appearing to have any grain at all. The low grain makes this great for macro work or landscapes. its ability to pull out tremendous amounts of detail where even my eyes could distinguish it. Now the grain can show up if you push the film and also if you edit it too much. You won’t notice it much in general use.
This film also seems to have a resounding sharpness about it. It is smooth and crips on edges and textures feel almost life like. It’s pure and solid, providing an image that rivals most DSLRs on the market. I would even dare to say it pulls details that try to take on my 50 megapixel EOS 5DS. It’s not quite that level of sharpness and resolution, but it’s not too far off. I can comfortable scan this film at 3600 and 6400 in most cases and it still feels sharp and beautiful.
Color on the other hand is going to be a preferential thing. In portraits it doesn’t quite nail skin tones. They take on a bit more red and magenta that I would like. Colors are saturated and contrast is just right in most images I’ve taken with this film. It’s not a true to life representation, but it’s close enough with enough unique color science to make it almost look better than real life. This gives Ektar an artistic look. The color is balanced for daylight, so shooting in cloudy situations or indoors gives the colors a significant shift, but it still looks fantastic somehow.
This is a daylight balanced film, and as such can give interesting results in cloudy or indoor situations. Shadow recovery is also less impressive than films like Portra 160, so be aware of this when shooting.
Cost
If the cost of Portra is a bit high for you, then Ektar is highway robbery. It’s not as expensive as slide film thankfully, but it is far from cheap. I often find rolls around the $12 mark, but only you can decide if that premium is worth it. Kodak labels this as a part of their Professional films, and I can see why. It’s sharpness and grain make it feel premium.
Conclusion
If Portra is the every mans color film aimed at portraits, then Ektar is the film aimed at everything else. Sure colors are awkward at times but you won’t find a higher grain or sharper film.
Quick Review
Grain: 10 out of 10! It’s almost like it isn’t there, which in a sense makes it’s grain flawless. it works well on this film for sure.
Detail: 10 out of 10. It’s one of the, if not the, sharpest films I’ve ever experienced. I would even say it rivals films like T-Max 100!
Shadow and Highlight Recovery: 2 out of 10. Maybe it’s me, but it has never given me the recover I’ve found in even kodaks consumer color film stocks. I would argue it’s better than slide film by a wide margin.
Price: 3 out of 10. Its expensive, and it really does limit how useful this film is. For a 100 speed film, there are many slower films out there that provide great results for not quite as much money.
Personal Score: 5 out of 10. I like Ektar a lot, but I can’t say I love it. It is a film that I have to have a specific need or want to shoot.
Ektar is a great film, but it’s not perfect. It’s color casts keep me from using it for clients, and it’s cost severely limits its uses. For just a little more you can usually get a roll of Fujifilms or Kodak’s Slide film. Like Ektar, they have low noise, and look saturated and contrasty like Ektar does in most cases. Ektar lives in a world between two films: Professional negative film like Portra and slide film like Ektachrome. This makes Ektar a film that does just a bit more than it’s cheaper brother, but looks like it’s trying to be it’s Slide film brother.