New Ektar Film

[vaantique]

Just decided to browse Kodak site today and saw an anouncement introducing new Ektar 100 negative film. Is this

brand new? This is the first I've heard of it. I'd love to try it with some of my classic cameras. From what I've

heard of the original Ektar 25 it was amazing quality.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/ektar/ektarIndex.jhtml?id=0.2.26.14.5.14&lc=en

[ellis_vener_photography]

yes it is very new.

[franklin_polk]

Everything I can find about it is dated today. Nice find! I'm definitely looking forward to it as well. It

looks like they're aiming it to replace UC100, it'll be interesting to see some comparisons.

[leicaglow]

What's impressive is that Kodak is introducing a new film in the "digital world". Maybe they realize film is not dead after all.

[Michael R Freeman]

Everything old is new again (for those that remember the short lived Ektar 25/125/1000 line from the early 90's). ;-)

 

Nice to see Kodak introduce a new low speed C-41 film.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Awesome!

[matthew_newton]

Very nice. I'll be interested to see if anyone does an Ektar vs Reala comparison. If no one proves to be forth coming maybe I'll just need to go ahead and get a couple of rolls and give a straight up comparison a try.

[jason_hall5]

That is great! Glad to see this.

[KenPapai]

For all practical purposes, film is dead; however, I was looking for some Ektar 25 recently and gave up. It used to be easy to find when film was alive and thriving. Nice to read about the Ek 100. I will shoot some, in October, in Humboldt County for that matter! ;)<div></div>

[akochanowski]

Looks like it is sharper, according to Kodak, than 160NC Portra, with more saturation and about the same contrast as Portra

VC. They appear to be pitching it as a substitute to Ektachrome 100G. Could be nice in flat light.

[KenPapai]

I neglected to say I was shooting all Portra 160VC film last year in my Canon -- like the above sample shot.

[akochanowski]

I've taken a break from digi and have been shooting Portra 160NC and 400NC, maybe 70 rolls or so, all spring and summer. It

scans wonderfully. <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=843930">Here is a folder</A> of shots with the stuff.

I've found it prints very well up to 18x24, and handles a little UM well.

[ted_marcus1]

The Kodak site also says they're discontinuing 400UC. That leaves 400-speed users somewhat scrod. Portra 400NC has similar grain to 400UC, but 400VC is grainier. I suppose if you're scanning and processing digitally, it's simple enough to increase the saturation of the NC to taste for non-portrait images. On the other hand, the Ektar 100 should be very good for scanning.

[Matthew Currie]

Thanks for the heads-up on 400UC. That's always been one of my favorite print films.I guess I may have to make some more space in the freezer.

[paf iii]

I Used to love to shoot with the old Ektar,I was able to enlarge to 16x20 with great results. looks like I'll have try a roll. Boy if they bring back Vericolor III I may consider switching back to film.

[dlw]

It sounds wonderful! Hopefully, they will also offer it in 120 and 4X5 before long. I think I'll have to get some for my

F1N in the meantime and explore 35mm again. Kudos to Kodak!

[emiliogtz]

This sounds great. I haven't been able to get Reala lately at my location, but I can get pretty much everything Kodak. Surely I will see it soon.

[patrick j dempsey]

Looks like from the site they are saying this stuff has more saturation that Portra VC, and much finer grain that Portra 160NC. As far as Andy's comment about flat light, I think this emulsion should have similar latitude of other modern print films, which means it should be able to handle more dynamic light than either slide films or older emulsions like the original Ektar. They specifically mention it having greater exposure latitude by a factor of -1 and +2. I think this new film is setting up market for the end of slide films, which has been a predictable movement in the market. Slide films are pretty much only used today by people seeking grainless images with more color saturation than print films, as well as some people wanting cross processing. Since this film offers very low grain and very high color saturation, as possibly greater exposure latitude than slide film, it just may be what people are after. (Now we just need a print film that produces the cross processed look everytime.... get to work on that Kodak!) Hopefully, Kodak will continue to push for more and more emulsions with lower grain and finer detail and better color. I'd love to see a variant of this with the color profile of 160NC or Gold 200. Since there are actually physical limitations to the usefulness of larger megapixel digital cameras (look up diffraction limit), I do believe that it's possible for print films to be produced that directly compete with digital in terms of sharpness and blow it out of the water in terms of color graduation and latitude.