Anyone use Ektar 100 yet?

[zebulus]

Wayne, your in houston right? If you want quick developing the houston camera exchange will do it for you. Its not quick, but its fast!

Just dropped off my first roll from the bronica over there yesterday, I will probobly pick it up like a week from now though. Fingers crossed!

[venchka]

Thanks. I knew that. BUT, they are on the other side of the Earth. The Photo Lab at Blaylock & I-10 is a lot closer to me if I need something fast. It's film. It's slow. That's cool. Forty six pennies to develop the film. It costs more in gas for me to go in & out of Sam's parking lot twice to drop/collect the film.

[crackhead]

Does Sam's send their orders to Fuji too?

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by venchka

1. I had several rolls of 120 & 220 C-41 film processed at Walmart in June-July. $0.84/roll for either length roll. Cool.
2. I left film at Sam's Club after Labor Day. It is more convenient for me than Walmart. Good news: I picked up the roll of Ektar 100 yesterday. Develop only. $0.46/roll. WOW! Bad news: The other roll I left at the same time wasn't there. I hope it's not lost.
3. Early results from the scanner: Candy Apple Red '32 Deuce Coupe is RED! Grain? Where? What grain? I dare say this film could be enlarged to cover a building without even straining. Where are those folks who did the film vs. digital test on the telly in London? 120 Ektar 100 would wipe the floor with 35mm digital. Zeiss optics are frigging amazing!
4. I can't get the cool film edge in my scans. Working on it.

Very interesting news, Wayne. Now all I have to do is pick up a medium format camera. Still kicking myself for selling the ones I owned.

Uh, about those Wal-Mart/Sams prices -- Did they put the negs in sleeves at that price?

[venchka]

Sleeved and cut in pairs, both 6x6 & 6x7. I read that if you write "Sleeve, Do not cut" in the instructions, they won't. I may try that with the next roll.

You can't develop B&W yourself for that price.

Bargains come along all the time. Watch the classifieds at the Rangefinder Forum and of course TPF.

[venchka]

501cm/80mm CFE Planar/Crap scanner/Crap scanner skills.

'32 Deuce Coupe. Winnsboro, TX. September 5, 2009.



I'll get some others up as soon as I can. Something besides red.

[cooltouch]

I finished up a roll of Ektar yesterday, and I must say that I like it. It scans well, but in some instances I had to do a bit of color correction. I'm not sure yet why that is.

Following are a few samples. All images were scanned on an Epson 4990 at an indicated 4800 dpi. All enhancements in Epson Scan were turned off (e.g., no unsharp masking, no grain reduction, dust removel, etc.). No PP other than the removal of a few dust specks, and some color correction on a couple of the flower images. Not sure yet why they needed it. Images were resized and saved to jpg with moderate compression.

The caboose was taken with a Nikon F2 and 24mm f/2.8 Nikkor. Exposure unrecorded and disremembered





Nikon F2 and Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm f/2.8-3.5. Exposure 1/250 @ f/2.8. Overcast skies. Highlights are blown out some even though the scene was metered accurately.





I changed cameras mid-roll because I wanted to try out a new lens I just bought. Canon AE-1P, FD 85mm f/1.2 SSC Aspherical. I was bouncing between 1/500 and 1/1000 using the camera's shutter-priority mode to keep the lens as wide open as possible. Camera didn't want to index at f/1.2 so I settled for f/1.4.





I was also shooting the scene, using the Canon AE-1P and 85mm f/1.2, with Fuji Superia ISO 400 film. Here's a photo of the same subject with Superia, followed by 100% crops showing the difference between Fuji Superia and Ektar. As you can see, the Ektar's much smaller grain allows for the resolution of finer detail, thus the Ektar is noticeably sharper than the Superia as well.





Michael

[crackhead]

I had to do a bit of color correction

a lot of Ektar users have noted this... I also scan with an Epson and I noticed that Ektar consistently throws off the scanning software's autocorrection big time. Better to scan the image completely flat and work with the file in Photoshop.

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by crackhead

I had to do a bit of color correction

a lot of Ektar users have noted this... I also scan with an Epson and I noticed that Ektar consistently throws off the scanning software's autocorrection big time. Better to scan the image completely flat and work with the file in Photoshop.

I've been using Paint Shop Pro X2 since about February, and have come to like it quite a bit. One of the things I like best about it is its Express Lab feature, which usually only requires a single mouse-click to correct color back to where it should be. Fortunately, it handles Ektar fine. One click is all I had to do with the Ektar scans, so it really wasn't such a big deal.

In my case, the scans had taken on a noticeable purple cast, which is something I've associated with old slide emulsions. But not all of them had. Curious. But interestingly enough, while Epson Scan will usually get rid of the purple cast with its color correction feature, it actually intensifies it with Ektar. I found that, if I manually color correct in Epson Scan, that I can get pretty close by turning up the green (cutting magenta) and turning down the blue (boosting yellow) by about equal amounts. But like you, I've been scanning the images flat, cuz it's easier and quicker to do the corrections in PSPX2.

I mentioned in my opening post that I like the way Ektar scans, and this is because its grain reminds me a lot of slide film. It stays small and unintrusive, and doesn't clump up they way other negative emulsions I've tried do.

Michael

[crackhead]

Ektar 100 in 120 , exposed at 64 :

[Colyn]

After trying for months to get my hands on some I finally have 4 rolls on the way. Can't wait to load up the Leica and give this film a try..