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Ektachrome 100 is BACK!!


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The traditional film used by National Geographic still photographers for years was, I think, Ektachrome. It's a highly respected film stock. I never used it much in my filmmaking, since I used Kodachrome or more recently Vision 3. I'm keen to film with it. Thanks Kodak for bringing it back. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Provia?

 

Fujichrome Provia ( marketed as Provie 100D ) is an excellent quality film - probably the best colour reversal cine film out there at the moment.

I process many of these carts, as well as 35mm and 120 Provia stills films, and some images are just breathtaking !

 

The only thing ( many ) folk complain about is, the carts are only loaded with 40ft of film not 50ft.

This I believe is because 'Retro Enterprises' ( in Tokyo, Japan ) load both Super 8 and Single 8 carts ( .... Single 8 only having a 40ft capacity with acetate base film ).

 

John S :rolleyes:

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The only thing ( many ) folk complain about is, the carts are only loaded with 40ft of film not 50ft.

This I believe is because 'Retro Enterprises' ( in Tokyo, Japan ) load both Super 8 and Single 8 carts ( .... Single 8 only having a 40ft capacity with acetate base film ).

 

Well it's actually closer to 35' which makes the sticker price of $42/cart even harder to swallow. (Provia $1.42/ft vs 7285 Ekta $0.80/ft) I've shot 5 carts of it and it consistently ended at ~35'... This is actually because the film stock is thicker than other films so you literally cannot fit more into a cart without overstuffing it and the cartridge jamming. I do LOVE color reversal and can somewhat afford it so I do, but it's a less than idea solution. With that said, the colors are poppin and it's very sharp. In projection it looks wild!

 

Also on the jamming note, the other big issue with the film related to its thickness is that it definitely does not run as smoothly through the camera as other stocks. At times, the stability is so bad that I literally got overlapping frames on the top and bottom. This with a camera that has shot other stocks like V3 and E100D just fine. So that's extremely undesirable. Here's a little example below... be sure to look at the top and bottom. Granted in projection it's a little better but I've never had issues like this with any other stock I've shot. This is from the raw scan from Gamma Ray Digital who did a great job stabilizing the main frame already.

 

hypSIP7.gif

 

Also in other news.... the first released test footage of 7294 is out! Definitely less saturated than 7285. More latitude. Colors are semi-closer to Kodachrome in a way. Apparently it's based on Ektachrome E100G.

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Nick, thanks for the provie footage, as i feared, poor registration, which is why i have avoided the stock (apart from 35mm slides) till i've seen a few more samples. The new kodak offing, i like the saturation, but not taken back by the image sharpness. Looking at the curves from Karim, K25 is well over the 100 mark, whilst 7294 is short of the 100 mark. Was k25 around 63 lppm, reckon 7294 will just under 50 lppm, which means soft looking super 8 as very little image area, one needs as much resolving power as possible, pitty kodak didn't opt for a 50 asa reversal.

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I tried understanding MTF charts but I still don't completely get them. But I'm pretty sure that the x axis is resolution (line pairs). There is not too much difference in the x axis between K25 and E100D. The y axis implies that K25 is sharper, which is what we would expect, as it has thinner emulsion layers.

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I tried understanding MTF charts but I still don't completely get them. But I'm pretty sure that the x axis is resolution (line pairs). There is not too much difference in the x axis between K25 and E100D. The y axis implies that K25 is sharper, which is what we would expect, as it has thinner emulsion layers.

The scale is logarithmic, so the difference is quite a bit greater than it appears. It's hard to read but at 50 cycles K25 resolution is something like 50% higher.

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Just chinagraph a crop line in the viewfinder if you can get to it.

 

Good idea. I used two strips of tape, top and bottom, on the ground glass of my Bolex S-16 to crop it to 2.35:1. That was really fiddly to put in place, and chinagraph would be much quicker, and still not scratch anything.

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Hi,

 

Thanks for the link to the test footage. Gives some idea how it would look in Super 16mm format and when professionally processed. The best shots are clearly when the sun is out I can't get over that yellow T shirt man and the Rose I think this stock is going to be just lovely to shoot with.

 

Someone mentioned this maybe is closer to 64T not that I got chance to shoot that as a 16mm guy and they have gone up the saturation scale a notch but not fully to the original 7285 territory which yes of course was called Very saturated and boy was it! But this is a nice compromise to keep everyone happy. I think the reason it continued in VS is that the original kodak film catalogues had Kodakchrome and Ektachrome as a choice and you could go normal colour pallet or fully saturated. The Kodachrome went leaving only the VS Ektachrome option. They tried reformulating and came up with 64T less VS but clearly never really happy with it hence it not lasting long and never hitting 16mm. They have finally reformulated properly and got something a nudge up from Neutral which as I say I think will please most people most of the time. After all the alternative reversal film is....?

 

Did anyone shoot the Agfa / Wittner Chrome 200D. I believe supply of that is nearly exhausted everywhere. I need to have a look at the one roll I shot with it this year. The Film Ferrarnia guys really missed there window to capitalise on there being no new Color Reversal didn't they!

 

Best Regards

 

Gareth North

 

bolexh16user.net

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't yet tried the new Ektachrome. Just wondering how it compares alongside the older 5285 / 7285. Has anyone done a test for colour and sharpness etc on the same subject ?

 

I've been making a film using my freezer's 16mm 7285 so am curious if the footage will match well.

Edited by Doug Palmer
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I haven't yet tried the new Ektachrome. Just wondering how it compares alongside the older 5285 / 7285. Has anyone done a test for colour and sharpness etc on the same subject ?

It shares nothing with the older Ektachrome. They were unable to figure out a modern way to make the old stock. So they basically formulated a new stock that has similar properties, which is why it's taken such a long time. The new stock does look really nice, I've seen some projected and it has an Ektachrome look, but it's a more modern look to me.

 

I do think it will be a great stock for Super 8 people, but I don't think it will take off on any other format sadly. I would love to try some in 16mm.

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They only discontinued Ektachrome five years ago so I have a hard time believing they forgot how to make it, it probably looks the way they want it to look, for whatever reasons.

 

I'm thinking that it depends on what happened to their supply chain in the last five years and whether they were happy with their Ektachrome at that time. I wasn't happy with their VNF, that's for sure.

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They only discontinued Ektachrome five years ago so I have a hard time believing they forgot how to make it, it probably looks the way they want it to look, for whatever reasons.

It's something to do with a certain component that's not being made anymore, or so I've been told.

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My understanding was Kodak ended up making the needed chemicals itself for the ones they could no longer outsource. My understanding is the film is basically identical to the old stuff, according to what people are saying about the look of it. I plan on picking up some rolls in all formats when the finally get stock on it all. First batch of stock has already sold out.

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