Kodak’s Ektar is a 100 speed, color negative (C-41 process) film. Kodak describes it as “the world’s finest grain color negative film,” with ultra vivid color, exceptional sharpness and extraordinary enlargement capability. Since this article’s original publication several years ago I’ve shot a lot more Kodak Ektar. Recently I’ve updated the article with still more samples to show how well Ektar handles various lighting situations.
Riverside, Wyoming (Nikon F5 + Kodak Ektar in dramatic late afternoon natural light)
Rio Grande Gorge, Taos County, New Mexico (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar, pushed to ISO200)
Rio Grande Gorge, Taos County, New Mexico (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar, pushed to ISO200)
Recently I’ve been working with Ektar a lot, mostly experimenting with pushing it one and two stops. On our recent trip to Santa Fe I shot a good bit of 35mm Ektar; all of it pushed 1 stop to ISO200. I found the results quite nice.
Sunrise at Cerrillos Rd. and Saint Francis, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar in natural early morning light)
Early morning light in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Rio Grande Gorge, Taos County, New Mexico (2014)
Though I often work off a tripod, having the extra speed while shooting hand held is a welcome bonus when shooting Ektar. I have also run a good bit of it through my Medium Format rigs. The results have been – in a word – spectacular. Here’s a link to a collection of images on Zenfolio made with Kodak Ektar.
Kodak Ektar performs admirably in controlled lighting situations. (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar in studio lighting)
Carpenter, Wyoming (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar, natural afternoon light)
Stanley Thermos, Fort Collins, Colorado (Nikon F6 + Ektar using Nikon Creative Lighting System -CLS- flash)
Stanley Thermos, Fort Collins, Colorado
How about people? Yep. While not true to life skin tones (which I think is way over rated), Ektar produces beautiful, dramatic portraiture.
Senior Portraits, Fall 2015 (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar in natural light with gold reflector)
In the past one of the things about Ektar I found less appealing was, it almost looked like a digitally-made image. The grain is so tight, the color and contrast so punchy and vivid that at first glance you almost couldn’t tell it was an image made on film. If you’re in search of a film that’ll produce an image that looks like it was made with a digital camera, Ektar is a great choice. But it’s also a great choice for other things and since my first experience I’ve figured out where it fits in the line up.
ShoeDini, Fort Collins, Colorado (Nikon F100 + Kodak Ektar, natural afternoon light)
frame 08-Asleep on the couch, Fort Collins, Colorado (Mamiya 645 Pro TL and 120 Ektar, natural light)
Rock River, Wyoming (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar in natural afternoon light)
Rustic Inn sign along Colorado Highway 14, Cache la Poudre Canyon, Colorado. (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar in late afternoon natural light)
Cocoa Beach Pier, Cocoa Beach, Florida (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar, low natural light)
Artist’s paint brushes, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2014). Ektar also takes flash well. This is lit by one tungsten bulb directly over the brushes at frame-right, and a SB-800 bounced off the ceiling to illuminate the left, white backdrop.
Last light on Carpenter, Wyoming’s oldest structure. Carpenter, Wyoming (Nikon F6 + Kodak Ektar100 in late afternoon natural light)
UPDATE: August 27, 2014
Having just concluded an experiment pushing Ektar to 400, please visit the latest Blog post about the topic. You’ll be surprised at the results.
Kodak Ektar, Nikon F6, 105mm VR Micro-Nikkor, Walden, Colorado
Kodak Ektar + Nikon F6: The world’s finest grain 35mm color negative film meets the world’s best 35mm film camera.
The first thing you need to remember about Ektar is, like so many films, it likes a lot of light. When Ektar is underexposed it gets a greenish or bluish cast to it that is to my eye displeasing. The great news about Ektar is it’ll handle that light beautifully. Much better than a chrome film like Velvia. Ektar is really the best of both worlds: vivid, punchy color and contrast – but maintains exposure latitude of the C-41 films. A well-exposed frame of Ektar contains an amazing amount of useable information.
Cowdrey, Colorado
Ektar scans well in my Super CoolScan 5000ED.
Below are a few medium format (6×7 and 645 format) images made on Ektar. Varying subject matter shows Ektar’s latitude. It seems to handle all colors well.
frame 14-Coffeefish organic dye bath, Fort Collins, Colorado (Mamiya 645 + Kodak Ektar, natural afternoon light)
frame 01 – Trappers Moon, no.2, Flat Tops Wilderness, Colorado (Mamiya 645 + Kodak Ektar, natural early morning light)
Flatirons Frost, Boulder, Colorado (Mamiya 645 + Kodak Ektar, natural late afternoon light)
Morning at Adobe Town Rim, Red Desert, Wyoming (Mamiya RZ67 + Kodak Ektar, direct early morning light)
Last light on Interstate 80, Nebraska’s Panhandle. (Mamiya RZ67 + Kodak Ektar, late afternoon natural light)
Last light in Loudy Simpson Park, Craig, Colorado (Mamiya RZ67 + Kodak Ektar, late afternoon natural light)
Iowa River, just outside Steamboat Rock, Iowa along Highway 20. Kodak Ektar and a 2-stop graduated neutral density filter helped preserve subtle tones in the sky while also allowing the subtle detail of the fog to show. In the negative, detail in center old growth trees is thin. But Ektar preserved enough to pull out in scanning. Pretty remarkable.
If you haven’t shot Kodak Ektar yet and you love punchy color, definitive contrast and nearly grainless images – what are you waiting for? At last check a roll of Ektar sold from B&H Photo in New York for just under $5.50. A roll of Velvia goes for $10.64. That’s a $5 per roll difference -on top of the performance attributes: greater exposure latitude, no E6 processing and lower processing costs. I love Ektar and between it, Portra 160 and Portra 400, I believe I can shoot just about anything without missing chrome films one bit.
