Welcome back to Film Friday. We’re featuring one of our heavy hitters this week with Kodak’s Ektar 100. Alongside the Portra films, Ektar is one of the most popular films on the market and definitely one of the most used color films out there. The film is well-known for its fine grain, vivid color saturation and poppy contrast.

Long before Ektar was a Kodak film, it was a line of lenses. Beginning in the 1930s, Kodak labeled their highest-quality, professional lenses as Ektar (acquiring the name by combining Eastman Kodak TessAR). You’d see Ektars show up on all sorts of cameras from Bantams to Retinas to large format cameras. The name continued to be used well into the 1960s.

After Ektar was used to signify Kodak’s professional lenses, the name surfaced on a line of films in 1989. In fact, many of you reading this probably remember some of those original Ektar films. Even today we come across the occasional roll of Ektar 25 or Ektar 1000. But that line was discontinued in 1997.

Finally, in September of 2008 Kodak announced the return of Ektar to their film line with the Ektar 100. Originally only available in 135 format, Ektar in 120, 4x5 and 8x10 soon followed. It was a big deal when Kodak unveiled this new Ektar, and the hype has been justified. Kodak claimed that Ektar had the finest grain of any film on the market (very possibly true) as well as vivid color saturation. It was the film the company recommended film photographers switch to with the death of Kodachrome and became a color negative competitor to the rich colors of Fuji Velvia slide film.

Kodak Ektar is our go-to landscape film here at the shop for many reasons. Image made with a Pentax 67.

The thing we love best about Ektar is its color. It is has bright, saturated colors and makes a nice counterpart to the softer, more muted colors of the Portra films. The landscape photographers on staff love Ektar for how vivid it is and we really cannot say enough about the color saturation of this film.

In addition to those bright colors, the other strength of Ektar is its fine grain. While we love grain and how it lends a photo texture, there is a time and place for grain, and sometimes you want a nice, smooth image without a lot of grit or grain - particularly as you start to make enlargements. We don’t get technical enough to have ever compared the grain of Ektar to Portra 160, or Velvia 50, because we can tell looking at Ektar images that it is fine grained. Fine enough for our tastes anyway. (Really though, it’s all about the colors.)

If you have plans to go somewhere colorful, make sure you have a couple rolls of Ektar in your bag to do the location justice. Image made with a Fuji G617.

Ektar is more than just a one trick pony (or two if you count its fine grain). One of the other aspects we really appreciate about it is its low speed. Sure, perhaps we normally just think of film speed in relation to grain, but the speed of film informs the types of images we can make beyond how grainy they will be. For example, we sell a lot of Kodak Ektar to our pinhole customers and it is one of our favorite pinhole films as well. Think of it this way, its not like you are ever going to get that pinhole camera fast enough for instantaneous exposures, so you might as well embrace its long exposure nature and the best way to do that is with slow film. There are not many slow-speed color options on the market. If you are a medium format photographer you can use the aforementioned Fuji Velvia 50, but that film also has notorious reciprocity failure both in terms of exposure and color (it tends to shift green after exposures of only a few seconds). There is also Kodak Portra 160 at 2/3rds of a stop faster, so that is not bad. If you are lucky you can track down some Fuji 160NS but we much prefer the look of Portra and Ektar to this film. There are more options on the 35mm side of with Pro Image 100 now widely available. Lomography also markets a who-knows-which-old-Kodak-film-this-is ISO 100 film. But the reality is, there are not a whole lot of slow speed color options out there. And this can be a big deal not just for pinhole photographers, but those who favor long exposures via ND filters as well. If your goal is to go long, it is a good idea to go slow, and Ektar fits that bill quite well.

In regard to reciprocity failure, our experience with Ektar has been pretty good. Kodak’s data sheet for the film suggests not accounting for reciprocity for any exposures up to 1 second, but even after that correction is pretty minimal. By the time you get up to 1 minute exposures, you ought to be giving the film an extra stop though, meaning that metered 1 minute exposure ought to be really be 2 minutes.

If you are a pinhole photographer, then Ektar is easily our top recommendation for these cameras. The slower speed lends itself well to the slower nature of pinhole photography. Image made with a Reality So Subtle 6x6 Dual Pinhole.

Ektar can be a great long exposure film. Kodak suggests correcting for reciprocity failure starting at 1 second exposures but in our experience, reciprocity remains fairly light until you get out to about 1 minute exposures. Image made with a Hassel… — Ektar can be a great long exposure film. Kodak suggests correcting for reciprocity failure starting at 1 second exposures but in our experience, reciprocity remains fairly light until you get out to about 1 minute exposures. Image made with a Hasselblad 500C.

The vivid saturation of Kodak Ektar is not ideal for every circumstance… skin tone comes to mind. While we have seen lots of great portraits made on Ektar, it also has a tendency to make skin tones look a bit too saturated or ruddy. Nonetheless, we would not tell you to avoid Ektar for portraiture, just try to match it up with portrait shoots where that saturation will be a benefit and not a shortcoming. If you are working with someone who has bright hair, or bright blue eyes for example, then we could see Ektar really making these elements stand out.

Ektar’s saturation can run away with skin tones a bit (note the tone of the hands) but that doesn’t mean it cannot be used for portraiture, especially when bright colors are involved. Image made with a Hasselblad Flexbody.

In our opinion, every color film photographer should try Ektar at least once - for if you do, odds are you will be using it a lot after that first roll. It’s a great film and we hope it remains a staple in our bags for a long time. Whether you are a landscape photographer, traveling somewhere vibrant, looking to do big enlargements with fine grain, or love long exposures Ektar will give you the results you want.

Here’s a recap of what we love about it:

The color. There isn’t a color negative film like it. While Fuji Velvia continues to be the king of color saturation, Ektar is not far behind.
The slow speed. Especially when wanting to work with long exposures it is nice to have a film that isn’t working against you in terms of its speed.
Fine grain. It enlarges beautifully.
It’s available in 35mm, 120, and sheet film! That’s a big deal.

We always have Ektar on our shelves and on those occasions when we don’t it is because the film’s popularity has caused it to sell out faster than we can get more from Kodak. We typically keep it in stock in 35mm, 120 and 4x5.

Film Friday - March 8th, 2024. Kodak Ektar 100