With this week’s Film Friday we are dipping back into our color negative emulsions and shining a light on Kodak Pro Image 100.

Pro Image 100 made quite a splash in the news when it was announced in July of 2018 that the film would become available in Europe, which was followed in early 2019 by a North American release. In reality though Pro Image 100 had been available since 1997, albeit limited to the Asian and South American markets.

Pro Image’s history is a wee bit murky. It appears that around the time Kodak Gold 100 was entering its sixth generation, Kodak took the emulsion and improved it for better skin tones and released it in Asia and South America as a low-cost alternative to the Portra films. Kodak Gold meanwhile continued on its own path. So while it is fair to compare Kodak Pro Image to Gold, it must also be remembered that this film is more similar to that sixth generation of Gold and not necessarily later iterations of that film. This bit of history is helpful in setting your expectations for this film. While it is alluded to as a Professional film, it seems that it is more accurate to think of this film as a Prosumer film instead, being a notch above other consumer color films but not in the same category as Ektar or Portra.

Don’t let Pro Image 100’s cheap price and the argument over whether it is a professional film or not distract you from the fact that film is a beautiful film that really excels in giving you bang for the buck.

Discussions about the strengths of Pro Image 100 can start in a couple of places. Personally, our favorite quality to this film is its price. A roll of Pro Image 100 will cost you a bit more than half the price of Ektar or Portra - Kodak’s professional films. This is a pretty compelling point to make. Film is not getting cheaper. Kodak announced recently that most of its film’s will experience a price increase with the start of 2020. Since we first published this review Kodak has instituted annual price bumps of 5-10%. Having a selection of lower-cost films to choose when feeding our cameras, such as Pro Image 100, Gold and Ultra Max is wonderful. In fact, take that trio of films and you have an ISO 100, 200 and 400 option that all sit in the sub $10 range per roll.

A lower price isn’t the only thing Pro Image 100 has going for it though. It is pretty peppy when it comes to its colors. This isn’t Ektar, and if vibrant landscapes are what you are looking for, then you should stick with Ektar or grab a roll of Velvia. But if you want reasonably snappy colors, especially in your reds and greens, and you want to save a couple bucks in the process, then you are going to be quite satisfied with the images that Pro Image delivers. We would daresay that the film is a bit more colorful than Portra, which is famously lower contrast and saturation, and it becomes even more so if you push it a stop to ISO 200. Try that out sometime and see what you think.

Another interesting selling point with Pro Image 100 is its ability to withstanding the effects of long term exposure to high temperatures. The film is reported to have been designed to excel in the warmer climates of Asian and South American countries. While we have not put this to any scientific test, it is stated right on the Kodak data sheet that the film does not need refrigeration in warmer environs. How much of a difference will this make over a roll of Ektar or Portra? We really don’t know, but it can’t hurt, right?

We were missing a good red subject for our test rolls but living in Oregon gives us plenty of green things to photograph.

There is some talk out there about Pro Image being fine grained. The Professional name on the box would also encourage such an opinion. In the grain department Pro Image is essentially identical to its consumer film brethren and has little in common with Kodak’s Portra and Ektar films. Kodak now uses what it calls the Print Grain Index to measure perceptible grain in a 4x6” print. Under such tests Ektar scores less than 25, Portra 160 gets a 28 and Portra 400 scores 37. Gold 200 meanwhile scores a 44 and Ultramax gets a 46. Pro Image 100? 43. In terms of grain, the film is nearly identical to Gold 200 and is grainier than Portra 400. But don’t let the raw numbers dissuade you here either. Grain is influenced by aesthetics as well and Pro Image 100’s grain has a nice look to it. Additionally the film tends to have rather clean shadows in terms of grain. So yes, expect to see the grain should you plan on printing larger than 4x6 but you may find that the grain looks kind of nice.

If you are looking for it, you won’t have much trouble finding Pro Image 100’s grain… but at the same time you may notice that it really doesn’t look all that bad.

So where does Pro Image fit into your camera bag then? It is an excellent budget film with good colors and slightly less grain than the higher speed Gold 200 and Ultramax 400 emulsions. It plays well with skin tones. It travels well, particularly in warmer climates. Would we shoot a wedding with it? Probably not as we’d spring for the Portra films. But if we were the guest at a wedding and wanted to get some nice candids we can totally see loading a roll of this in a point and shoot and firing away while having a good time.

We’ll close with one last trip down history lane. At one time Kodak Pro Image 100 was also known as Profoto 100. There was a time when the film was available in 120. Today the film can only be found in 35mm, but then again a few years ago this film couldn’t be found readily in Europe or North America, 35mm or not. An excellent test launch in the UK convinced Kodak to market the film in Europe, and the following success there further convinced them to bring it to North America where it has been one of our better selling films. If this keeps up is it impossible that we may see it introduced in 120 at some point? Certainly not impossible. Whether that becomes likely really depends on how much support the market gives it.

Give Pro Image 100 a try today and let us know what you think. You can find a direct link to the film here on our website.

Get a roll of Pro Image 100 off our web store today.

We had to throw in at least one portrait for you. Pro Image 100 definitely beats Ektar when it comes to skin tones but Portra is still king. All in all, it holds its own with portraits.

Film Friday - August 30th, 2024. Kodak Pro Image 100