This is a great format with the history of the film and the technology presented in the context of the day. The reveal at the end is so much better for it! In this case ektar 25 absolutely blew me away, I can't believe how good that looks after 30+ years!!!
Thank you for the video. I acquired 1 roll of Ektar 25 & 100 each from the 90's and its good to get some history on this film. The pictures came out fantastic, I usually overexpose to compensate for the decades but seeing these has me worried that the ISO I had in mind would be too low. These are not easy to come by.
I first got into photography in 1988 and pretty much tried every film I could at the time. When this stuff came out I thought it was awesome. Just the sharpness and colour saturation was insane. If you'd be interested I actually have a stash of Ektar 25 Professional in 120 format which has been frozen since 1991 which I'd be happy to send you a roll or 2 to play with. Let me know. Cheers from Australia.
Stunning colour images. I remember picking up a few rolls in 1989 in Berlin after seeing my Dad for the first time in 30 years. So it means a lot that your nostalgia is much appreciated!
Omg, do I have a story for you. This was my favorite film ever. Because I never trusted sending my original negatives in to a lab to get reprints, I did a lot of copy photos and used Ektar 25 for them, sending these negatives in for my reprints instead of the original ones. I also did huge 20x30 enlargements using these Ektar copy negs with great results. I had some Ektar 25 (frozen from the mid 1990’s), Kodachrome 64 (frozen from the early 80’s) and some other film that I froze as I had taken a break from photography. Then later digital came along. But no matter where I lived, I always took the bag of frozen film along to be stored in my current freezer. Fast forward to this past spring. Our freezer had died filled with rotting food (no smell to warn us that it had died and we hadn’t needed anything in it for a while). Once it was opened and discovered, the stench was unbearable and I asked my husband to deal with it all outside. A few days later, he mentioned that he had thrown out all my old film that was in a plastic bag “because you would have never wanted it because of the stench”! Suffice it to say I have never let him forget that he threw away all my Ektar 25! Screw the stench! Arrggg, and even before I saw your video I KNEW it would have printed just fine since it had been frozen! So now that as of this summer I am back doing film, I am still so sick over this! I told another fellow photographer friend what happened and he replied “grounds for divorce”!
Really stunning. I know film freezes well but I’ve never seen such a well preserved example of a color film this old, that was still able to perform like this one did. I was unfamiliar with Ektar 25 so I appreciate the history lesson and having it presented in the context of its time as well. I’ve probably unknowingly had some of my favorite childhood photos shot on Ektar 25.
I used Ektar 25 back then. It made prints of sharpness and detail that were breathtaking. I used to it in my K1000, slow down and make super sharp landscape photographs. Ektar 25 could out resolve some lenses and with a good lens at f8 the sharpness and detail were beyond expectations. Big prints from Ektar 25 can rival medium format. I remmebr then people wondering if medium format had a future because films gave so much from the 135 format and the cameras were developing way faster than meduim format. I remember a Leica billboard advertisment that was photographed on an M6, 28mm lens and Ektar 25. I remember 1990 well and lie you say it was a good year for photography. Films were improving fast, manufacturers were competing to make the best films. Kodak and Fuji were slugging it out in both professional and amateur markets. Every year films improved noticeably, it was exiting to use the latest films, cameras were constantly upgraded through the new and better films. I was a fuji photographer back then, Reala and Superia 400 were my favourites. From Kodak I used a lot of Kodachrome. I liked Kodachrome 200 for its grain and they way this rendered bokeh. Camera technology was suepr exiting in 1990. Autofocus had got really good. Evaluative metereing was super accurate. I use a 1989 Minolts 7000i today and I am so confident I don't bother adjusting exposure on any film slide or print, exposures are always optimal. Compacts cameras were super exiting too, zoom compacts had got good and exiting to use. The Konica Zup 80, Olympus AZ300 and Fuji FZ 2000 were tops. Then bridge cameras were coming up too, I had and still have a Ricoh Mirai. 1990 was a ball for photography everything, film and cameras were at a level of development that gave phootographers all we wanted and more.
Thanks for your article about the Ektar 25 in 35mm. I happen to find a couple of rolls of Ektar 25 in my freezer - in 120! By reading through your article, I am really looking forward to using it with my Mamiya 6. Before that, however, I need to get some experience again, with old color negative film in my Rollei 35T and Rollei 35, and soon Rollei 35S. The first experience with a non-frozen Gold 100, that expired in June 2000 are quite promising. Just scanned that roll, and it turns out very good, that said, I need to use the Restore colors and Restore fading options in Vuescan with my Nikon Coolscan 8000ED.
I really appreciate the research you did and the time it must have taken. And your choices of what to photograph were very well thought out. Well, it might have been interesting to see how it rendered skin color but that does not diminish what you included. Good work as always!
This Old Camera series is fantastic, undoubtedly one of, if not even the, favorite photography videos one. As analogue photography lover, the story of what happened at the very time when the equipment and materials were in production is of enormous interest and relevance, in my opinion. Although it is also interesting the perspective of, how it is in 2021 to use equipment from 19XX, the information you get on this tireless research on magazines from the time, that you share with us, is what gives the fundamental context. Thank you for another formidable video, full of information. And of course the results are actually surprising and, very, very, good
Azriel, thanks so much for this fantastic video. You did a great job researching all the informations and magazines. And the pictures? Absolutely stunning, I love the colors and the sharpness. I really enjoyed the episode .... Greetings from Germany
Thanks for the well researched history of this truly unique film. Back when this film was introduced I was in university shooting black and white Ilford film so I wasn't aware of all the colour film options available. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Really wish Kodak still produced consumer films in 120 like gold, color plus. Medium format is more popular than ever and having cheap options for film would make the experience so much better. I'm almost sure Lomography's 100, 400, and 800 CN films are just proimage, Ultramax, and Max 800 but they're so getting so expensive as well.
What a fun episode :-) I even paused to read the articles and tests ;-) But most important of it all: What a great outcome. I just could not think of a single cn film that even comes close to this color rendition and clarity. I think every minute of looking for the best subject matter was worth it in the end. This film deserved great input especially after 30 years in the fridge! ;-) Thanks for this great video!
I believe they might be doing something along those lines, Nico's photo news did a fireside chat a few months ago with some of the Kodak sales people and they dropped a huge hint something is coming back!
5/ 22/2021 Nice job on your review of Kodak Ektar film going down memory lane with the magazines and choices of films, boy thing really changed when digital improved but took several years to get where we are at now. Peterson Photography and Darkroom were my favorites for what was creative in photography. Back then I shoot a lot of black and white films 35mm and 120 film, due to the cost and also having a home darkroom for black and white. The 90s was also the time that there were more companies producing photo and darkroom gear and chemicals for home color processing. Still have my Besseller print drum with motor base and Unicolor enlarger head, where color was a whole new set of learning to get the color right.
i’ve got a roll of ektar 25 and ektar 1000 i’m going to shoot sometime this year. no clue how they were stored, though… thanks so much for making this!
30 years....man, has it been 30 years...? God, I am getting old. I shot with a ton of the press version of Ektarpress when working for several newspapers over the 80s-00s.
Great Video man! it makes you want to build a time machine and go back in time and pick up all the rolls of film they had back then. Thank you so much.
I had a dream about that this year, went back to 1989 and my first thought wasn't picking a winning lotto number, it was to go to the drug store and get some fresh film, lol
I LOVED all three Ektar films (Ps. the "100" speed was actually 125ISO) I used Ektar 1000 the most and it performed miracles at ISO 800 in all sorts of non optimal lighting. A very nice color palette.
Ektar 25 was awesome. Ektar 100, which was being reintroduced some years ago (i guess it was 2008..) is still very good. But those film prices....good SLRs always had ISO/ASA settings, which starts very low, usually ISO 6 or 8...and perfect for another great film, Adox CMS 20, which goes usually between ISO 12 to 20.
Love it, Azriel ! Imagine, using a 30+ year old RAW format, and your fave RAW Editor doesn't recognize the file. Seems impossible? Well, think no more, i've tried to read my Panasonic Lumix L10 (10 MP, MFT Sensor) RAW files with DXO PhotoLab v4 when it was out, it couldn't being read "unsupported file format..." lol.
@@AzrielKnight It was a older version of DxO PhotoLab, can't remember, thought after years (have had used DxO Optics Pro way long before PhotoLab) i wanted to testdrive a PhotoLab Version, afaik 3.x or sth, and the L10 RAWs have been not shown, the app showed that it's unsupported.
@@AzrielKnight I keep always my original RAWs, because i don't want to be dependent from Adobe, with their DNGs. Also, some file info gets lost whileas converting to DNG, i always keep the original files, means. .SR2, .RAW, .NEF, .ORF, .CR2, or whatever... 🙂
Hi Azriel! Thanks for a top video, the results are really fascinating for such an old film! Do You by any chance own an empty film canister left after development and can make a shot of DX coding? I can't unfortunately find it anywhere on the web. Thanks in advance :)
I am shooting 40 years slides, until it's closure mostly Kodachrome. Negative film I used along with slides, since slide copies didn't deliver the same quality. As a landscape and nature photographer I mostly use a STURDY tripod (Cullmann Titan series), and I love slow film. Kodak should give EKTAR 25 a new try. There was no further progress in film technology since Fuji took over the Agfa patents of latex couplers and turned out the Fijichrome Velvia, which was based on this technology. I think, it is time to start in a new time of film development. There is even a try to re-animate Kodachrome with new chemicals, but with the keystones of the three layer b/w -film layers and the dyes and color couplers during development.
Having been there and done that, I have to say that shooting Ektar 25 was most like shooting Kodachrome 25, being very exacting regarding exposure accuracy and punishing the user for missing the beat. I do not think it was a particularly successful product for Kodak, being a product seeking to solve a demand or problem which didn't exist. Apart from its technical demands, it was just too slow for routine use, suffering the same disinterest which doomed Kodachrome 25 for the same reasons. By then, there were plenty of options in the 100 speed range which better met the general needs of almost all photographers. Kodak's price surcharge was an unnecessary hype which they seemed to think would sell the film as something extra special, but it just depressed sales. One other problem for Ektar 25 is mentioned here, being Fuji Reala. At ISO 100, that was a truly outstanding film, also sold at a premium price. I used it for years shooting landscapes, for which its color bias toward blues and browns was particularly fine. Still have most of a brick of 120 Reala frozen. Ektar 25 was later packaged in 110 format, and Pentax ran incredible full page photo ads using it to sell their Pentax Auto 110 cameras, but there were few 110 cameras yielding an image quality taking advantage of the film, and 110 format hits the skids not long thereafter, and so did Ektar 25.
Great video. I still have lots of film in my freezer. Probably because of the business I did with Kodak every year or two they would send me a box of pre production film to try. I remember testing the Ektar and it was a great print film but it really didn't match up to my KM or KR Kodachromes.
Slow film usually keep well in the freezer. Deep freeze is allegedly not something Ektar 25 likes though. Getting all grainy. So obviously this was treated to the right temperature, by design or by accident. One of your best episodes ever! Congratulations!
@@AzrielKnight I have Ektar 100 in both 35mm and 120 but the fact it's not just the same as the older Ektar and only the one asa speed. Hopefully with the resurgence of film (I hate to use the term analogue) 🤞kodak will give us a wider range of premium/professional films in a mixture of formats especially at the lower speeds.
Wow, i didn't expect the Ektar 25 to still deliver good results. But your test reports on old film material are kind of pointless, the films are no longer produced. It's like trying to bring the dead back to life, and often the results are end up looking like Dr. Herbert West: unusable - because there expired (or dead). I did an apprenticeship in a camera store from 1990 to 1993. There are a lot of memories, but believe me, i wouldn't want to go back to the film age. But i can understand the mystification of film photography by younger people, because they didn't experience the trouble and frustration with the film labs. However, your series "this old camera" is fun and nostagic (especially the old promotional material).
Thanks for the comment! I think the purpose for me is to show the resiliency of film despite its age if properly cared for. While no longer in production I sacrifice a roll so people can save theirs as a display piece if they wish.
The production here is something else! Well done, the magazine stuff was really neat!
Thanks so much :)
This is definitely one of those "if only" moments! Kodak made some amazing films and it would be incredible to be able to use such a fine film
Agreed!
My wife and I watched this together and were blown away by those results. We really enjoyed your well-researched presentation and experimentation.
I also bought a batch of 5 of these balls this week, also kept in the freezer since purchase, so fresh.
This is a great format with the history of the film and the technology presented in the context of the day. The reveal at the end is so much better for it! In this case ektar 25 absolutely blew me away, I can't believe how good that looks after 30+ years!!!
Thanks Dan, glad you enjoyed it :)
Thank you for the video. I acquired 1 roll of Ektar 25 & 100 each from the 90's and its good to get some history on this film. The pictures came out fantastic, I usually overexpose to compensate for the decades but seeing these has me worried that the ISO I had in mind would be too low. These are not easy to come by.
You could always fire off a few frames and cut it off in the darkroom.
Thanks for the comment :)
I first got into photography in 1988 and pretty much tried every film I could at the time. When this stuff came out I thought it was awesome. Just the sharpness and colour saturation was insane.
If you'd be interested I actually have a stash of Ektar 25 Professional in 120 format which has been frozen since 1991 which I'd be happy to send you a roll or 2 to play with. Let me know. Cheers from Australia.
It’s truly sad what we lost from those days. I’d love to get my hands on a roll.
Keep an eye out on eBay, and maybe you'll get lucky?
Stunning colour images. I remember picking up a few rolls in 1989 in Berlin after seeing my Dad for the first time in 30 years.
So it means a lot that your nostalgia is much appreciated!
Glad I could help Rick :)
Your channel is so underrated. The amount of work and detail that goes into these videos is unbelievable.
Thanks Ryan :)
Omg, do I have a story for you. This was my favorite film ever. Because I never trusted sending my original negatives in to a lab to get reprints, I did a lot of copy photos and used Ektar 25 for them, sending these negatives in for my reprints instead of the original ones. I also did huge 20x30 enlargements using these Ektar copy negs with great results. I had some Ektar 25 (frozen from the mid 1990’s), Kodachrome 64 (frozen from the early 80’s) and some other film that I froze as I had taken a break from photography. Then later digital came along. But no matter where I lived, I always took the bag of frozen film along to be stored in my current freezer. Fast forward to this past spring. Our freezer had died filled with rotting food (no smell to warn us that it had died and we hadn’t needed anything in it for a while). Once it was opened and discovered, the stench was unbearable and I asked my husband to deal with it all outside. A few days later, he mentioned that he had thrown out all my old film that was in a plastic bag “because you would have never wanted it because of the stench”! Suffice it to say I have never let him forget that he threw away all my Ektar 25! Screw the stench! Arrggg, and even before I saw your video I KNEW it would have printed just fine since it had been frozen! So now that as of this summer I am back doing film, I am still so sick over this! I told another fellow photographer friend what happened and he replied “grounds for divorce”!
Really stunning. I know film freezes well but I’ve never seen such a well preserved example of a color film this old, that was still able to perform like this one did. I was unfamiliar with Ektar 25 so I appreciate the history lesson and having it presented in the context of its time as well. I’ve probably unknowingly had some of my favorite childhood photos shot on Ektar 25.
Thanks for the kind words :)
I want to see the ektar 1000 one that was beside the 25 in the magazine
If I ever come across a roll, absolutely.
What an awesome result! Super fun and I always wondered how it would really look these days. It looks like we've pretty much found out.
Thanks Jamie :)
The shot at 18:46 has a nice 3D pop, simple but I love it!
Thank you Rich :)
Man! I still have one on the fridge, waiting for that "special reason"! Nice to know it'll be at its best! Thanks for this video, VERY well done!
Hope it works out!
My dad splurged and bought a few rolls of this back in the early 90s. Pretty remarkable film, so happy you made this video
Thanks Dan :)
Videos on the *Azriel Knight* channel have always been good, and have improved steadily over time, but this one is outstanding.
Wow, thank you :)
I used Ektar 25 back then. It made prints of sharpness and detail that were breathtaking. I used to it in my K1000, slow down and make super sharp landscape photographs. Ektar 25 could out resolve some lenses and with a good lens at f8 the sharpness and detail were beyond expectations. Big prints from Ektar 25 can rival medium format. I remmebr then people wondering if medium format had a future because films gave so much from the 135 format and the cameras were developing way faster than meduim format. I remember a Leica billboard advertisment that was photographed on an M6, 28mm lens and Ektar 25.
I remember 1990 well and lie you say it was a good year for photography. Films were improving fast, manufacturers were competing to make the best films. Kodak and Fuji were slugging it out in both professional and amateur markets. Every year films improved noticeably, it was exiting to use the latest films, cameras were constantly upgraded through the new and better films. I was a fuji photographer back then, Reala and Superia 400 were my favourites. From Kodak I used a lot of Kodachrome. I liked Kodachrome 200 for its grain and they way this rendered bokeh.
Camera technology was suepr exiting in 1990. Autofocus had got really good. Evaluative metereing was super accurate. I use a 1989 Minolts 7000i today and I am so confident I don't bother adjusting exposure on any film slide or print, exposures are always optimal. Compacts cameras were super exiting too, zoom compacts had got good and exiting to use. The Konica Zup 80, Olympus AZ300 and Fuji FZ 2000 were tops. Then bridge cameras were coming up too, I had and still have a Ricoh Mirai. 1990 was a ball for photography everything, film and cameras were at a level of development that gave phootographers all we wanted and more.
Thanks for sharing, sounded like a great time to be a photographer :)
That shot of the house is outstanding
I loved this film back in the day. Absolutely gorgeous! I was very unhappy when Kodak discontinued it.
I wish I had more.
Thanks for your article about the Ektar 25 in 35mm. I happen to find a couple of rolls of Ektar 25 in my freezer - in 120!
By reading through your article, I am really looking forward to using it with my Mamiya 6.
Before that, however, I need to get some experience again, with old color negative film in my Rollei 35T and Rollei 35, and soon Rollei 35S. The first experience with a non-frozen Gold 100, that expired in June 2000 are quite promising. Just scanned that roll, and it turns out very good, that said, I need to use the Restore colors and Restore fading options in Vuescan with my Nikon Coolscan 8000ED.
Great video. I can’t believe that after 30 years that film is able to produce knockout color pictures. Amazing.
I was very surprised as well :)
I really appreciate the research you did and the time it must have taken. And your choices of what to photograph were very well thought out. Well, it might have been interesting to see how it rendered skin color but that does not diminish what you included. Good work as always!
Still heavy covid restrictions when this was published, not super easy to get a model.
What an informative and entertaining video. Got to appreciate the quality results of that roll of Ektar 25, 30 years old notwithstanding.
Glad you enjoyed it Randall!
This Old Camera series is fantastic, undoubtedly one of, if not even the, favorite photography videos one. As analogue photography lover, the story of what happened at the very time when the equipment and materials were in production is of enormous interest and relevance, in my opinion. Although it is also interesting the perspective of, how it is in 2021 to use equipment from 19XX, the information you get on this tireless research on magazines from the time, that you share with us, is what gives the fundamental context.
Thank you for another formidable video, full of information. And of course the results are actually surprising and, very, very, good
Thanks so much Ricardo :)
Amazing film… absolutely gorgeous shots
Azriel, thanks so much for this fantastic video. You did a great job researching all the informations and magazines. And the pictures? Absolutely stunning, I love the colors and the sharpness. I really enjoyed the episode .... Greetings from Germany
Thanks for the kind words Stefan!
Thanks for the well researched history of this truly unique film. Back when this film was introduced I was in university shooting black and white Ilford film so I wasn't aware of all the colour film options available. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Glad you enjoyed it Peter :)
Really wish Kodak still produced consumer films in 120 like gold, color plus. Medium format is more popular than ever and having cheap options for film would make the experience so much better. I'm almost sure Lomography's 100, 400, and 800 CN films are just proimage, Ultramax, and Max 800 but they're so getting so expensive as well.
Great presentation and also very informative. I have a roll of Kodak Royal Gold 25 which I believe was a successor to Ektar 25
very interesting, time well spent watching these, no life energy wasted!
I'm glad ;)
What a fun episode :-) I even paused to read the articles and tests ;-) But most important of it all: What a great outcome. I just could not think of a single cn film that even comes close to this color rendition and clarity. I think every minute of looking for the best subject matter was worth it in the end. This film deserved great input especially after 30 years in the fridge! ;-) Thanks for this great video!
Glad you enjoyed it :)
I love this film. I have a roll in my freezer begging to come out. Thanks for the great vids.
Good luck hope it works out.
Very nice. Loved the photos. With the current film resurgence, wouldn't it be great to see Kodak bring Ektar 25 back again!
I agree, that'd be awesome :)
I believe they might be doing something along those lines, Nico's photo news did a fireside chat a few months ago with some of the Kodak sales people and they dropped a huge hint something is coming back!
I'm happy using Ektar 100 but would also love to use Ektar 25.
The episode that made me become a Patreon. Excellent.
Thanks so much, hope to see you on the Discord!
5/ 22/2021 Nice job on your review of Kodak Ektar film going down memory lane with the magazines and choices of films, boy thing really changed when digital improved but took several years to get where we are at now. Peterson Photography and Darkroom were my favorites for what was creative in photography. Back then I shoot a lot of black and white films 35mm and 120 film, due to the cost and also having a home darkroom for black and white. The 90s was also the time that there were more companies producing photo and darkroom gear and chemicals for home color processing. Still have my Besseller print drum with motor base and Unicolor enlarger head, where color was a whole new set of learning to get the color right.
Thanks for the comment Robin!
i’ve got a roll of ektar 25 and ektar 1000 i’m going to shoot sometime this year. no clue how they were stored, though… thanks so much for making this!
Good luck! Let me know :)
A really good historical review. The results show that frozen film is new film if it was frozen new.
Thanks Arturo!
30 years....man, has it been 30 years...? God, I am getting old. I shot with a ton of the press version of Ektarpress when working for several newspapers over the 80s-00s.
Times flies....
Amazing video. Every day I enjoy your videos more and more, keep it up.
Thank you Carlos :)
Wow! Fantastic production. Insanely comprehensive and the end results were glorious. You are real good AZ!
Very kind of you :)
Great Video man! it makes you want to build a time machine and go back in time and pick up all the rolls of film they had back then. Thank you so much.
I had a dream about that this year, went back to 1989 and my first thought wasn't picking a winning lotto number, it was to go to the drug store and get some fresh film, lol
I LOVED all three Ektar films (Ps. the "100" speed was actually 125ISO) I used Ektar 1000 the most and it performed miracles at ISO 800 in all sorts of non optimal lighting. A very nice color palette.
Hey Robert, thanks for the comment. They had a 125 and a 100 iso Ektar. The 100 came later.
Great compilation of information. Great Job!
Thanks Cesar!
Really enjoying this format! Thanks for taking us back in time.
Thank you Rick :)
Damn, I was surprised on how sharp and rich the color production is on ektar 25 being over 30 years old
Pulling the film out of the tank I was like "no waaaaay"
Very, very cool video. Question: how did it compare to today’s Ektar 100?
Ektar 25 was awesome. Ektar 100, which was being reintroduced some years ago (i guess it was 2008..) is still very good. But those film prices....good SLRs always had ISO/ASA settings, which starts very low, usually ISO 6 or 8...and perfect for another great film, Adox CMS 20, which goes usually between ISO 12 to 20.
Beautiful video Azriel, thank you 👍
You're very welcome :)
Store old film well and under certain circumstances you get excellent results! :)
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Sina!
Damn, those colors are stellar.
I couldn't believe it myself!
If I didn't know this was film, I would swear it was Fujifilm's "Astia" simulation on their digital cameras. What a truly astonishing film!
Interesting! Thanks for the comment :)
Loved this film!!!
Love it, Azriel ! Imagine, using a 30+ year old RAW format, and your fave RAW Editor doesn't recognize the file. Seems impossible? Well, think no more, i've tried to read my Panasonic Lumix L10 (10 MP, MFT Sensor) RAW files with DXO PhotoLab v4 when it was out, it couldn't being read "unsupported file format..." lol.
Oh man, that sucks! What about an older version of a RAW reader? I used to convert my raw files to DNG, maybe I'll start again.
@@AzrielKnight It was a older version of DxO PhotoLab, can't remember, thought after years (have had used DxO Optics Pro way long before PhotoLab) i wanted to testdrive a PhotoLab Version, afaik 3.x or sth, and the L10 RAWs have been not shown, the app showed that it's unsupported.
@@AzrielKnight I keep always my original RAWs, because i don't want to be dependent from Adobe, with their DNGs. Also, some file info gets lost whileas converting to DNG, i always keep the original files, means. .SR2, .RAW, .NEF, .ORF, .CR2, or whatever... 🙂
Thank you for all of the research! And the difficult job of shooting the 30-year-old film (I'm jealous!!!) -- man, I'd love to use that film now!
You may get lucky on eBay, or an estate sale.
@@AzrielKnight -- Ahhh -- to have a time machine! Go meet Lincoln? Nope. See the dinosaurs? Nope. Go buy some long discontinued film -- yup!!!
The best yet.
Thanks Martin :)
That was enjoyable. Great research, and detail.👍🏻
Thank you Joel
Loved this episode
Thanks so much :)
Hi Azriel! Thanks for a top video, the results are really fascinating for such an old film! Do You by any chance own an empty film canister left after development and can make a shot of DX coding? I can't unfortunately find it anywhere on the web. Thanks in advance :)
I may have tossed it. I'm sure there's a graph online somewhere :)
Great video!
Thank you :)
Pretty impressive and solid research work too. How did you scan this?
Epson V800!
so cool! Wish I was alive then to shoot this stuff!
Why didn't you use a prime lens to test the sharpness and do some pixel peeping
Don't you mean grain gawking? :)
Very interesting, thank you
No problem :)
I am shooting 40 years slides, until it's closure mostly Kodachrome. Negative film I used along with slides, since slide copies didn't deliver the same quality. As a landscape and nature photographer I mostly use a STURDY tripod (Cullmann Titan series), and I love slow film. Kodak should give EKTAR 25 a new try. There was no further progress in film technology since Fuji took over the Agfa patents of latex couplers and turned out the Fijichrome Velvia, which was based on this technology. I think, it is time to start in a new time of film development. There is even a try to re-animate Kodachrome with new chemicals, but with the keystones of the three layer b/w -film layers and the dyes and color couplers during development.
It would be nice if they brought it back :)
Slightly off-topic -- did you have issues with stickiness on the skin of your F100? If so, did you find a solution? Thanks!
Not my model in particular, but I'm aware it happens.
Having been there and done that, I have to say that shooting Ektar 25 was most like shooting Kodachrome 25, being very exacting regarding exposure accuracy and punishing the user for missing the beat. I do not think it was a particularly successful product for Kodak, being a product seeking to solve a demand or problem which didn't exist. Apart from its technical demands, it was just too slow for routine use, suffering the same disinterest which doomed Kodachrome 25 for the same reasons. By then, there were plenty of options in the 100 speed range which better met the general needs of almost all photographers. Kodak's price surcharge was an unnecessary hype which they seemed to think would sell the film as something extra special, but it just depressed sales. One other problem for Ektar 25 is mentioned here, being Fuji Reala. At ISO 100, that was a truly outstanding film, also sold at a premium price. I used it for years shooting landscapes, for which its color bias toward blues and browns was particularly fine. Still have most of a brick of 120 Reala frozen. Ektar 25 was later packaged in 110 format, and Pentax ran incredible full page photo ads using it to sell their Pentax Auto 110 cameras, but there were few 110 cameras yielding an image quality taking advantage of the film, and 110 format hits the skids not long thereafter, and so did Ektar 25.
Hot damn. Those pictures look like the film hadn't aged a day.
Pretty crazy eh!
Wow!! just Wowwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much :)
Great video! :-)
Thanks Don!
Great video. I still have lots of film in my freezer. Probably because of the business I did with Kodak every year or two they would send me a box of pre production film to try. I remember testing the Ektar and it was a great print film but it really didn't match up to my KM or KR Kodachromes.
Amazing!
Thanks :)
mindblown 🤯
Me too :)
Slow film usually keep well in the freezer.
Deep freeze is allegedly not something Ektar 25 likes though. Getting all grainy.
So obviously this was treated to the right temperature, by design or by accident.
One of your best episodes ever! Congratulations!
Thank you Helge
If only Kodak would re-release it, 35mm film on par with digital
Well, they do have Ektar 100, but it's not as rich.
@@AzrielKnight I have Ektar 100 in both 35mm and 120 but the fact it's not just the same as the older Ektar and only the one asa speed. Hopefully with the resurgence of film (I hate to use the term analogue) 🤞kodak will give us a wider range of premium/professional films in a mixture of formats especially at the lower speeds.
Wow, i didn't expect the Ektar 25 to still deliver good results. But your test reports on old film material are kind of pointless, the films are no longer produced. It's like trying to bring the dead back to life, and often the results are end up looking like Dr. Herbert West: unusable - because there expired (or dead). I did an apprenticeship in a camera store from 1990 to 1993. There are a lot of memories, but believe me, i wouldn't want to go back to the film age. But i can understand the mystification of film photography by younger people, because they didn't experience the trouble and frustration with the film labs. However, your series "this old camera" is fun and nostagic (especially the old promotional material).
Thanks for the comment!
I think the purpose for me is to show the resiliency of film despite its age if properly cared for. While no longer in production I sacrifice a roll so people can save theirs as a display piece if they wish.