There are some technical problems with the Kodachrome approach (primarily the cyan coupler IIRC) that were never solved. Some will disagree, but at the end, Ektachrome had more accurate colour. And while the dark keeping characteristics of Kodachrome continue to be unsurpassed, the long term stability of recent Ektachrome is much better than in the past. Note by the daylight, overcast line it says 7000k and by the cloudy day line it shows that the colour temperature can be as high as 8300 Kelvin. With Kodak E100 being daylight (5600k) balanced, no wonder I was getting such a blue shift from the parts of the day that were cloudy… The film photographer's best resource for vintage film and cameras". Film Photography Project Store. Advice I see for shooting slide film is to do so at box speed in good light and meter for the mid-tones. If you need more guidance, read up or ask people more experienced than me on how to get the best out of it. I’m not sure that these digital representations really do the film justice. When I put any of the originals on my light table, they look far better than any of these. Perhaps that’s due to Ektachrome’s roots lying in projection of the images as slides, perhaps it’s subjective reactions. Either way, it’s an incredible film.

It’s also very forgiving for a reversal film, and has more dynamic range than most slide films, which makes it great for negative shooters who want to cross over to the positive side. After shooting about 6 rolls, I selected about 20 frames for drum scanning. The scenes varied and lenses used were a Voigtlander 40mm Ultron, a Nikon 70-200 f/4, and a Sigma 160-600. My favorite shots tended to be closer to the telephoto and super telephoto range with a shallow depth of field. With high-resolution drum scans, you’re able to truly analyze grain unlike any other scans and with E100, and I was impressed. When compared to a film such a Provia 100F, the grain seemed smaller, more even, and produced slightly sharper images.

Where we ship

The aforementioned movies, Three Kings and Inside Man, both used Ektachrome in their production purely because they wanted the stylised effects you get from cross-processing it. The magnitude of Kodak successfully rereleasing a film like Ektachrome is huge. It’s also a milestone that, frankly, many of us never thought possible. When the staff here at CP first heard whispers of an Ektachrome revival, we were happy, but skeptical. We’d been through this before with other film projects. Big promises on social media to #keepfilmalive, the flashy promotional campaign, the buzzworded crowdfunding, and the whole load of nothing that happens afterwards. For more than a year we heard just a few intermittent reports that Ektachrome was still coming. But we were entirely ready to be disappointed again. What are the advantages of this troublesome film? Ektachrome’s technical data sheet notes a remarkable sharpness and a neutral, but rich color palette, which should result in a truer-to-life image compared with most C41 film. While this is objectively true, it only scratches the surface of what this film really is. Let’s dig a little deeper. Initially released in the 35mm form we’re reviewing here, the range has since been beefed up with a 120, large format sheet, and even a Super 8 movie film version too.

The rise of these new slide films, especially Fuji’s Velvia, combined with a general decline of slide film use throughout the 1980s and 1990s to see Kodachrome getting squeezed out. As far as Kodak offerings went, Ektachrome was the new reversal king. So with all things said, the image qualities of Ektachrome E100 really do depend on how well you shoot it. Nail the light and exposure and you’ll love it. Get either of those just slightly off and – as you’ll see if you read on – you might find yourself disappointed.

The praise lavished on slide film in this section was prefaced with when shot well, and that’s something else that sets it apart from negative film. The increased need to shoot it well. And when I say well, I really mean well-lit and well-exposed. There was a Kodachrome 200 and it did not do colors the same as Kodachrome 64 or 25. and had lower contrast than Kodachrome 64 or 25. (And it also may not have the long-term storage of 64 or 25; I have various stuff I shot on Kodachrome 200 a couple decades ago or so which has gotten a pinkish tint since, though I can’t tell whether it got worse over time or just shifted once.) In Adobe Photoshop — or any image editing software that has Curves or Histogram tool — select an individual colour channel, i.e., red. Then, move the Input/Output thresholds on the graph to match the points where the histogram terminates (see: Figure 2). Repeat the process for blue and green channels. Your resulting image should now have improved clarity and a much better colour rendition. For more details, see this article .