From Ron Croad
I was recently persuaded by a neighbour, who works for
Kodak, to give one of their new filmd a try - well, actually, he was a bit
upset that I am a Fuji user. So, not wishing to annoy him too much, I
obliged.
Ektachrome 100 has been produced with a warmer colour
balance than previous Ekta films, in order to get a better colour
reproduction on difficult shades. The blue cast had disappeared and the
film is compatible with Fuji Pro 100.
The films were developed in the same double tank in my
usual derivative of the Moorhouse formula - one Ektachrome100, the other
Fuji 100. They were exposed at different times and places and the Fuji had
the better weather - slightly. A test card was included in the exposures.
The results show that the Fuji is more contrasty and has
brighter colours - but the Ekta is softer and capable of producing very
lifelike results.
I've not yet seen any bulk rolls advertised but it is
available at about £44 for 30 meters. So if you want to try something
different that works in our normal chemical formulae, it's one option
available.
As a footnote, Fuji are to shortly launch a 35mm film
whith a disposable camera attached. The whole lot goes back to the
processing house to have the film removed and processed. It sounds
rediculous to me.
The sample
slide that Ron sent me of a Kodak colour
test card, certainly seems to bear Ron’s remarks out on this new
film. The colours appear to be very natural and the grey neutral and with
no sign of the usual Ektachrome ‘blue’ appearance. This could certainly be a film to compete with the now
very popular Fujichrome film. However, until I
see some neutral scenes
on this film I can’t tell if it will have reproduced the green’s as
well as Fuji but it .certainly appears sharp and with little sign of
grain. The one thing that will be considered is the price, and at £44
for,30 meters Kodak have at least tried to keep close. to Fuji prices and
makes the new film well worth having go at.
Other sample
slides that have been sent to me late1y is from Tony Chuter, who sent me a
number of CRX100 (Fuji stock) and Fujichrome Professional processed in the
Moorhouse formula. but using Rayco!s chemical reversal formula. The
Moorhouse formula seems to be a very sound one with most members using it
coming up with excellent results, mainly with light reversal, so it was
interesting to see Tony’s results using chemical reversal and with nice
results. There seems to be no difference in
the two films which are obviously the same emulsion, except that they
were taken in quite different weather conditions. However, the thing
struck me, apart from the sharpness, was the way in which it handles dull
weather conditions without reverting to the usual ‘blueness’ which is
expected from most other makes of film.
It was nice
too, to receive a nice letter from Mr.&
Mrs. Pearle showing how pleased they are with their latest
processing after Ron Knowles answered their despondent letter to him about
the poor results they got when first processing with Ron three bath
formula. They also suggested giving up weighing & mixing then; however
as is often the case, its a matter of experimenting and, of course, using
the contact which the C.R.C. offers, discussing the problems
involved.
Ron soon put
them on the right tracks and they are now ‘back in business’ and full
of enthusiasm once again and very pleased with the latest results The
problem seems to be that of using the ‘Blix’ formula. Many people find
problems with this and as far as I can make out from comments passed on
from Roy Sa1mons, this may be due to the brew becoming INACTIVE when
standing for some time. This can be cured by storing the brew in a bottle
slightly larger than the amount you use and giving the bottle a good SHAKE
up before using. Where we generally try
to keep air out of the rnajority of the processing chemicals, it
seems this particular brew required some air mixed in to keep it active.
However you may prefer to use separate Bleach and Fix chemicals, which you
know work well. There is virtually no time saved between one or the other.