CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

"Color film" in the modern sense of a multi-layered emulsion was born with the introduction of Kodachrome for home movies in 1935 and as 35mm film for still cameras in 1936. During the next several decades, color film remained much more expensive than black-and-white and required much more light, factors which combined to delay its widespread adoption. Decreasing cost and increasing sensitivity gradually overcame these impediments. By the 1970s, color film predominated in the consumer market, while the use of black-and-white film was increasingly confined to photojournalism and fine art photography.

Fred A. Busse: Chicago Fire Boat by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Ektar started as a color 35mm semi-professional film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1989, which used the common C-41 process. Poor market segmentation between various formats influenced Kodak's decision to discontinue Ektar in 1994. The film was replaced by the Royal Gold line. Prior to its use on films, the Ektar name originally referred to Eastman Kodak's premium-priced lenses for professional use, introduced in 1936 and sold until the 1960s. The name Ektar is an acronym for Eastman Kodak TessAR. A new pro-grade film was introduced in September 2008 under the name Kodak EKTAR 100, which claims to be the finest-grain color negative film available on the market, featuring high saturation and vivid colors.

Wrigley Building


The Eastman Kodak Company was found by George Eastman in 1888, Kodak followed the razor and blades strategy of selling inexpensive cameras and making large margins from consumables -- film, chemicals, and paper. As late as 1976, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the U.S. market.

Chicago Lyft


During most of the 20th century, Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film. Kodak began to struggle financially in the late 1990s, as a result of the decline in sales of photographic film and its slowness in transitioning to digital photography. The company went bankrupt in 2012. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2013 having shed its large legacy liabilities, exiting several businesses, and having sold many of its patents.

Canal Street Railroad Bridge


The film camera used for all these images was an EOS 1v, the last model of Canon professional film cameras, released in 2000 and discontinued in May 2018. Processing and scanning was performed by North Coast Photography Services of Carlsbad, CA, using their high-resolution scans to 5035x3339 (17MP). The resulting JPEGs were processed further in Adobe Ligthroom v6.

Dodge


Introduced in 2000 as Canon's top-line professional 35mm film camera, the EOS 1v was Canon's final 1-series film camera and was then the most advanced EOS camera created. The camera features a 45-point auto-focus array, including 7 cross-point sensors around the center of the frame. The camera records 20 attributes of metadata for each frame, including focal length, shutterspeed, and shooting mode among the many attributes. Using a third-party tool, this EXIF data can be extracted from the EOS body and applied to the scanned JPEGs from the processed negatives.

Pond turtles


With C-41 films, in contrast with slide film, overexposure is preferred to underexposure or using the box-speed exposure. The images shared in this post all use +3/10EC to +1EC (Exposure Compensation) over the meter reading.

Hancock Tower


Originally released only in the 35mm format, Kodak Ektar 100 is now also available in 120, and 4x5", and 8x10" sheets. Ektar 100 is Kodak's response to the the death of Kodachrome and became their 35mm color negative competitor to the rich colors of Fuji Velvia slide film.

Chicago at dawn


Details on the exposure and lenses are provided in the EXIF data from Flickr, just use the image titles as URL links to Flickr.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

These are great, Paul.
--Bob

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Ektar has been my go-to film ever since the first time I used it. And it's still the film I purchase for both my 35mm and 120 cameras.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

Exhilarating color! Lovely shots.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

First-rate work as usual--enjoyed!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Bob, Kathy, Carol, John! I've just finished a large amount of film shooting and editing the scanned results, generating some new images to mix into existing content and discussion of individual film stock. Glad you enjoyed.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Thanks for the great series, and as usual, excellent background information. I haven’t shot Kodak color film in quite a few years (since I discovered Fuji), but it looks as if I ought to go buy a couple of rolls of Ektar!

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Very nice set. Vivid colors and cool subjects. It looks like the Dodge failed to dodge

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Chris, Jack! When discussing SW US photography, Ektar is always mentioned as the best film choice in color. I think in preparation for a trip to the Arches National Park is where / how I first became aware of Ektar 100.

scaudill Loc: Rock Hill, SC

Beautiful shots. I use Kodak Ektar as well and never been dissapointed unless it was my fault.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you scaudill!

JD750 Loc: SoCal

What wonderful examples of the capability of Ektar!

I love the vivid colors of Ektar! IMHO the only thing to watch is it has a tendency to emphasize the reds. That can be a bit of a problem with skin/portraits. But of course then there is Portra for that.

SteveInConverse Loc: South Texas

Gorgeous color and great subjects! Thanks for posting.

Tim Stapp Loc: Mid Mitten

I'd love to shoot Ektar. BUT! at $6.50 a sheet plus developing, I'll stay with B&W. I do love the colors of Ektar.

Agreed, it's not for portraits!