Kodak Ektar 100 film review: demands precision, rewards excellence

In very bad news for my wallet and yours, Kodak Ektar 100 is addictive. I’m honestly sometimes half-tempted not to recommend it to people, as once you experience its ultra-vivid colours, it can be tough to go back to the cheaper stuff. Kodak calls Ektar 100 the ‘world's finest grain color negative film’, and frankly I believe them. It’s beautiful stuff.

Ektar is indisputably one of the best films, a professional stock that demands precision in all senses. That fine grain means it’s unforgiving of poor focusing, and correct exposure is a must. This isn’t a knockabout Ilford HP5 Plus or the like, where you might underexpose in poor light and hope for the best, or overexpose for fun to see what happens. Ektar 100 is a professional tool, and it wants to be used correctly.

Film stock bearing the Ektar name have been around in some form or another since the late 1980s, but Ektar 100 as we know it first arrived on the scene in 2007. How does it feel to shoot it almost twenty years later? I loaded up a fresh roll to find out.

Kodak Ektar 100: Specifications

Kodak Ektar 100: Price & Availability

Kodak Ektar 100 sits around the mid-range in terms of film prices, generally costing between $15-20 / £15-20 for a roll of 36 shots. There are plenty of more affordable options like Ultramax or ColorPlus, and there are also more expensive films like the higher-sensitivity Kodak Portra 800, or Kodak’s E100 Ektachrome slide film.

Still, that is not cheap for 36 shots, and Ektar’s cost will never be far from the back of your mind when you’re checking and re-rechecking your exposure settings. A fluffed frame of Ektar hurts.

Kodak Ektar is also available in 120 and various large format sheet film formats. A five-pack of 120 costs around $50 / £99, and the sheet film starts at $64 / £90 for 4x5” and goes up from there.

As a color negative film, Kodak Ektar 100 can be developed using the standard C41 process, so it is at least cost-effective to develop.

Kodak Ektar 100: Performance

I have shot a few rolls of Kodak Ektar before, but not many, due to the expense, so I was excited to get the scans back for this latest batch. The reaction on opening them was one I found immediately familiar – a mix of elation at the shots that had worked, and disappointment with the proportion that hadn’t. Ektar’s unforgiving nature means that even a one-stop exposure error in either direction can ruin a shot, giving back unpleasantly glaring highlights or murky shadows.

With 100 ISO speed, Ektar 100 is naturally meant for use in gorgeous, bright daylight. Drench it in sunlight and it comes into its own. It loves deep reds and singing blues; I wouldn’t call the colours natural, exactly, but boy are they fun. Though the stylized colors may be an issue if you shoot a lot of portraits, as paler skin tones on Ektar have a tendency to come out quite pink.

And then there’s that fine grain. To which one might well say: what grain? Kodak’s spec sheet for Ektar lists its Print Grain Index for a 4x6” print made from a 35mm frame to be less than 25, which is lower than the threshold at which the human eye can reasonably perceive it. For context, Kodak’s beginner-friendly Ultramax film has a Print Grain Index of 46.

This is as close to digital precision as you will get on film (though without digital photography’s high tolerance for error). I have scanned Ektar in high-resolution TIFF format before, and the way the detail holds up is just incredible. If you want to make high-res prints from your film images, Ektar is one of the best choices you can make, being highly tolerant to enlarging.

Of course, you may be shooting film precisely because you don’t want digital precision. Those who like a bit of bite to their film images, who embrace analogue because of that stylish film grain, may well find Ektar to be a bit too clean. This isn’t a criticism of the film – Kodak set out to make the world’s finest-grain color film, and succeeded – but it’s something to be aware of.

Kodak Ektar 100: Sample Images

These images were all captured using Kodak Ektar 100 at the box speed of 100. Most are from my most recent roll captured with my Pentax ME Super and 50mm f/1.2 lens on a day of highly changeable weather, though I have also included some older shots from a previous roll shot on a Canon EOS 500 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Kodak Ektar 100: Verdict

Some films feel like jacks of all trades, whereas Kodak Ektar 100 is very much a master of one. It is a professional tool for the specific purpose of producing vividly colorful shots with ultra-fine grain, and if you don’t want to do that, you don’t have any need for Kodak Ektar 100.

If you use it as it wants to be used, Kodak Ektar 100 is an immensely enjoyable and unique film that produces brilliantly lively images. Though this inflexibility, combined with its relatively high cost per roll, means it’s unlikely to be anyone’s daily driver.

Kodak Ektar 100 alternatives

If you like the sound of Ektar’s professional qualities but want something in monochrome, Ilford Delta 100 is a pro-standard black & white film that delivers a similar level of detail and fine tonality. It comes at a similar price, and is a little more flexible with regard to over/underexposure.

While it’s similarly expensive, Kodak Portra 400 is much more forgiving than Ektar while still delivering fantastic results with gorgeous colors and fine detail. Of course, you’ll be competing with half of Instagram to actually get hold of a roll.