Ektapan film, when to use it?

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Kodak Ektapan film, Kodak says it's best suited for flash work. Why? Does anyone here use this film for landscapes and such? With what results?

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), March 28, 2001

Answers

This is, in my opinion, one of the finest films Kodak has made. The slope is long and the film has very fine grain. It matches the toneage of color film and is spectacular for every situation. I have used it for years and developed it D-76 1:1, Divided D76, Diafine and Neofin Blue with excellent results! Highly recommend it. I have used it for studio work (strobes and tungsten) and landscape stuff also. Beautiful stuff and you will enjoy it! Cheers

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), March 28, 2001.

Ektapan has been my dad's standard 4x5 film for, I dunno, 25 or 30 years. He switched from Plus-X and has never looked back. His somewhat non-technical reason is that Ektapan has "far more zip" than Plus-X.

What he basically means is punchier contrast and a somewhat different spectral response. Most of his work is tabletop product shots lit with a couple of big banks of (WWII surplus!) florescent lights, sometimes with some hot lights mixed in. With Plus-X, these lighting scheme can yield somewhat blah results, given Plus-X's tend towards low-to-medium contrast and a somewhat grayish look. With Ektapan, this stuff just "pops".

A friend of his - a portrait and wedding specialist who mostly uses studio flash for portraits - also made the switch years ago for his 4x5 work. In his case, it was from T-Max 100 to Ektapan. He finds it a far easier to handle film, and loves the results.

Because it's only a sheet film emulsion, Ektapan is not very well known - but many folks who use it swear by it. Let's just hope that Kodak doesn't phase it out soon (after all, it can't be a very big seller!)...

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), March 28, 2001.


I wonder if it comes in 9x12 cm here in Europe. Oh well, I can cut the shhets a little...

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), March 31, 2001.

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