I very rarely get any 35mm film at 100asa. Probably because I live in England where it is normally not very sunny and I am always concerned there won’t be enough light for me to use all of the f stops should I decide I want to.
I was in Canada in June and had run out of 120 film so went to a shop to get some more and whilst I was there I thought, sod it, I will get some Kodak Ektar. I had heard a lot of good things about the film and it was super sunny in Canada so I figured I might as well have a go.
I was really pleased with the film, I have some really nice sunset shots as well as a good selection of daytime photos. There were a couple of occasions where the film was a little unforgiving of the more shadowy scenes but I think if I had exposed better that might not have been an issue.
For more examples of my photos taken with this film click here.
Ektar’s colors are just delightful to be sure, but you’re right, its slowness limits its usefulness in less than full sun. I’ve taken to shooting ISO 200 color films at 100 on sunny days — it really softens the colors and makes them more beautiful — but at box speed in dimmer light so I can access more f stops. In really dim light I reach for the ISO 400 films and should the sun come out while the stuff is in the camera I shoot it at ISO 200 for the same color-softening effect.
FWIW, I find that medium-format Ektar is a brilliant film to use in old box cameras.
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I pretty much always shoot at the box speed, I’ve been researching recently which films can handle pushing and pulling as it is not something I usually do. I did it once with Ilford Delta 3200 because my camera only went up to 1600, it looked great and probably a little less grainy than usual. I need to shoot more Medium Format. I have a really nice delmonta TLR camera but I don’t develop my own photographs and 35mm is cheaper in so many ways.
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