Any Love for Efke 25?

[Steve Goldstein]

What I would love to see is a side-by-side comparing this film to something like FP4+ - same image, same filtration, same scanning. Exposure would necessarily be different. I'm just curious.

 

[Pioneer]

If I had a roll of FP4+ I might try it but I'm not sure what you expect to see. If I have the ability to expose, develop and print each film as I wish it is likely I could come up with similar results...possibly minus the pinholes which seem to happen occasionally.

 

[GregY]

What I would love to see is a side-by-side comparing this film to something like FP4+ - same image, same filtration, same scanning. Exposure would necessarily be different. I'm just curious.

I've used a lot of FP4 in all formats up to 5x7. I'd expect the Efke 25 to have far less grain. I used a bit of it back in the day, but used more Efke 100.

 

[Pioneer]

I've used a lot of FP4 in all formats up to 5x7. I'd expect the Efke 25 to have far less grain. I used a bit of it back in the day, but used more Efke 100.

I don't know for sure but I would think that would depend on the developer used for each film. I would like to think there would be a difference in the grain but I don't know.

 

[braxus]

I've used FP4+ and there is very little similarities with Efke 25. I love Efke 25, but not that fond of FP4. They don't look the same to me. Efke has an old fashioned look modern films don't have. It's also orthopancromatic, so a closer film would be Ilford Ortho 80. Even then it won't look the same. A closer comparison to Efke now would be Adox CHS II 100. But that isn't in 120 format yet.

 

[GregY]

I've used FP4+ and there is very little similarities with Efke 25. I love Efke 25, but not that fond of FP4. They don't look the same to me. Efke has an old fashioned look modern films don't have. It's also orthopancromatic, so a closer film would be Ilford Ortho 80. Even then it won't look the same. A closer comparison to Efke now would be Adox CHS II 100. But that isn't in 120 format yet.

I like and use FP4 i don't see any similiarity ....... but the Efke films were cool. i liked the old character.

 

[Steve Goldstein]

It’s that “character” that I’m curious about. Not the grain, but the consequences of the difference in spectral response between the Efke and other films. It needn’t be FP4+, that’s just an example.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Very little resemblance to FP4. A unique film. I shot a lot of R25 in 120 format, mostly in the high mountains. It had a distinctly longer scale than FP4 in terms of handling scene contrast, but was more finicky about exposure. It was orthopan sensitive instead of pan like FP4, and distinctly finer grained, but with excellent acutance. And it was obviously slower speed. It was around the same real-world speed as Pan F, but had a very long usable straight line portion, whereas Pan F has just about the most exaggerated S-curve as any current film I can think of. And it's a true general-purpose film, and not something needing to be bullied into questionable tonality like Tech Pan or other micro films.

A remarkable product, but with some cons : the antihalation properties weren't as good as most 120 films, so you had to be extra careful to handle and load and unload the camera in the shade. The emulsion was quite sensitive to too strong a stop bath; it needed to be quite dilute. And the last batch of it had a lot of contamination with emulsion grit and so forth, as the factory was winding down and no longer kept up.

I developed it in PMK pyro, and got some remarkable prints from difficult extreme lighting. Wish it were still around. Ive been told it doesn't scan all that well. But I couldn't care less about that. Real darkrooms make scanning obsolete.

 

[AZD]

Too Efke is gone. I have a small stash of 35mm and two last 120 rolls waiting for the right project. I really like how sky and clouds look with a #15 yellow filter. Wish I had a box of 8x10 as well…

 

[braxus]

Too Efke is gone. I have a small stash of 35mm and two last 120 rolls waiting for the right project. I really like how sky and clouds look with a #15 yellow filter. Wish I had a box of 8x10 as well…

I sold a sealed box of 8x10 Efke 25 50 sheets, but listed as Adox CHS Art 25, a couple years ago at a major loss. Wish there was more interest in it then.

I posted a video up on the portrait shoot of the girl in my pics above. This video included the Efke 25 shots.