closest film to Kodachrome

[blade_o]

I know this is kinda a odd question, but Im wondering if there is any E6 film that has a similar look to Kodachrome 64 KR film. I really loved Kodachrome but need something else now for obvious reasons. I really liked the saturation in the reds, and how the film renders colors over all, but have not found a similar E6 film yet and would like suggestions.
Thanks
-Nathan Bladow

 

[Dawes71]

I asked something similar a few days ago
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[railwayman3]

I don't think that you (we) are going to easily find any single E6 film similar to K64, maybe because the dyes forming the image in K14 are of a totally different chemical nature to those in E6?

Whereas those in the different types and makes of E6 are presumably much more similar, with the differences between the films being those which the manufacturers choose to "build in" in fine-tuning the different emulsions?

If my theory is correct, it is perhaps going to be a case of we Kodachrome users just finding an E6 film with characteristics which we like, rather than trying to replicate Kodachrome....in which case possible choices have been suggested in several previous threads.

 

[gb hill]

I don't think you are going to find any E-6 film similar to kodachrome. Most find Ektar 100 to be the closest. Not what your wishing to hear I'm sure!

 

[StorminMatt]

Someone once said that Rollei Digibase CR200 is closer to Kodachrome in appearance than anything else out there. More so than even E100G. And FAR more so than Astia (which, regardless of what anyone else says, I think looks NOTHING like Kodachrome).

 

[JSebrof]

There was a discussion of Rollei Digibase CR200 here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

As well as a longer thread here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Ektagraphic]

I personally feel that the Rollei Digibase comes the closest out of all. It certainly isn't Kodachrome but it is not oversaturated and has a great colors. It is moderatly grainy but the newer E-6 film standards. I like the film.

 

[Krzys]

Astia 100f in my opinion. Also the best e6 film in my opinion.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Rollei Digibase is my choice also.

Jeff

 

[Screwdriver]

Someone once said that Rollei Digibase CR200 is closer to Kodachrome in appearance than anything else out there. More so than even E100G. And FAR more so than Astia (which, regardless of what anyone else says, I think looks NOTHING like Kodachrome).

I have to agree....The Rollei is imho, as close as I have seen......

 

[hrst]

I don't think you are going to find any E-6 film similar to kodachrome. Most find Ektar 100 to be the closest.

Ektar 100 is not E6 or slide film at all. It's color negative. Sigh..................

 

[Ian Grant]

Many shot Kodachrome for reproduction, this is why Ektar is the best modern equivalent, but if you want a film for projection then Velvia 50 in many ways is better than K64 and closer to K25.

Ian

 

[StorminMatt]

Many shot Kodachrome for reproduction, this is why Ektar is the best modern equivalent, but if you want a film for projection then Velvia 50 in many ways is better than K64 and closer to K25.

Ian

I'm sorry, but Velvia 50 is about as close as you can get to a polar opposite of Kodachrome.

Astia 100f in my opinion. Also the best e6 film in my opinion.

If you REALLY want to use a Fuji product to get something close to Kodachrome, I think Sensia is better than Astia. Now I know that ALOT of people claim that Sensia and Astia are basically the same thing, and that Sensia is just the consumer version of Astia. But my experience with both films leads me to believe otherwise.

 

[apconan]

Ektar 100 is not E6 or slide film at all. It's color negative. Sigh..................

He didn't say that ektar was e6. Use your reading skills before being so rude.

 

[PKM-25]

Many shot Kodachrome for reproduction, this is why Ektar is the best modern equivalent, but if you want a film for projection then Velvia 50 in many ways is better than K64 and closer to K25.

No, not true, I got new images in a few hours ago and just did a slide show for my girlfriend, so the images are fresh in my mind.

Velvia has a truncated color range and over saturates what colors it does represent while Kodachrome has a much smoother and complete range of color, but goes ballistic with reds. I have great KM-25 stock and the only difference I see between it and 64 is slightly finer grain and a tad smoother color range than 64. But they are so darn close that I could have easily passed on 25 and shot even more 64 for price and consistency's sake.

I have shots from New Years 2010 in Times Square that have outrageous color, but not funky and truncated like Velvia would have did, it is really neutral, but spectacular.

I shot it with a Hasselblad XPan and the 30mm aspheric, Nikon F100 and 14-24 2.8, M3 with 50mm 1.4 asph and a M6 + 35 1.4 asph. All did really well with the film, the Xpan having lower contrast that handled high contrast scenes better and the Leica having fantastic contrast and superb color saturation making it outstanding in low light.

I just projected the 24x36 images about 30 minutes ago using a Leica Pradovit RT with a 90mm Super Colorplan Pro lens, there is nothing that can touch Kodachrome, not even close!

 

[StorminMatt]

I have great KM-25 stock and the only difference I see between it and 64 is slightly finer grain and a tad smoother color range than 64. But they are so darn close that I could have easily passed on 25 and shot even more 64 for price and consistency's sake.

From my observations, KM25 and KR64 look VERY similar under some situations, but there ARE differences between the two. Perhaps the BIGGEST difference between KM25 and KR64 is the response to subdued, diffuse lighting. As you probably know, this is one situation where KR64 just falls flat on its face. Think of that drab look that a shot taken with KR64 has when taken on a cloudy day. KM25 performs significantly better under these circumstances. And KL200 performs better yet. The other difference is in saturation and contrast. KM25 has slightly higher saturation and slightly lower contrast. These differences are not huge. But they are there. And, as you said, grain is slightly finer and the color range slight smoother.

The bottom line? In ALOT of situations, there is not going to be much noticeable difference between KM25 and KR64. This is particularly the case with low contrast, sunlit scenes. KR64 does BEAUTIFULLY under such situations. And, in these situations, you would be hard-pressed to see any difference between KR64 and KM25. But under more challenging lighting conditions (especially drab, diffuse light), KM25 generally gives MUCH better results.

 

[Q.G.]

I agree.
I loved Kodachrome 25. Never got friendly with Kodachrome 64.
The difference was big enough for me.

 

[PKM-25]

The bottom line? In ALOT of situations, there is not going to be much noticeable difference between KM25 and KR64. This is particularly the case with low contrast, sunlit scenes. KR64 does BEAUTIFULLY under such situations. And, in these situations, you would be hard-pressed to see any difference between KR64 and KM25. But under more challenging lighting conditions (especially drab, diffuse light), KM25 generally gives MUCH better results.

I'll go with this, the first image ( Panoramic ) on 25 was in light I thought was toast, but I was surprised to see the color I did in this image.
.
The second one was 64 on a cold-a$$ winter day in waning flat light on the 2nd of this month, I thought it did fairly well.

The last is light that either film would excel in, fresh rain with incredibly even wrap around light ( thank you Times Square ), KR-64 on January 1.

I am starting to use more 25 now that it is 2010, so I bet I will get more of a feel for it as time goes on.

 

[StorminMatt]

I personally feel that the Rollei Digibase comes the closest out of all. It certainly isn't Kodachrome but it is not oversaturated and has a great colors. It is moderatly grainy but the newer E-6 film standards. I like the film.

There is one concern I have with this film: longevity. Is it going to last over the long term? Who knows? Although the Kodak and Fuji E6 films may not look as close to Kodachrome as CR200, at least I know that both manufacturers have made significant improvements to E6 films as far as longevity. I'm not sure about CR200, which is (I believe) a rebadged Agfa product.

 

[John Shriver]

I'm with StorminMatt, my last roll of Kodachrome 64 was on a gray cloudly day, and the slides were just dreary, worse than reality. Nice film with bright light, but you need that light. Since then the only Kodachrome I shot was 200 and 25, and I've used up my supply.

Velvia 50 as a substitute? No way. That's a special-effects film in my book. I liked E100GX (discontinued), I presume E100G with an 81A filter is pretty similar.

Given a good scan, one can get Ektar 100 to look more than a little like Kodachrome.

 

[nickrapak]

Velvia 50 as a substitute? No way. That's a special-effects film in my book. I liked E100GX (discontinued), I presume E100G with an 81A filter is pretty similar.

Actually, the closest to E100GX in my opinion is Elite Chrome 100. It is in between E100G and E100GX in color balance, with a lean toward the warmer side.

 

[nickandre]

Given a good scan, one can get Ektar 100 to look more than a little like Kodachrome.

Or a good analog print. Ektar looks really, really good printed the old fashioned way. I haven't yet had a problem with skin tones even though it's not a portrait film. I have shot only a few rolls of K64 (when I can shoot four rolls of Ektar for every roll of K64...) but I can agree that Ektar renders colors well without overdoing them and particularly likes the reds. Today it's harder to find a bad film than it is a good one. I was particularly impressed with the grain. I enlarged a 35mm negative to 16x20 and it looks like my 4x5s.

 

[Janos]

Kodachrome was always the finest grain, sharpest tranny film, because it was thinner. Essentially a black and white film, was made without any colour dies, only filter layers and silver layer- dyes were added at processing stage, with correct dyes migrating to the filtered layers. This process had something like 14 steps, with absolute control required, hence only Kodak and a handful of others could successfully process it. I stepped in during the changeover from E-4 to E-6. This was a great improvement in small lab processing, but until Velvia, no E-6 film could match the fine grain of Kodachrome.
Presumably this was made possible by the relatively recent improvements in grain technology. I've not tried the Rollei, or some of the other new ones, but with so much difference in the actual structure of the film, it's hard to imagine ever getting close.
(Also, Fuji were the first to achieve consistency from batch to batch,- a revelation in the eighties, especially with colour print paper).

 

[PKM-25]

I'm with StorminMatt, my last roll of Kodachrome 64 was on a gray cloudly day, and the slides were just dreary, worse than reality.

I am shooting at least 2-3 rolls a day on the average now and I am seeing flat light do in all three of the films rather than the particular speed in use. If there is one thing I have learned in photography is that local light, not overall spectral, plays much more of a role in the final image, not the weather. For example, I see flat as heck images coming out of Kodachrome 25 and 200 if the local light quality is poor. But if it is a dreay Oregon day and I am in a trench of buildings that have different colors, then it brings life to the film.

I have absolutely no problem using KR64 on a dreay day, I just select my subject carefully.