Efke-25 available in 4x5

Earlier today I made the first of the many daily checks of the J&C website looking to see if they had inventory of Efke-25 in 4x5. Much to my surprise it showed inventory of the film!! I of course ordered a few boxes of film right away.

Sorry for ignorant questions, but do you have an extensive history of use with this film? Can you tell me about why you like it? Is it a thick emulsion film?

Efke is a thin emulsion, high silver content film. (I've been told that this line of films is the continuation of the very first thin emulsion films.) Efke 25 and 50 have a reduced sensitivity to the red end of the spectrum, which lends it a unique look. Efke 25 features extremely small grain. As with any slow film, it can be very contrasty.

Both from personal experience and from what I've read from others, it's a film that takes some practice to get "right", but the time spent is well worth it if you need a slow, extremely fine-grained film. Developed in Rodinal or another accutance developer, it can deliver extremely sharp negatives. Since the grain of Efke 25 is so small to begin with, a developer like Rodinal even at 1:25 does not lead to objectionable grain.

When you combine the reduced red senstivity and the very small grain, it is a unique film. It's not my favorite film for every day use, but I've spent some time over the last few months learning to work with it and I do find that it's a great film in the right circumstances. I especially like it in sheet film sizes for close-up work; it has a very smooth tonality that really matches my vision for such purposes.

(Efke 100, by the way, is a panchromatic film - it has good red sensitivity - and it has a tonality that I really like. It's my favorite landscape film in sheet sizes and one of my favorites in 120.)

Thanks for filling me in, Mongo. Sounds like an interesting film indeed; somewhere between panchro and orthochromatic... Since it is largely red insensitive, can you develop by inspection under a red light?

John @jandc said he'd hold a couple of boxes for me when it came in and i haven't heard from him yet and there's none available when i checked last night or this evening. Did your order go through?
Kino, check my gallery, i've got some efke 25 images on both pages. It's a fantastic film but very delicate.

Thanks WildBill, I will as soon as my membership is sent -- this next payday.

wildbill said:

John @jandc said he'd hold a couple of boxes for me when it came in and i haven't heard from him yet and there's none available when i checked last night or this evening. Did your order go through?
Kino, check my gallery, i've got some efke 25 images on both pages. It's a fantastic film but very delicate.

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John posted earlier today and stated that it would be added to their inventory a bit at a time to keep people from hoarding it and give more folks a chance to get some. Certainly it should show up in stock again soon, as in the next day or two.

Here is his message: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Kino said:

Sorry for ignorant questions, but do you have an extensive history of use with this film? Can you tell me about why you like it? Is it a thick emulsion film?

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I'm sure there are others that can give a definitive answer but as far as I know it's a thin emulsion film. I started to use the film last fall on a whim. I'm developing it with tfx-2 (photographers formulary) using semi stand development. While the grain isn't as fine as what I get with Tmax-100. I have made 16x20 prints from a 4x5 negative and the grain was non-existant in the print. The film is also ortho-panchromatic. This means that red in nearly invisible to the film. I learned about the hard way when I put used a #25 filter with the film!! :rolleyes:

What I like about the film/developer combo that I'm using is the amount of detail that I get in the prints. One of the comments made about the 11x14 prints I made with it was that "the amount of detail is almost painfull to look at". Another thing I like is that compared to the TMX/Tmax-rs combo that I had been using is the more limited range of the film. I live in the Chicago area and most of my photography is in the midwest. The range of Tmax was such that when I photographed a scene that included the sky the contrast range is in the range of 10+ stops. This coupled with the very high optical density of TMX I would have to choose between blown out white highlights(read sky) of black shadows. I don't know if it's a more limited range of the film of the compensation from the semi-stand development coupled with the Forte paper that I've been using with the film. What I like about the over all combination is that I don't lose the highlights.

If I haven't answered your question let me know and I'll try to do a better job!!

Paul Sorensen said:

John posted earlier today and stated that it would be added to their inventory a bit at a time to keep people from hoarding it and give more folks a chance to get some. Certainly it should show up in stock again soon, as in the next day or two.

Here is his message: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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While I ordered enough to get me through an estimated 3 months of personal use with a couple of boxes to spare. I don't think I got the film at a "hoarding" level. I do know that this is a stop gap level of inventory intended to get John and us by until Efke completes production of his "yearly order" and that more should be arriving in a short amount of time.

I wasn't aware that the stock would be so low that it would sell out in one day. Since more will be available between now and the time more will be arriving I'll be happy to sell two of the seven boxes I ordered for my out of pocket costs. If John prefers and it's possible he can reduce my order from 7 to 5 and put the two boxes back up for sale on his site.

jdef said:

Dave's description is comprehensive, but I'll add that while grain is indeed very fine, it is not more fine grained than TMX, which is 2 stops faster, but the look of each film is unique. Attached is an image made with Efke 25 in 35mm, handheld in available light, and developed in 510-Pyro.

Jay

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As I mentioned in another post my use of Efke-25 has been limited to 4x developed in tfx-2. Compared to TMX I notice more grain when using Efke-25. This I notice when trying to focus my enlarger with a grain focuser when printing full frame on 11x14 paper. I have however noticed far more detail with Efke. This is evident in your thumbnail if you look at the terry cloth towel.

i tried the efke/adox 100 4x5".

it's a cheap film, so i started with it to learn how to handle a shen hao 4x5.
What i learned about this film is that it is really a 50-64 asa film developed with rodinal. The emulsion is very scratch sensitive. Besides that i had some problems with strange looked like anti-static cloudes on some of my negatives.

Developing this film in rodinal at 11 minutes, 1+50, agitation first minute continuous, after that once 15 seconds. If you agitate less, the neg will get very soft.

Now i use the fp4+ and delta100.

wildbill said:

John @jandc said he'd hold a couple of boxes for me when it came in and i haven't heard from him yet and there's none available when i checked last night or this evening. Did your order go through?
Kino, check my gallery, i've got some efke 25 images on both pages. It's a fantastic film but very delicate.

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Everyone who I had promised to hold boxes for have been held. I just haven't had a chance to email them yet.

Thanks

Hi John

How many boxes of film did you have in inventory? I ordered the last of your boxes last night (6) and now the film is out of stock again. Just wondering if more is on the way.

Thanks
Ross

jandc said:

Everyone who I had promised to hold boxes for have been held. I just haven't had a chance to email them yet.

Thanks

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John,

I was one of the people that had asked you to hold a couple of boxes for. As I've already ordered film from you. You can put whatever you set aside for me back into inventory. Thanks for holding it aside for me.

Frank

We put the last 10 boxes on the site last night.