EFKE PL 25 for Landscapes

Alex Hawley · Sep 26, 2006

I'm getting my feet wet with PL 25. What a lovely film! Thanks to Tim Curry for encouraging me to use it. I've shot a couple still lifes and some machinery close-ups with it. Now my question is what should I expect using it for landscape shots, especially with respect to PL100?

Jim Fitzgerald · Sep 26, 2006

Alex, I picked up some 4x5 from Freestyle a while back and exposed some negs of my normal canyon/ rocks/water. Developed in Pyrocat HD 1:1:100 and they came out nice. I will post some images when I can. I like the film. No problems handling. I used a dip and dunk tank and no problems at all. Standard agitation. Next i will try minimal and tray. Will post results.

Stay Focused...or Soft Focused!!!

Jim

epatsellis · Sep 26, 2006

Alex Hawley said:
I'm getting my feet wet with PL 25. What a lovely film! Thanks to Tim Curry for encouraging me to use it. I've shot a couple still lifes and some machinery close-ups with it. Now my question is what should I expect using it for landscape shots, especially with respect to PL100?

Alex,
I have shot a couple of rolls of 120 R25, I have a few pics posted in the gallery on my website, under Elkhart, IL and misc. pictures, I have 2 or 3 more rolls to process this week, and as soon as John gets back from Photokina, I'm going to order 100 or so sheets of 4x5. I like it alot, I'm considering making this my "standard" film. the results I'm getting from 120 negs are downright scary, can't wait to see 4x5 or 8x10 negs.

erie

colivet · Sep 26, 2006

Alex, when I used PL25 for still lifes and such it gave me great tones. Very smooth. The film will build contrast well beyond azo grade 2 with all the water bath in the world. So be careful with full range scenes and soup it in 1:1:100, any more concentration and you will cook the negatives. Skies will be difficult to get right with the funky spectral response of the film. I believe it is slightly red shy so your blues are going to come up dense on the neg and white on paper.

Alex Hawley · Sep 26, 2006

Thant's one thing I was interested in Chris, how the reduced red spectral response works on foliage and sky.

wildbill · Sep 27, 2006

I have used this stuff in 4x5 for landscapes for a couple years now and i love it. I don't generally use it for bright sunny days scenes since it's too contrasty in rodinal. I use fp4 in those situations or when film speed is important. It really excels in low contrast situations and it's reciprocity characteristics are great. Many of my pics on apug were shot on efke 25. Stay away from red filters. Orange are as far as i go. This stuff is also very fragile so handle carefully.
vinny

AlanC · Sep 27, 2006

I've just bought some 35mm and 120 Efke 25, along with some Neofin Blue to do some detail pictures of fishermens' huts. Unfortunately dev. times for this combination are very thin on the ground, so any help would be much appreciated.
Alan Clark

Ole · Sep 27, 2006

I think Beutler said 4 to 6 minutes, but will have to check that.

I've used 8 minutes for R50, so I would first try 4 minutes with KB25 and 5 with R25. The MF film can take a little more and still be great, the 35mm film has better sharpness with more careful development. Again - that's based on Beutlers recommendations.

One thing to remember with these films: Never use a red filter. ANd in the same way it has a lot less speed in incandescent ligh or sunset/sunrise than other films of similar speed. That red sensitivity drops off very abruptly at a wavelength most people would consider orange-red.

AlanC · Sep 27, 2006

Ole,
Thank you for the information.
It was your earlier endorsement of Neofin Blue over Rodinal that made me want to try it!
Alan Clark

noseoil · Sep 27, 2006

Alex, a good yellow filter is necessary for skies (I generally use a #8). The spectral response, as vinny has noted, is a bit different than the 100. A blue sky will be plain white without the filter, but the yellow filter will help. Add a polarizer to your yellow filter and you may have the world's slowest landscape film.

Choose your scenes carefully with respect to contrast. A narrow range of values can be made to open up quite a bit. A harshly lit scene is the stuff of Efke 100. Looking foreward to seeing some posts of your work with this film. Take two shots and keep notes to see what you can do with contrast! Best, tim

PepMiro · Sep 27, 2006

I don't reccommend you for landscapes if it's a windy day... too slow in my opinion

DieHipsterDie · Sep 27, 2006

How does this film push?

Jim Noel · Sep 27, 2006

An interesting thread.

I will have to get some of this for general work as it appears it is more like the films i liked so much when I was learning this craft in the 30's and 40's.

In those times, a film with a Weston Speed of 100 was a real speed burner. 25 was the more common, and DuPont Superior #2 with a Weston speed of 50 was the fastest thing available to most amateurs during WWII.

I even took pictures of basketball games with Original Kodachrome, Type A which was rated at 12. Bring back flash bulbs!

Alex Hawley · Sep 27, 2006

Thanks to everyone for your input. Its been most informative.

As for pushing, I'll leave that for someone else to determine. I'm not in need of that capability. I do know from my own experience that it expands well. Contraction capability is OK but not as good as PL100.

Also true is that its use may be wind-limited. Always a factor where I live. However, I intend to try it anyway, with a good wind, to see what I get. I have been very surprised to see the Big Dorff visibly bouncing around from the wind, shutter set at 1/5 second, and still get a clear sharp negative.

Jim, I appreciate your insights from the earlier generation. I think they are always instructive and remind our younger collegues that good photography was done before the advent of 400 speed films and 1/1000 shutters.

The only thing I don't miss about flash bulbs is the spots in my eyes. I would like to see them come back too.

fatboy22 · Sep 27, 2006

Jim Noel said:
An interesting thread.

I will have to get some of this for general work as it appears it is more like the films i liked so much when I was learning this craft in the 30's and 40's.

In those times, a film with a Weston Speed of 100 was a real speed burner. 25 was the more common, and DuPont Superior #2 with a Weston speed of 50 was the fastest thing available to most amateurs during WWII.

I even took pictures of basketball games with Original Kodachrome, Type A which was rated at 12. Bring back flash bulbs!

Hi Jim,

I love flash Bulbs, shoot them when ever I can! Have quite a collection of them really. Nice to see some one bring them up here in APUG. Major light source!

Soeren · Sep 28, 2006

Jim Noel said:
An interesting thread.

I will have to get some of this for general work as it appears it is more like the films i liked so much when I was learning this craft in the 30's and 40's.

In those times, a film with a Weston Speed of 100 was a real speed burner. 25 was the more common, and DuPont Superior #2 with a Weston speed of 50 was the fastest thing available to most amateurs during WWII.

I even took pictures of basketball games with Original Kodachrome, Type A which was rated at 12. Bring back flash bulbs!

how about these ?
http://www.flashbulbs.com/index.shtml
Cheers
Søren

P C Headland · Sep 28, 2006

DieHipsterDie said:
How does this film push?

I pushed Efke 25 to 100 after I forgot to reset my meter....

I seem to recall 30 minutes in Rodinal 1+100 or the like, and was quite happy with the results.

EFKE PL 25 for Landscapes

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