Ektacolor Type S - Modern equivalent?

[cptrios]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of digitizing a relative's old negatives (very slowly), and I just ran through a few strips of film that looked lovely. I checked the name print, and they turned out to be shot on "Ektacolor S." Just wondering whether anyone used to use it and if so, whether there's a modern film that's reasonably similar in terms of color.

Thanks!

 

[cmacd123]

ektacolor type S (for short exposures) was the Professional film (ASA 160) in the C-22 range. was replaced by Vericolour Type S, (C-41) (ISO 160) which was updated at the same time the varous Kodacolor updates to I think Vericolor III type s.

Portra 160 would be the logical successor.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Current Kodak color neg films are quite different. Porta 160 will probably have similar contrast and speed, but far better hue reproduction. Older films had their own "look" which depended quite a bit on their idiosyncrasies, or color reproduction wrinkles which hadn't gotten ironed out to the same degree as current films. All films have certain issues, but, from a film engineer's standpoint at least, there has been a steady evolution forward with these products.

 

[cmacd123]

Current Kodak color neg films are quite different. Porta 160 will probably have similar contrast and speed, but far better hue reproduction. Older films had their own "look" which depended quite a bit on their idiosyncrasies, or color reproduction wrinkles which hadn't gotten ironed out to the same degree as current films. All films have certain issues, but, from a film engineer's standpoint at least, there has been a steady evolution forward with these products.

yes, the ektacolor as a C-22 film for example, and the dye sets probably are completely different. Both the ektacolor and the Portra were intended primarily for professional Photographers doing portrait sittings and weddings. in Kodak's book - each generation applied the newest technology to make the "best" film for customer. so yes the Ektacolor was the best film for profesional portait photographers that Kodak thought it could make in the 1960s.

BTW their was an "L" version for exposures over (if I remember) 1/30 of a second. the reciprocity failure was strong enough on those days that long exposures required a totaly different film.

 

[cptrios]

Thanks for the responses! I have a roll of Portra 160 somewhere...though I suspect this film might be closer to Ektar. They all look pretty nice to me, anyway!

 

[AgX]

All films have certain issues, but, from a film engineer's standpoint at least, there has been a steady evolution forward with these products.

I like this wording. However some consumers take a stand different from a engineer's view about what they consider attractive in a film. What even has led to the offer of "fun films" as I call them.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Not just amateurs, but a number of very well known photographers, especially in the 70's, including Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, and Richard Misrach, based their entire portfolios on distinct "flaws" or even clashes in Vericolor L response. All the yellows, oranges, and warm tan hues tended to dump into pumpkin orange, while greens took on a distinct cyan "poison green" flavor. The low contrast was often exaggerated too, for sake of a bleached-out look.

Likewise, color landscape photographers often exploited the excessive blue response of Ektachrome 64 chrome film. What I liked about it was the flaw of red contamination in the green repro layer - that yielded wonderfully subtle sage greens and excellent gray-green hue reproduction, but at the expense of clean "spring greens". The Fujichrome 50 revolution (the predecessor of Provia, Velvia, and Astia) changed all that, and rendered very clean green per se, but at the expense of the more complex kinds of green. Agfachrome products weren't as common in this country; but their oddball pre-E6 product was very grainy and contrasty, couldn't produce a clean green at all, but did capture fluorescent lichen and algae colors and distinctions in reds, oranges, and purples better than any film since.