braxus
Member
First off I'll say I did this test for fun and it isn't anything definative. I just wanted to see how well the new film would perform against the old Ektar 25. I'll start off and say the Ektar 25 roll did ok, but it does suffer from the grain up problem my other rolls of Royal Gold 25 suffered. You can see the white specs mixed in with the grain that makes the image unsmooth. This is what happens when RG25/ Ektar 25 deteriorates. But the test gave me a good idea of what both films could do. First off I'll state how I did this test. I used two Canon SLRs- an Elan 7 and an EOS 1N. Both cameras used the same 50mm 1.8 lens which I switched from each camera. The F stop was kept at F8 on both cameras and I just adjusted the shutter speed down two stops for the 25 ISO film. Tripod was used. I let the cameras do the focus lock. The films were processed on a Noritsu V100 C-41 machine and scanned on a Noritsu 3011 printer. Scans were color adjusted for each roll and saved as a Tiff file at 3000x2000 16 base scans. For the 100% crop photos I used my 3200 dpi Konica Minolta Scan Dual IV. I used Vuescan for the film scanner and also made adjustments to the color. Now as per the color- I adjusted because I wanted to see what the best possible result would be from these two films. It doesn't make anything definative, but it would give me an idea of color saturation and overall color look between the two films. And my main concern was how grain compared between these two films, though as I said the Ektar suffers from the white specs syndrome which many of these rolls suffer from due to age and freezing. So anyway take a look at the scans to give you an idea of what to expect. The color is definately better and brighter on the new film, while the old film looks more muddy in the colors. Also the old film is indeed sharper, but the newer film seems to have smoother grain. I suspect grain size would be similar if it weren't for the aged 25 film. I have 1 more roll of each film to do one more test if I needed to, but I think what I see below speaks enough. The new film is definately worth getting, especially in light of how old rolls of Ektar 25 will suffer from some aging. So here are the first shots. This first one was what fall leaves were left on trees. The day at the time this was taken was overcast with no sun.
MODERATOR'S NOTE:
As of September 2021 braxus has re-posted the images that were formerly available in the (now unavailable) photo.net links below. See post #37 in this thread.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252430
Next shot the sun did come out, but it was not full blown sunny out- just partially. Enough to give some light on the subject shots.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252454
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252456
And then I got my usual suspect to pose for me which was in the morning again in overcast conditions.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252458
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252460
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252461
And here is some full shost of a pic with the crop from a section below it.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252464
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252471
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252465
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252473
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252468
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252475
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252470
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252476
As you can see the colors on the new film are brighter which is consistent on how their new emulsions have gone lately.
I rated them at box speed for both films since this is what Kodak wants. But I am aware the 100 speed film likes to be overexposed, but I have yet to try that.
MODERATOR'S NOTE:
As of September 2021 braxus has re-posted the images that were formerly available in the (now unavailable) photo.net links below. See post #37 in this thread.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252430
Next shot the sun did come out, but it was not full blown sunny out- just partially. Enough to give some light on the subject shots.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252454
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252456
And then I got my usual suspect to pose for me which was in the morning again in overcast conditions.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252458
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252460
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252461
And here is some full shost of a pic with the crop from a section below it.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252464
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252471
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252465
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252473
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252468
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252475
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252470
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8252476
As you can see the colors on the new film are brighter which is consistent on how their new emulsions have gone lately.
I rated them at box speed for both films since this is what Kodak wants. But I am aware the 100 speed film likes to be overexposed, but I have yet to try that.
Last edited by a moderator: