In praise of Efke

[SteveH]

Today I got some time to do the printing that I have been putting off. I had some negs that I shot earlier this month, and decided to give them a shot first. They were fomapan 100 in rodinal, my usual combo. The negs came out just as expected, super sharp, super detailed - a nice print.
I then tossed in a neg that I shot using Efke pl25 in rodinal. I am still in the testing phase, but this neg looked OK on the light table, so I gave it a shot. I was not ready for what I then saw ! The print looks excellent; creamy and very aesthetically pleasing. At first, it almost seemed as if the print needed more contrast; but this wasn't the case.
To make a poor analogy, its as if the efke prints are like a 16.7M color pallette, whereas the fomapan print is a 256 color pallette. They both have full range, but the efke is smoother.
Im still in the beginner's phase of LF. I want to get everything, everywhere, and have it super sharp. Razor edge detail. But this print is different, its soft, smooth, and has a nice flow to it.
I will try to get a scan this evening. For those of you in the post-card exchange, I was so happy with this print that I selected it as my postcard...So you will be able to check it out for yourselves.

 

[Dan Fullerton]

Steve, For years I shot Agfa 25 dev. in Rodinal and it sounds as if you have had the same experience I did. I finally quit telling people the film/developer combination as they just didn't belive the resulting print. I have just recently joined this group and discovered Efke 25, after reading your post I am anxious to order some.

 

[roteague]

Glad to hear you like the film. I bought a box of PL100 from J&C last week, that I am going to use on my trip to Australia in October (got to have something to shoot when the light is too harsh for my beloved Velvia).

 

[Daniel_OB]

Efke film and paper (Efkebrom) I used last time is around 20 years ago. They was realy good. The company was formed as a state company in former Yugoslavia, and all they cared about was quality. The same country yielded so many top notch photographers and they just did not move to US or France as Hungarian photogs, for life in postwar Yugoslavia was much better than in US or anywhere else.
So Efke film (Fotokemika, Zagreb) have a nice background and product proven so many times from the best photographers. That company will run forever, I think, I hope.

 

[c6h6o3]

Today I got some time to do the printing that I have been putting off. I had some negs that I shot earlier this month, and decided to give them a shot first......I then tossed in a neg that I shot using Efke pl25 in rodinal.

Were any of these from the prison?

 

[P C Headland]

Glad to hear you like the film. I bought a box of PL100 from J&C last week, that I am going to use on my trip to Australia in October (got to have something to shoot when the light is too harsh for my beloved Velvia).

With the style and quality of your shots, plus the light and scenery in Oz, I think you should also get a box of PL25. Sort of B+W negative Velvia

 

[wfwhitaker]

This is good to hear. I have 200 sheets of 11x14 waiting to be used, but haven't yet had the opportunity to try it.

 

[roteague]

With the style and quality of your shots, plus the light and scenery in Oz, I think you should also get a box of PL25. Sort of B+W negative Velvia

Thanks for the vote of confidence. The fellow I will be traveling with is a B&W LF guy who likes the PL100. He has graciously offered to develop my film for me.

Since I have to carry all my film on the airplane with me, weight and size will be major issues. Because of this, I opted for one type of B&W film - the majority of my work will be on Velvia. FWIW, I'm carrying 200 sheets of Velvia in QuickLoad and cut sheets, 20 roll of Velvia in 35mm and 2 120 Velvia ProPacks. When you factor in the limited amount of carryone luggage allowed, I think I will be stretching the margins of what is allowable, by quite a bit.

 

[SteveH]

Were any of these from the prison?

No, I used HP5+ in the prison. 25asa would have been horrible in there

 

[wfwhitaker]

No, I used HP5+ in the prison. 25asa would have been horrible in there

Depends on how long you're in for...

 

[c6h6o3]

No, I used HP5+ in the prison. 25asa would have been horrible in there

When you're in prison you have enough time on your hands so that the long exposures don't bother you.

I shot two 8x10 sheets of PL100. I think they'll do fine. I wouldn't have hesitated to use PL25 for a second, if I'd had any. Joe was rating his film at 50. Come to think of it, so was I. What's the big deal?