Kodak Ektar 25

[bluetrayne]

I know this film was discontinued a while ago, but is there any way to buy it anywhere?

Anyone have any in 35mm format in his or her freezer for sale??

I've checked on ebay from time to time, but I usually see it in 120 format.

I've heard the film is very high contrast and razor sharp, with very nice color saturation.

 

[Claire Senft]

I have used a lot of Ektar 25 in both 35mm and 120 format. It has been discontiued for quite a while now. Royal Gold 25 was the same film. I naturally gravitate to the slow speed films in both color and b&w. In my opinion, Konica Impresa 50 is a far superior film in that the contrast is low to moderate. It is less likely to have cross over. The grain and the resolving power give Ektar 25 a real run for the money. It offers very nice discrimination of hues. I tend to think of Impresa 50 as being the film Ektar 25 should have been.

Unfortunately this film has also been discontinued but much more recently.

If you want a very good 35mm color negative film, I would try to see if you can still find this film as being available.

 

[Lee L]

Ctein has a review of the new Fujicolor 160S and 160C emulsions in the latest PhotoTechniques. He says they are "approaching the fine-grained league of the now-legendary Kodak Ektar 25". Not bad, and 160 ISO thrown in. Probably worth running a roll or two for yourself.

I forget how long ago Royal Gold/Ektar 25 was discontinued, many years IIRC. You might get lucky and find some, but I suspect you'll have a hard time finding a significant stash.

Lee

 

[jd callow]

I will be very intersted to see if the new fuji films are really (or how close to ) 160 iso films. I shoot NPL and NPS in the 50 -80 range and still get better shadow detail with NC and 100T.

Ektar 25 on the other hand was really a 25 iso film and was far and a way the best film I ever used for long exposures.

 

[Lee L]

I will be very intersted to see if the new fuji films are really (or how close to ) 160 iso films. I shoot NPL and NPS in the 50 -80 range and still get better shadow detail with NC and 100T.

Ektar 25 on the other hand was really a 25 iso film and was far and a way the best film I ever used for long exposures.

I also downrate the Fuji neg film speeds when I use them, and usually about a stop or 2/3rds. Ektar 25 was famous for low reciprocity failure. I miss it as well. It was my preferred 35mm color neg film, and made you appreciate good optics.

Lee

 

[Roger Krueger]

I've got an ebay auto-notify set up for the various names (RZ25, Ektar, etc.) of this stuff. The one time it's come up in the last couple of years I was on vacation and missed it.

 

[braxus]

Funny I just sold some Ektar 25 in 120 this past week and I had it listed on Ebay. Ebay is probably your best bet for finding rolls of this stuff today. But as another post mentioned the film can be risky to buy today due to its keeping abilities. Its either bad or good. I would use the new Fuji Pro 160 films to replace the Ektar 25 ones.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Royal Gold and Ektar were not the same film AFAIK. Ektar 25 used a lot of different technology and many batches did not keep well. Be careful of old batches of Ektar 25 as they can show abnormally high grain due to this keeping problem.

Ektar 25 was one of the most difficult of all films that Kodak ever manufactured.

PE