Last trial and end of an era: Ektar 25 and flooding in Mississippi

Kodachromeguy

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Olympia, Washington
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Hi Everyone, yes, I am still living in the past. I keep hoping to find rolls of Kodak Ektar 25 film that have been frozen and are still in good condition. In 2017, I used the last of my rolls, and they were fine. I bought 2 rolls from an eBay fellow who did not know about the storage conditions. One was spoiled, so I discarded the other roll. Then I bought 3 rolls from another fellow who claimed they had been frozen. One was fine. Yes!

A couple of weeks ago, I used the remaining two rolls here in central Mississippi to record flood waters. Well, these ones were badly shifted in color. I scanned them with a Minolta Scan Multi medium format film scanner controlled by SilverFast Ai software. By using the grey pointer/dropper, I partly recovered the colors. I typically placed the pointer on grey pavement or metal siding. The Silverfast software does not have an Ektar 25 profile, so I used the Royal Gold 100 profile, but I realize it may not be optimum. Sadly, no more experiments with the 25. It is over, time to move on, probably to Ektar 100.

Here are some examples from Vicksburg (Yazoo Canal) and Redwood, Mississippi (Yazoo backwater). The Yazoo backwater floods when heavy local rains are unable to drain into the Mississippi River if the river itself is high. The big chicken is in downtown Yazoo City. These frames are from a Hasselblad 501CM camera, all tripod mounted, film exposed at EI=20.


 

EdSawyer

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Sep 3, 2008
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I know we've talked in the past. I have a hoard of Ektar 25 pro 120. Probably 20+ rolls? I shot some recently, it was slower than expected, probably ISO12 or something. Colors looked ok offhand, but I have yet to scan or print from it. It's been frozen. I may be able to part with some - we'll see how this roll turns out once scanned. Ektar 100 is a nice alternative, I use that a lot too, though the color balance and contrast is different from ektar 25.
 

PCGraflex

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May 11, 2005
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Same here, I hope my frozen hoard will turn out. If not, then all for naught.
 

Cholentpot

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Oct 26, 2015
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I have a few rolls in 35mm. I think I'm going to use them up this summer.
 

EdSawyer

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I have probably 2-3 bricks in 35mm, between ektar 25 and Royal gold 25. I shot some this summer, it was like the 120 - lost some speed but otherwise ok, generally.
 
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