I was lucky enough to get a brick plus (35mm) of the new Kodak Ektar film at Photo Expo Plus in NYC… so when I returned to my studio in Vermont I quickly loaded my Leica M7 with a roll and decided to make a few “test” shots around my yard.

Image Results:

The Full Size image is a 20″ x 30″ print- the crop represents a 4″ x 4″ section of the full size.

Testing Specs:

• Leica M7 with Leica Summilux 50mm 1.4 Lens
• F 5.6 at 1/125, Hand-held
• Film was rated at Box Speed (more on this later…)
• Scan was done on an Imacon with NO sharpening applied, scanned at 6300 dpi.
• Photoshop work was limited to white point and black point, no color correction, no noise reduction, no sharpening, no curves…

Image Size/ File Size Info:

• 309 MB file at 300 Optical DPI, 16 Bit
• 20″ x 30″ Print Size

Initial Thoughts:

This new offering by Kodak has very tight grain (this is 35mm folks!!) with good, bold color but still “neutral/ natural” in feel. My initial feeling is that it is a bit slower than box speed (normal for most negative material). On my next test roll I will rate it around 50-64 which should be perfect (with color negative material its better to be safe than sorry with regards to your exposure!). Box Speed (ASA 100) is usable, but under difficult lighting situations underexposure is just too great a risk. So far… I am very impressed…stay tuned for Part 2 in a few days.

Viva la Revolution!