KODAK EKTAPRESS GO ItFilm Testing on Location in Las Vegas

Press-Pack 50

by Jack and Sue Drafahl

It seems you can'ttrust anyone any-more! Over the pastfew months Kodak

has been finding ways to improve old-er films and simultaneously releasingso many new films that you need ascore card to keep track of what's newin the film world. Kodak wasn't satis-fied with having four Gold films (ISO100, 200, 400, 1000) and two new Ek-tars (ISO 25 and 1000); they went onestep further and introduced an entirenew film system called EktapressGold. These new films come in threeISO flavors-100, 400, and 1600-andboast to be the only color negativefilms a professional photojournalistwill ever need.

The original Gold films were de-signed for amateur use, where contrastand high color saturation are most im-portant. The professional photogra-phers, on the other hand, usually re-quire films with more exposure lati-tude and less contrast. In addition, theprofessionals occasionally found itnecessary to push the film one to twostops. So Kodak provided them withtheir own film system, which proves to

74 PHorographic/May 1989

be just as versatile as the equipmentthey use on their assignments.

Of special interest to pros who do alot of on-location shooting is the factthat the new Ektapress Gold filmswere designed for room-temperaturestorage, and do not require refrigera-tion like most other pro films.

TESTING

In order to really see what these newfilms could do, we tested them in LasVegas. Here we could shoot color filmday and night. We scheduled ourselvesfor daytime shoots at Hoover Dam, insome tourist traps, indoor shooting ata press conference for Jacques Cous-teau, and night shots in the city wherethe lights never grow dim.

We found the contrast range of theEktapress 100 and 400 to be slightlyless than that of the other Gold films.We liked the contrast and the extend-ed exposure latitude these films pro-vided. The resolution and grain of theEktapress 100 held a slight edge overthat of Gold 100. Ektapress 400 wasextremely close to Gold 400 in resolu-tion and grain structure, but had amuch better exposure latitude.

The 1600 contrast range was some-what higher, and therefore the filmhad less exposure latitude. The grainof the 1600 Ektapress was larger thanthat of its two partners, but we werestill able to make excellent color en-largements up to 11X14 with smallgrain patterns. What really surprisedus was the resolution of the 1600 film.We were able to read small street signsin tiny portions of the photos.

We loved using the Ektapress 400and 1600 for indoor photography. Forexample, while other photographers inthe Cousteau press conference blastedaway using flash, we quietly let themotor rip through a roll of film in sec-onds. We got great results while theother photographers ended up with ex-posure problems and harsh shadows.

Another new twist to the Ektapressfilms is Kodak's code designations forthe films: PPA = ISO 100, PPB = ISO400, PPC=ISO 1600. Simple as A, B,C. We did have some problem with theappearance of the 100 and 400 films inthat they looked very similar to T-Maxpackaging—so much so, in fact, thatduring a hurried shoot, we accidental-ly shot a roll of T-Max 400 instead of

Ektapress Gold 400

Ektapress Gold 100 Ektapress Gold 1600Ektapress Gold 1600

Ektapress Gold 1600

PHOTOgraphic/May 1989 75

ALL COLOR PHOTOS BY AUTHORS

Ektapress Gold 1600 pushed to El 6400Ektapress Gold 100

Ektapress Gold 400Ektapress Gold 1600

76 PHOTOgraphic/May 1989

KODAKEKTAPRESSEktapress 400.

A unique aspect of the Ektapressfilms is their ability to provide qualitynegatives even with push-processing.With all pre-Ektapress films, any in-crease in processing time, to compen-sate for pushing, caused a color cross-over between color layers, and a greatloss of shadow detail. The result wasa flat, grainy, colorless print—not up toprofessional standards.

To solve this problem, Kodak intro-duced into Ektapress 400 and 1600very large, slow-developing crystalsthat do not activate unless the normalprocessing time is exceeded. If the filmis underexposed one stop, the develop-er time is increased by 30 seconds.When the process reaches the end ofthe normal processing time, these ex-tra crystals "kick in," and extra DIARcouplers are released to keep each col-or layer in line. The results are sharp,full-color prints from Els as high as6400. Normal development time is 3minutes, 15 seconds; time for a one-stop push (to El 3200) is 3 minutes, 45seconds; and time for a two-stop push(to El 6400) is 4 minutes, 15 seconds.

When we returned from Las Vegas,all the films were processed and thenprinted on a mini-printer. We foundthat both Ektapress 100 and 400 nega-tives used the same filter pack as theamateur Gold films, but the 1600 filmhad more base density, requiring long-er exposures, and a slight filter correc-tion (for a slight red shift).

While testing Nikon's F4 camera,we used some of the Ektapress 1600 ata local indoor track meet. We neededsequential shots of the various events,and using flash was out of the ques-tion. A meter reading indicated thatsubject blurring would occur with thelens aperture wide open using ISO1600 film. We reset the ISO to 6400and rechecked our meter. An exposureof '/7so at f/2.8 seemed to be acceptable,but the question was, what about theresults? We were amazed with the re-sults! We had never seen such sharp,colorful pictures produced at such ahigh film-speed rating.

If you take the ISO ratings of Ko-dak's three new Ektapress films, andadd the El's from pushing these films,you have films with speeds of 100, 400,800, 1600, 3200, and 6400. Kodak,you have created six professional colornegative films for the photojournalismnot three! Are you done now—or atleast for a couple of months? ffl

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