23. June 2003
Kodak E100G
Despite the fact that the "digital photography revolution" is running faster and faster these days, new and quite amazing films are still being introduced.
At last years Photokina a number of new films were announced, including a new Fuji Velvia 100F, a new Fuji Astia 100F and new films from Kodak as well.
In this article I'm going to take a closer look at one of the new Kodak films, the Kodak professional Ektachrome E100G.
This new Ektachrome film replaces the E100S. A new E100GX, replacing the E100SW, is also on the market now.
The E100G is a neutral color transparency film, while the E100GX is a bit warmer. I'll be focusing entirely on the E100G here.

Warning!
I must come with my now usual warning, that by the very nature of this article - exhibiting image quality and details - this document contains a large number of fairly big pictures and it will therefore take a while to load if you are on a modem connection. Please be patient.

Why do I test this film?
I'm normally a big fan of Fuji Provia 100F. This film has very fine grain (RMS 8) and produces fairly neutral colors and I simply find it very good for landscape and nature photography. The Provia 100F is also fairly easy to scan without too dense areas (like the Fuji Velvia often produces).
I don't find the Provia 100F suitable for portraits and skin-tones though, so sometimes I've been using the Kodak E100S. It's a matter of taste of course, but the E100S seems to be a bit more versatile, and all-round film if you will. I've been shooting both landscapes and people with this film, and I like the result.
Another reason for using the Kodak E100S instead of the Provia 100F has been the problem with the so-called "Fuji Pepper Grain". A strange phenomena that shows little black dots on light areas of the Provia film. Personally I have only seen this problem on 120 film, not 135 film. However, since I mainly shoot 120 film, I've been happy with scanning the E100S which shows absolutely no signs of "Pepper Grains", when scanned on my Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO scanner.
But the E100S hasn't got as fine grain as the Provia 100F, so this is where the new E100G comes in. The E100G has the same grain size (read the specs from Kodak) as the Provia 100F, so this brings me to why I want to test this film: Can I get a Provia 100F like film, without the pepper grain problem?
Let's have a look....





How the test was conducted
I compare the E100G with two other films here, the Fuji Provia 100F and the predecessor E100S.
In the direct comparison, I shoot two different scenes at various exposures.
All pictures were shot on 120 film using a Rolleiflex 2.8GX.
All pictures has been given the same treatment : Scanned on a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro film scanner at 3200dpi (4800dpi when noted) and converted to the sRGB colorspace and compressed a bit to jpg files. No other manipulation was done.

Film development
From time to time I get a pro-lab to develop my film (like when I'm comparing to digital output), but this time I wanted to use my regular lab, which normally develops my film in a quality I can't distinguish from the pro-lab results.

The results
This scene was shot on three different transparency films:


Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/11

A crop from the three films can bee seen here:

Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/11


Kodak E100S, 1/250 sec., f/11


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/250 sec., f/11

While the E100G and Provia films are almost indistinguishable at this magnification, the E100S is clearly a bit warmer, or at least quite a bit more red in it's color rendition.

Let's look at 100% magnification (actual pixel size at 3200dpi) :


Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/11


Kodak E100S, 1/250 sec., f/11


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/250 sec., f/11

Again the E100S (in the middle) looks quite a bit more red than the new E100G who's color-rendition is very close to the Provia. The Provia looks quite grainy here, but that's because of the "Pepper Grain" problem. We can also notice here, that the Provia does produce whiter whites and the Provia is a bit more contrasty, giving us less smooth color gradients.
More...:

Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/11


Kodak E100S, 1/250 sec., f/11


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/250 sec., f/11

The E100G clearly has a very fine grain structure and the lower contrast gives it very smooth gradients, compared to the Provia. But when looking directly at the slides, the whiter whites and harder contrast makes the Provia slides look a bit more "snappy" and colorful.
And more...:

Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/11


Kodak E100S, 1/250 sec., f/11


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/250 sec., f/11

Look carefully. The E10G might actually show sliiighlty more details - thanks to the lack of pepper grains perhaps?
It's difficult to say for sure - all of these three films are quite amazing actually.
Let's look at another subject matter:


Kodak E100G, 1/500 sec., f/8½

Details:

Kodak E100G, 1/500 sec., f/8½


Kodak E100S, 1/500 sec., f/8½


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/500 sec., f/8½

That E100G looks like it has a really high resolution and a really fine grain structure.
I want to scan at 4800dpi to really get close to that grain structure:


Kodak E100G, 1/500 sec., f/8½


Kodak E100S, 1/500 sec., f/8½


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/500 sec., f/8½

The E100G's smooth color rendition and lack of any film-base flaws really stands out here.
One final crop, comparing only the Provia with the E100G (this time in shadow):


Kodak E100G, 1/250 sec., f/8½


Fuji Provia 100F, 1/250 sec., f/8½

Scanning 120 film
Just a note on scanning the 120 films.
For scanners that scans the 120 film flat (unlike the ingenious "FlexTight" system from Imacon), film-flatness becomes an issue.
If the film is curled, one might need to scan using a glass-holder, while the glass-holder often can be omitted if the film is flat enough.
When I get film back from the lab, the Provia is always very flat, while the old E100S always curls a lot. The new E100G seems to be somewhere in-between(?):

From left to right : Provia, E100G and E100S

Conclusion
Whew! This is difficult.
I really like the new Kodak E100G. In many ways, it has become a very attractive alternative to Provia 100F. There are a few drawbacks though.
The color-tone has changed from the E100S and this could indicate that I no longer can use the Kodak for portraits - for this I might need the warmer E100GX(?).
Another drawback is, that the E100G seems to be quite expensive - is it going to stay like that?
Besides these drawbacks, the E100G is quite amazing. It has extremely fine grain. The lack of film-base flaws, like the infamous Pepper Grain issue, and the lower contrast makes it really good for digital manipulation. You can sharpen more and you can increase the contrast if you prefer.
All in all, I can say for sure that I'm not done with this film yet!

I really need to make more landscape shots, but take a look at the gallery below, showing different subject matters.

The Kodak E100G Gallery

Subscribers to The Newsletter will receive a 13x13x300 picture from this gallery in the current issue (#15).

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge.

Links
• Kodak Read about the new E100G and E100GX film.

	... buy from the: PHOTOgraphical.NET shop
Kodak Ektachrome E100G 120 film, Pack of 5 (USA) Kodak Ektachrome E100G 120 film, Pack of 5 (International) Kodak Ektachrome E100GX 120 film, Pack of 5 (USA) Kodak Ektachrome E100GX 120 film, Pack of 5 (International)