Kodak Ektachrome is Back
Kodak announced yesterday that beloved EKTACHROME Film E100 is back in the market after a six year hiatus. It is now available in 135/36x camera format, and it is expected to become again a favourite among professional and enthusiast photographers alike. In the last few years, the popularity of analog photography and motion picture film has rebounded and film manufacturers have been paying attention. Ektachrome is a general purpose reversal film, meaning it’s a positive image on a transparent base rather than a negative.
Initially launched in 1946 in sheet film format in both daylight and artificial light balanced versions. A year later, a roll type daylight-balanced version was released. Despite its commercial success, Ektachrome was not as widely popular as its sibling Kodachrome (which was the subject of a Paul Simon song), which is considered by many to possess a better colour palette and a longer term archival stability — it is supposed to take 185 years to discolour-. On the other hand, Kodackrome’s intricate development process was a deterrent for many amateur photographers, paving the way for smaller labs to develop the film on-site, thus facilitating the wide spread use of Ektachrome stock. But the newer Kodak E6 development process claims a 220 years archival life for reversal film, levelling the playing field.
In 2012, Rocherster, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The popularity of digital photography and the sluggish response of the company to changes in technology were all contributing factors. Ektachrome, which was the last of Kodak’s chrome films — Kodachrome production stopped in 2009 — was also killed in 2012. The revival of Ektachrome was announced in January 2017, and was initially slated for launch later that year. But challenges in acquiring some of the nearly 80 chemicals and materials needed for manufacturing pushed Kodak to move the release date to 2018.
Kodak claims the classic “clean, vibrant colors, neutral tone scale, and extremely fine grain” of Ektachrome have been successfully maintained in the new encarnation of the film. The company has also announced that KODAK EKTACHROME 7294 Color Reversal Film in Super 8 will ship October 1, 2018, with Super 16mm coming soon after. It remains to be seen if digital native photographers and enthusiasts will catch the analog bug.
