Ektachrome 100

Need I say more?

Despite all its limitations, Ektachrome is my favourite stock. And I mostly shoot black and white. It’s the best looking film if you have a light box or an iPad like I do. I can look at them forever.

If you get past the slow speed and the narrow exposure latitude(there is none), you’d be rewarded with the best colour and the finest grain any film could offer. Slide films are the only stocks I use light metre for religiously. I metre for the colour, usually in the highlight, and I don’t care about the rest. I don’t care if the shadow is pitch black.

They just look better than all the rest.

In November 2022, after almost three years of the pandemic, international travel finally resumed for normies like yours truly. Wife and I decided to go to Osaka. It’d be George’s first international trip. It was an easy decision for us since Japan is our favourite country to visit. Knowing Osaka at the time would be blooming with colours, I brought Ektachrome in my M6. We went around Osaka and we made a day trip to Nara so George can meet some deer friends. We went on a small hike in the outskirt of Osaka, and the photo above was films I shot during that hike.

Deer in Nara have become a lot more aggressive over the years, but George didn’t seem to care. He had fun.

With the help of my light metre, I was able to nail the exposure on the entire roll. And it turned out great. Internet sages have said slide films such as Ektachrome has a latitude of about half a stop. So, use a light metre.

Since moving to Dublin, I haven’t shot any slide film for multiple reasons. One is they have become too expensive. Another one is, -and I only found this one out after I moved here- no film labs in Dublin develops slide films, zero, nada. How is this even a thing? I asked around when I first got here, and the answers I got were the same: there’s this guy in Cork…. One of the first big letdowns Dublin offered. Anyway, enough of the rant. Here’s some photos from the Osaka trip.

I still have a few rolls of Ektachrome in my fridge. I will have to figure out the logistics of developing them so I can keep shooting this film. Later!