Tales on Film

One of my favorite lower iso films is Efke R 100, it’s fabricated by the Fotokemika factory in Croatia. It’s an older type of emulsion, that was initially produced by the ADOX company. The film contains a lot of silver, which makes for a great lattitude and very broad range of greytones, as you can see in the photo above.

When developing the film, you have to keep in mind, that the film is very curly, because of it’s thin layer. Also because of that layer, the film is very prone to scratching when wet. Next to that I have noticed that the gelatin layer is not always completely dissolved during development. When that’s the case, you’ll find a transparent sticky residue, that’s left after you developed and washed the film. To remove that residue, rinse the film extensively under hot water and use a soft tissue to wipe it of under the water.

There is a lot of detail in every correctly lit photo and because it’s slower speed, it’s also has a very small grain, especially when enlarging. The grain stays very thin and barely noticable. I have enlarged one of these photos up to a 50 x 43 cm print, without any problem.

It is very suitable for pulling the film at least one stop. I have to do some more experiments but this photo was exposed about 1,5 stops below and developed at the normal time in T-max developer. Although everything turns a bit dark, the details stay very clear to see. However the emulsion does not handle overexposure well

Even the cat likes this film, it’s about the only film that she doesn’t run away from. Just joking.

To conclude, I do very much like the 120 variant of Efke R 100, because of it’s big latitude, small grain and incredible detail you can achieve. However I don’t really like developing the film, because it’s scratches very easily. This makes that I do use it a lot, but try to play it safe and take multiple shots of the same subject in case I scratch one of the negatives. I would suggest whenever you use this film, develop it yourself or have it done, by somebody who does developing by hand, because I suspect that when you have a lab develop the film with a machine you will get scratches all over it.

There is one thing I didn’t mention yet, but the film is also cheaper than the equivalents by Kodak or Ilford, because you can buy it directly from Fotoimpex the company that owns the Fotokemika plant.

I noticed in the search results of this site, that there is a huge interest in the different film types you can find. I’m only reviewing the film I have used till now and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions

Yesterday I witness something horrible in my mini studio. Apparently some of the rolls of Efke R 100, 120 film has teamed up, formed a mafia and is turning on the other films. Here is the full story. They are sneaking up on unsuspecting films, stripping them and stuffing them in my Mamiya RB67 backs.

by PitsLamp Photography with a Mamiya RB67 on Efke R 100 film.