Efke KB 100

[bmattock]

If anyone asks you if Efke KB 100 is nice film, the answer is yes.
Bessa R, Canon 50mm f1.4 / 1/250 @ f8.
Kodak D-76 1:1, 10 minutes @ 68 degrees F. Scanned SD IV / Vuescan / GIMP / Linux.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[denishr]

Nice shots, Bill!

Better than most of my work done with it. Maybe I should change developer? I use Rodinal 1+50, and only rarely get really nice (grain-free) results. Only when I switch to R100 (medium format rolls of Efke 100) I can tame the grain. I concluded that Rodinal and Efke KB100 don't mix too well - at least the way I mix them 😉

PS: is that tobacco drying in the second shot?

Denis

 

[bmattock]

Denis,

Yes, I've gotten high-grain results with Efke KB 100 before as well, but not this time. I don't know if it was the D-76 or not, but I'm quite pleased with the results so far. Not grain-free, but the grain is...appropriate, if you know what I mean.

Yes, that is tobacco. Not drying, though. I found this barn out in the middle of nowhere here in North Carolina - farm had been abandoned for years, this was what was left of a tobacco-curing barn. No one ever came for it, I guess.

Here's a shot you might like - same film, same roll, same day (last Friday, in fact). I am including a 1:1 crop so you can see the actual grain.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[peter_n]

Very nice Bill! I've seen some wonderful shots with Efke film and I have a few rolls here to try myself. Its a bit slow though for these wintery days... 🙁

 

[dkapp]

Rodinal really makes popcorn grain with Efke 100 & 25. I've found D76 1:1 to be the best developer/dilution in my testing. I really like this film 🙂

Dave

 

[Uncle Bill]

Jand C Photo is coming up to Toronto next year for the APUG conference, I plan to pick as much EFKE 100 as I can.

Bill

 

[titrisol]

Rodinal 1+50 or 1+100 works reall weel with this film.
One of the tricks I've found is to agitate less often, thus controlling the contrast.

Maybe it doesn;t wiork well for scanning though, but it does for printing

 

[bmattock]

Rodinal 1+50 or 1+100 works reall weel with this film.
One of the tricks I've found is to agitate less often, thus controlling the contrast.

Maybe it doesn;t wiork well for scanning though, but it does for printing

Looking around the net, it appears that most of the complaints about Efke KB 100 seem to revolve around excessive grain when used with Rodinal. In fact, it seems many feel that D-76 is the appropriate choice for this film for best results.

I have no experience with Rodinal, so I cannot say. I offer this only as an interesting tidbit from my reading online.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Kin Lau]

Jand C Photo is coming up to Toronto next year for the APUG conference, I plan to pick as much EFKE 100 as I can.

Bill

Any idea when that will be?

 

[titrisol]

Fine grain is overrated IMHO
Since I do mostly wet prints it doesn;t bug me at all, and it normally just adds to the picture. I agree that for scanning it may be bad since most scanners tend to exaggertae the grain to the point that people call it popcorn or such [The only time I've had horrible grain was with Delta 3200 in Rodinal].

I use Rodinal and DDX as my standard developers, in Paterson-like tanks agitating once per minute. I prefer longer dev times (in the 10 min order) so that it's easier to control and so that a 30 secs error will not have a huge impact on the negatives.

My opinions of EFKE films on both developers:

Efke 25 in Rodinal 1+100 for 10 minutes gave me the best and consistent results, excellent tonality, almost invisible grain (up to 16x20) and tack sharp.
DDX could be good too, but time is extremely short even at 1+9. Contrast just skyrockets with a few secs of overdevelopment.

Efke 100 in Rodinal 1+50 has a nice look, there is some grain but is not intrusive for me, tonality is loooonnnggg, and shrapness is excellent.
Rodinal 1+50 + vitC gives much finer grain and keeps the sharpness and tonality, but is more sensitive to time/temperature/agitation
DDX 1+4 or 1+9 gives excellent results, and time is long enough to control it properly, grain is finer and shrapness is good enough.

D76/ID11 should fall closer to the DDX results

Looking around the net, it appears that most of the complaints about Efke KB 100 seem to revolve around excessive grain when used with Rodinal. In fact, it seems many feel that D-76 is the appropriate choice for this film for best results.

I have no experience with Rodinal, so I cannot say. I offer this only as an interesting tidbit from my reading online.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

Fine grain is overrated IMHO

I have no objection to graininess in photographs, but I'd prefer to be able to use it when I wish and not have it pop up otherwise. I agree that there seems to be a difference between prints made by enlargement and prints made by scanning the negative. It would appear that some developers are good at the one and not the other necessarily.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[denishr]

Just to clear up the possible confusion - I should have added that I'm not very pleased with grain in scanned Efke KB-100. In the meantime, I'm working on my scanning skills, so perhaps some old negs scanned differently/properly will be less grainy.

Traditional (wet-darkroom) prints from KB100 look great. There is some grain, but it's not bad, and the grain actually looks a bit different than scanned negs.

Possible solution for reducing grain in negs aimed for scanning is to cut down development time and/or agitation - at least some of my results suggest so.

Regards,

Denis

 

[titrisol]

Yes, for scanning negs that are in the thin side are best.
Unfortunately scanning has been taylor made for chromogenic films and the silver grain screw scanning up.

Xtol, DDX or D76 are more suitable developers for scanning, since they will make smaller grains.

However there is this romantic thing about using rodinal for me 😉

 

[raid]

J&C had EFKE100 on sale a while ago, and I picked up quite a few rolls The whites are very good with this film.

 

[doubs43]

The two images I've attached were taken on EFKE-25 and developed in Rodinal 25:1 at 20C for four minutes. The first image is roughly 90% of the full negative, scanned at 3200dpi and reduced to 100dpi. Image size is 8.5 inches high. It was manipulated some and sharpened. The second image is the same negative scanned at 3200dpi and the word "SOUTH" cropped from it. No manipulation of any kind was used. Grain seems to be well under control.

I've never tried EFKE-100 so that may be a different kettle of fish altogether.

Walker