bmattock
Veteran
First of all, let me say that I bought a bunch of short-dated Efke 35mm film from JandC for $1.99 per roll, so your results with fresh film may vary...
Ann-Marie and I went to the "Acorn Festival" in Four Oaks, NC yesterday. Not a huge deal, just kind of a small-town annual event, a chance to put the kids on some rides and have a corn-dog or a funnel-cake, listen to some bands play, you know, the traditional small-town America kind of thing.
I took a classic Canon FX SLR with all Canon FL-mount lenses (35, 50, 135, 200). All are really nice glass, capable of great sharpness, and the camera is in working condition, so it was really down to me and the film and my processing ability to get some good shots. FWIW, I used the 'correct' Canon lens hoods on all the shots I took. I'm nothing if not a completist.
Efke film is made in Croatia, and the KB 100 is pretty nice. You can also get ISO 25 and 50, I believe. The cardboard box each roll comes in has processing instructions printed inside, but they're not in English, understandably. You can get processing times at the Massive Dev Chart.
I shot the film at EI 100, but based on my negs, I may have underexposed, my negs were pretty thin except for those bracketed shots where I intentionally over-exposed a stop or two. Could have been my processing too, so bear with me.
I shot three rolls of 36-exposure. The first two rolls I souped in Kodak D76 1+1 at 9 minutes and 72 degrees F. A bit much - I could not get the water cold enough. One chart I found for this combo said 8 minutes, the other said 10, so I put it in for 9. But again, it was 4 degrees warmer than I originally intended and I didn't compensate.
The last roll, I threw in with a roll of HP5+ that I had laying around. Not the greatest match-up, since the MDC said 14 minutes for the HP5+. I split the difference and processed for 10 minutes, and this time I had refrigerated some water so I had 68 degrees F.
I should also mention that I gave each roll a pre-soak in plain tap water for two minutes, to remove the anti-halation backing - which may or may not have been necessary. I read conflicting opinions on the 'net.
I scanned the negs after drying and cutting with Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV, using Linux and Vuescan 8.1.43. I processed them in The Gimp 2.2.
Typically, I scan my B&W negs using Vuescan as if they were 'generic color' negs. I desaturate them in The Gimp and then go on from there. However, these negs definately were coming out looking as underexposed as I thought they were when I looked at them - very dark, deep shadows, loss of detail in the blacks bigtime, lots of grain. So, I changed my scan settings to "B&W neg" and used the default film choice that comes up, which is "Kodak T-Max 100." That seemed to give me some negatives with a nice looking histogram and some real tooth, grain under control.
Now, the film itself. I like it! I has a tendency to lateral curl - that is, it curls lengthwise and does not lay really flat. But a lengthwise curl is much easier to deal with than the type of curl that appears to want to curl back up into the roll shape it had when it was in the cannister. The biggest problem with this type of curl is getting the neg flat enough to make sure the scanner can get good focus on the entire frame. I suspect I could flatten these negs (now that they're sleeved) in a big book or something for a week or so and get better scans. However, I didn't.
I am pleased with the retention of sharpness with this film. Edge detail is good, grain is acceptable, I'm not sure what else I can say about it. Here is a shot of the Acorn Queen, taken with a 135mm lens at f3.5.
I will say this - at the 'regular' price that JandC charges for fresh Efke KB 100, I would not switch from Kodak Tri-X - the prices are virtually the same. But for this short-dated batch at about 2/3 the cost, it is quite nice.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
PS - I got too much sun and I'm feeling a bit punky today. Therefore, I am scanning. If I come across another decent shot that shows this film's capabilities, I'll post it in this thread.
Ann-Marie and I went to the "Acorn Festival" in Four Oaks, NC yesterday. Not a huge deal, just kind of a small-town annual event, a chance to put the kids on some rides and have a corn-dog or a funnel-cake, listen to some bands play, you know, the traditional small-town America kind of thing.
I took a classic Canon FX SLR with all Canon FL-mount lenses (35, 50, 135, 200). All are really nice glass, capable of great sharpness, and the camera is in working condition, so it was really down to me and the film and my processing ability to get some good shots. FWIW, I used the 'correct' Canon lens hoods on all the shots I took. I'm nothing if not a completist.
Efke film is made in Croatia, and the KB 100 is pretty nice. You can also get ISO 25 and 50, I believe. The cardboard box each roll comes in has processing instructions printed inside, but they're not in English, understandably. You can get processing times at the Massive Dev Chart.
I shot the film at EI 100, but based on my negs, I may have underexposed, my negs were pretty thin except for those bracketed shots where I intentionally over-exposed a stop or two. Could have been my processing too, so bear with me.
I shot three rolls of 36-exposure. The first two rolls I souped in Kodak D76 1+1 at 9 minutes and 72 degrees F. A bit much - I could not get the water cold enough. One chart I found for this combo said 8 minutes, the other said 10, so I put it in for 9. But again, it was 4 degrees warmer than I originally intended and I didn't compensate.
The last roll, I threw in with a roll of HP5+ that I had laying around. Not the greatest match-up, since the MDC said 14 minutes for the HP5+. I split the difference and processed for 10 minutes, and this time I had refrigerated some water so I had 68 degrees F.
I should also mention that I gave each roll a pre-soak in plain tap water for two minutes, to remove the anti-halation backing - which may or may not have been necessary. I read conflicting opinions on the 'net.
I scanned the negs after drying and cutting with Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV, using Linux and Vuescan 8.1.43. I processed them in The Gimp 2.2.
Typically, I scan my B&W negs using Vuescan as if they were 'generic color' negs. I desaturate them in The Gimp and then go on from there. However, these negs definately were coming out looking as underexposed as I thought they were when I looked at them - very dark, deep shadows, loss of detail in the blacks bigtime, lots of grain. So, I changed my scan settings to "B&W neg" and used the default film choice that comes up, which is "Kodak T-Max 100." That seemed to give me some negatives with a nice looking histogram and some real tooth, grain under control.
Now, the film itself. I like it! I has a tendency to lateral curl - that is, it curls lengthwise and does not lay really flat. But a lengthwise curl is much easier to deal with than the type of curl that appears to want to curl back up into the roll shape it had when it was in the cannister. The biggest problem with this type of curl is getting the neg flat enough to make sure the scanner can get good focus on the entire frame. I suspect I could flatten these negs (now that they're sleeved) in a big book or something for a week or so and get better scans. However, I didn't.
I am pleased with the retention of sharpness with this film. Edge detail is good, grain is acceptable, I'm not sure what else I can say about it. Here is a shot of the Acorn Queen, taken with a 135mm lens at f3.5.
I will say this - at the 'regular' price that JandC charges for fresh Efke KB 100, I would not switch from Kodak Tri-X - the prices are virtually the same. But for this short-dated batch at about 2/3 the cost, it is quite nice.
Best Regards,
Bill Mattocks
PS - I got too much sun and I'm feeling a bit punky today. Therefore, I am scanning. If I come across another decent shot that shows this film's capabilities, I'll post it in this thread.
Last edited:
