Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX (120): A Film for the Brave

When expired and cross processing, it can be moody and difficult to control. I recommend this only for the brave.

Kodak Ektachrome 100 GX was the very first slide film I purchased. I knew little about it at the time. The batch under scrutiny today expired in 2005, quite some time ago!

Cross-processing yields some very random results. Under average light you get very little in the way of colour shifting, mostly just heavier contrast which can be a very nice effect. In a Diana F+ everything is nice and soft as you’d expect.

Throw it in a Holga though, with a very sunny day and things change dramatically. Colours pop off the print or out of the screen everything gets very vivid.

Ektachrome is famous for keeping colours close to normal, with enhanced contrast, but these shots look like Provia, another favourite of mine!

However, shooting this slide film and processing it normally changes everything. It seems that, like many other expired film, you need to treat it as a 200 film, the majority of my shots were underexposed. That aside, the first in brighter light has ana amazing three dimensional quality, wonderful textures all enhanced by Holgas ‘bullet focus’.

In summary, ageing doesn’t seem to have impaired it for cross processing, but beware if you want to process it normally. It can be difficult to manage, especially in plastic toy cameras. I recommend it if you like the rules and don’t mind a few duds along the way, but if you are new to Lomography and expecting magic, you might want to look at something like a Velvia, Provia or any of the very good Lomography slide films.

To wrap up, here, a particulary difficult interior flash shot on a Holga came up, frankly, rubbish!

written by adam_g2000 on 2012-04-06 #gear #film #slide #expired #120 #review #kodak #xpro #x-pro #holga #cross-process #diana