Late in the spring, I shot a couple of rolls of Kodak Ektar: a 120 roll in my Yashica Mat-124G which didn’t come out that well and a 35mm roll in my Minolta X-700. I suspected that the former didn’t yield good results because it was a cloudy day. It was nice and sunny when I shot the roll in my X-700, and I decided I wanted to shoot more Ektar during the summer when there would be plenty of sunshine.
I actually ended up not using Ektar again until later in the summer and early in the fall. I shot one roll of 35mm in my Olympus XA and one roll of 120 in my Flexaret Automat VII.
I didn’t make a conscious decision to not use Ektar during the summer. I was just distracted by the successes I was having with Kodak Color Plus and Kodak Pro Image. It was the summer of Kodak.
Recently, I returned to Ektar which I loaded in my Minolta Hi-Matic 11. I was curious about this combination because the photos I take with the Hi-Matic are usually quite vivid and the Ektar can also be vivid when it’s sunny.
I first used it on a neighborhood walk.
The next walk was to the east side of town including a visit to the Delaware River.
I finished the roll during our annual Staycation one day when we went out to West Philadelphia for brunch. It was a bright, beautiful, autumn day, and I was able to get some pictures of fall color. I took all but one of them on our way back from brunch. The last photo I took outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On the days with good light, the combination of the Hi-Matic 11 and the Kodak Ektar produced the kind of vivid pictures I expected. The Ektar has a slight red tint that I don’t always appreciate. Given my aforementioned success with Color Plus and Pro Image, I’m inclined to rely on those for my go to color films. I don’t have any more 35mm Ektar left, but I do still have 3 rolls of 120 Ektar so I’ll get to try it a few more times.
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