Kodak ProImage 100 is a 35mm format colour film that does it all. I can’t put my finger on it except to say I’m constantly surprised how well it handles various exposures, the fine grain and the richness of the colours. Due to this, I find this to serve my various styles of photography such as street, portraiture and landscape. In other words, it’s very versatile and may very well be a benefit for you to test the waters.
What about the characteristics of the film?
I heard someone once say, ‘ If Portra and Ektar had a baby, it would be Proimage 100’. I did not understand this at first until I understood better the characteristics of both of these films. Let me break it down like this:
Portra is known for:
Versatility in various genres of photography
Vibrancy in colour
Handles skin tones very well, hence the name ‘ Portra… Portrait’.
Pleasant Warmth (yellow tint) found in images when overexposed,
Ektar 100 is known for:
Extremely fine grained and sharper in comparison to Portra
Colours such as blue, orange and red really stand out in images.
relatively known for being the choice for landscape images.
Shadows tend to lean towards the bluer side.
With all that being said, I would argue and say those characteristics are relatively the same as ProImage 100. My opinion is that the film takes the best of both worlds and this is the final product.
My Wishlist for this Film.
It is so challenging to find anything concrete to critique this film in my opinion, so I just wished that:
There were more options other than 100. Having the flexibility of 400 or 800 for example would instantly make this a favourite for many.
It’s subjective but this film is widely known to be a consumer film rather than a professional film. I never really understood what makes a film professional or consumer grade as I believe it all falls on the photographer to make the best out of the tools at hand. I wish there was a way to change the stigma around this film.
Concluding Thoughts:
A film that provides relatively sharp, warm and fresh colours is one every film photographer should have in the bag. The versatility is what makes this a winning film for me and I’d encourage us to give this a go if we haven’t yet!
