Efke 25

[David Luttmann]

Has anyone had any experience with Efke 25? I'm interested in how you enjoy (or not) this old style film and how you view the tonality, grain, and if you've had any problemns with pinholing or curling.

Thanks,

[Gary L. Quay]

Curling is an issue. I had pinhole issues with Efke PL50, but they went away when I switched to a water bath stop. I haven't used much of the 25, but I like results I get with the 50 in a pyro developer.

--Gary

[David R Munson]

I've been interested for some time in experimenting with this film to see if I can't figure out an EI/developer combination to get it to look something in the neighborhood of Type 55.

[false_Aesthetic]

Hey,

Efke 25 is pretty nice stuff once you get the feel for it.... (it's really sensitive to the touch and certain developer combos just don't seem to work--e.g. I had bad experience with Xtol)

I rate it at 25. 2' pre-soak then PMK for 8' @ 68 degrees in a slosher tray. I have no idea how this compares to type 55 but it does the trick for me.


T

[Gene McCluney]

Do you need to handle and load Efke 25 using lint-free cotton gloves? Do you find that the film is still "soft" after it has been processed and dried? In other words, is it more sensitive to scratching as a finished negative than other films?

[Charles Hohenstein]

There was also an ortho version of Efke 25, which J&C carried. Is anyone aware of another U.S. distributor?

[vinny]

There was also an ortho version of Efke 25, which J&C carried. Is anyone aware of another U.S. distributor?

Try freestylephoto.biz. They're the only U.S. distributor and everyone else selling efke/fotokemika buys from them. That's what freestyle tells me.
I haven't had scratch issues once dried but i do handle the negs by the edges only. It's a beautiful film but i've had lots of problems along the way.

[Sylvester Graham]

I tried a few dozen sheets in PMK. Seemed to hold shadows very, very well, but the highlights block up like nothing else. Careful with your exposure, overexposing is a bad idea, I almost shoot it like a transparency.

[Ed K.]

Has anyone had any experience with Efke 25? I'm interested in how you enjoy (or not) this old style film and how you view the tonality, grain, and if you've had any problemns with pinholing or curling.

Thanks,

8x10 user comments:


The film base is thick, and it comes interleaved with paper in the nice thick bag and good box. I've never had it curl - it lays nice and flat after processing.

Enjoy - yes. Very nice for 8x10 contact prints, especially nice rendering of buildings and that sort of thing. Gains contrast and density in a hurry if overdeveloped, blocks up too if overexposed / overdeveloped. May or may not win the fine grain contest compared to T-grain films. Nice mid tones. Does not like underexposure though - once it's too thin, it's gone. People will hate me for saying this, but some of the Tgrain 100 films have finer grain.

No pinholes. Water stop. I have used very diluted stop bath with no issues when I had a short development cycle to deal with - and contrary to warnings - it was fine. Have not tried regular full strength stop bath, and won't do so.

Easily makes negs with more range in them than a typical scanner can hold, works really nice for AZO contact prints, alt-process prints. Biggest problem is having to use alt-process or AZO to pull all the range it can do into a print - since it's there on the neg, I want to see it in the print.

No good with red filter, but okay with a light yellow. Has a different sensitivity than many films. People look good with it though. Doesn't scratch easily for me once processed, but yes, it's easy to scratch when wet (even a slight brush of the edge while pulling out of the Jobo gives a deep gash). Not tacky when dry. Yes, easy to scratch loading holders in a changing bag - just be careful not to drag it on anything and remove sheets from the stack carefully - you'll be fine.

Can be very sharp, holds detail in a great way. Works with many developers, responds well to most tricks. Lovely stuff.

It's not for everything, but I found it appropriate many, many times in the last couple of years. If there is enough light - it's often a real winner. Well worth time to find favorite uses and techniques with it.

[David R Munson]

No good with red filter, but okay with a light yellow.

Can you elaborate or post an example? Thanks.

[Paul H]

I really like this film. I think it has really nice tonality, with nice rendering of green foliage and it makes for nice sky detail. I liken it to rich chocolate, or a heavy red wine :)

It is somewhat curly in 120 format, but in sheet film it is dead flat. While wet, the emulsion is easy to damage, but no undue problems when it is dry.

As for developers, Rodinal 1+100 for 17 or 18 minutes works well (reduced agitation), as does PC-TEA 1+50 or 1+100 (stand). I always use a water stop.

[Ole Tjugen]

Can you elaborate or post an example? Thanks.

EFKE 25 is "orthopanchromatic", which is a fancy way of saying that it's almost red blind. So if you put a red filter in front of a film that has almost zero sensitivity to red light, you get - nothing. That's why it's no good with red filters.

With a yellow filter the blue is removed, which gives all the exposure in the green and yellow. That can be very nice.

[David R Munson]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was not aware of the specifics of the spectral sensitivity of this film.