Ektachrome E100
How this look was derived, and why every control does what it does. The settings themselves are in the pack.
The film
Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100 (2018 revival of the E100G lineage; original Ektachrome discontinued 2013). Kodak's only current colour transparency stock. Process E-6, daylight balanced. The datasheet (pub. E-4000, archived in _reference-sources/datasheets/) specifies:
- Diffuse RMS granularity 8: "extremely fine"
- Low contrast tone scale with "extended tonal range"
- Neutral color balance with "moderately enhanced color saturation"
- Low D-min → "whiter, brighter whites"
- "Pleasing, natural skin tone"
- Characteristic curves (Status A): R/G/B tightly bundled across the range. Minimal channel crossover, i.e. genuinely neutral rendering; D-max ≈ 3.2–3.8; gentle shoulder
- MTF: ~100% response holds past 20 cycles/mm. High sharpness
- Push +1 (EI 200): slight contrast increase, sharper highlights
Cultural register: the National Geographic slide of the 1990s–2000s. Clean, honest, slightly cool documentary colour (color-science: Classic Chrome cousin territory, but E100 keeps more saturation and neutrality than Kodachrome-era looks).
Trait → setting derivation
| Datasheet trait | Recipe setting | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced slide film, vivid-but-faithful | Provia base | Fuji's own balanced-slide profile; the correct structural starting point (film-simulations) |
| RMS 8, extremely fine | Grain —, — | Matches the RMS ladder (Acros RMS 7 = Weak/Small; K64 RMS 10 = Weak/Small) |
| Neutral, tightly-bundled RGB curves | WB Daylight —/— | Neutral-to-cool signature; cancels Fuji's native warm bias |
| Low-contrast tone scale, gentle shoulder | Highlight — | Softens Provia's highlight contrast toward E100's gentler rolloff |
| High D-max (slides stay dense in shadow) | Shadow — (not —) | Slightly gentler shadows without losing slide depth |
| "Moderately enhanced" saturation, neutral | Color —, CCE — | Above neutral, below Fuji-slide punch |
| Clean-but-real skies | CCFXB Weak | Deep blues without the Fuji magenta-lean |
| High MTF sharpness | Sharpness — | Crisp transparency acuity |
| No grit/glow traits in sheet | — | Quality standard holds |
| Daylight/flash design, low D-min whites | EC 0…+1/3 | Slide exposure discipline; protect highlights |
What would make it unfaithful
- Strong grain (it's an RMS—film, grain is invisible at normal viewing)
- Warm WB shifts (E100's identity is its neutrality against warm Fuji slides)
- High contrast tone curve (the sheet explicitly says low-contrast tone scale, the common mistake, since most slide emulations assume punch)
Validation status
- Datasheet tier: ✅ (E-4000 archived PDF; curves + RMS + MTF read directly, 2026-07-15)
- Characteristic tier: partial: community consensus (neutral, fine-grained, clean whites, cooler than Fujichrome) is well established but ≥3 sources not yet formally logged
- Scan tier: pending: needs ≥5 real E100 scans across light/subjects per validation methodology; drop scans in
references/
Derived 2026-07-15 from the archived datasheet. See also VALIDATION-AUDIT.md.
Get Ektachrome E100
Every value, the movie-mode translation, and the datasheet evidence behind the grade.