Ektachrome E100

Research-backed original, derived from the Kodak E-4000 datasheet (archived). Reproduces the 2018-revival Ektachrome E100 transparency look: clean neutral colour, bright low-D-min whites, extremely fine grain, gentle (for a slide film) contrast. Cooler and more restrained than any Fujichrome. Derivation in the notes.

Distinct from thommys-ektachrome (reference), which emulates the printed NatGeo page. This recipe targets the transparency itself, per datasheet.

Why these values (short)

• Provia base: Fuji's balanced-slide standard is the structural analogue of Kodak's balanced slide: vivid-but-faithful, moderate contrast. (Classic Chrome is too desaturated/hard. Astia too skin-biased.)
• Grain Weak/Small: datasheet: diffuse RMS 8, "extremely fine."
• WB Daylight −1R/+1B: E100 is daylight-balanced with a neutral-to-cool rendering (its R/G/B characteristic curves run tightly bundled, no warm crossover). The cool nudge counteracts Fuji's native warmth.
• H−1 / S−0.5: datasheet: "low contrast tone scale, extended tonal range". Curve shows a gentle shoulder into a high D-max, so soften highlights, keep most shadow density (slides still go deep).
• Color +1, CCE Weak: "moderately enhanced color saturation with a neutral balance."
• CCFXB Weak: E100's clean but not exaggerated blue skies (Strong would push toward Fuji-slide blues).
• Sharpness +1: MTF holds ~100% response past 20 cycles/mm. A crisp transparency.
• Clarity 0: per quality standard. Nothing in the sheet argues for grit or glow.

Handling

• Daylight or flash only by design (5500K film), under tungsten it goes deep amber unless you correct WB, exactly like the film.
• Slide-film discipline: expose for highlights. EC stays near 0.
• Push look: the sheet notes push +1 (EI 200) slightly raises contrast and sharpens highlights. Emulate with H0/S0 and EC −1/3.

Validation tier: Datasheet-validated (E-4000: RMS, curves, tone-scale, balance, archived PDF). Characteristic pass partial. Scan-validation pending.

Pro tip (2026-07-20, official): Astia's documented "smooth highlight-to-shadow transition while saturation is maintained" is a good structural match for E100's low-contrast tone scale with intact colour. Soft curve, no colour penalty. Watch the shadow end though: Astia's shadows are soft by design, so slide-film density has to be built with DR/Shadow rather than expected from the base.

Scan validation, first pass (2026-07-20): 2 confirmed real E100 frames analysed (Wikimedia Commons, analysis-only. Both explicitly described as "shot on Kodak Ektachrome E100"): a blue-hour long exposure over the Maasvlakte, and a castle tower reflection in mixed light (warm artificial light against deep dusk sky). What the scans confirm:

• Saturation follows the subject. It is never manufactured. The Maasvlakte's blues stay clean and believable where Velvia would have gone electric, yet the castle's genuinely deep blue sky renders deep and rich. E100 reports colour rather than amplifying it. This is the strongest argument for keeping Color modest on this recipe.
• Unusually good retention at both ends for a reversal film. The castle frame holds lit sandstone and deep shadow stone in the same exposure. The Maasvlakte holds sky gradation against bright port lights. This validates Highlight −1 / Shadow −0.5. Softening both ends on a slide emulation looks wrong until you know E100 is the low-contrast exception in the reversal family (its datasheet specifies a low-contrast tone scale).
• Shadows hold colour rather than going to black. Dark stone stays brown/red, not neutral crush.
• Grain is fine but present, a slight texture visible in smooth sky, consistent with the datasheet's RMS 8.
• Neutrals read neutral to very slightly cool. No warm cast. Limits of this pass: only 2 frames, both by the same photographer, both European, and both dusk/blue-hour, there is still no daylight, skin-tone, or foliage evidence. Well short of the Validation Methodology. Proof of Faithfulness ≥5-scan, multi-photographer standard. Status: Scan (partial). Daylight and portrait frames are the most valuable additions.

Pro tip: E100 is the slide film that doesn't clip (2026-07-20). Most reversal emulations want hard highlight clipping and near-zero tone adjustment (see Fortia SP, which uses DR100 and Highlight/Shadow at 0 for exactly that reason). E100 is the deliberate opposite, a low-contrast slide film with real latitude at both ends. Don't "correct" this recipe toward the usual slide-film contrast. The softness is the point, and it's what makes E100 the documentary/archival choice rather than the landscape-punch choice.

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 the datasheet archive) 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 (Why Fujifilm Film Simulations Cannot Be Replicated in Post-Production color-science: Classic Chrome cousin territory, but E100 keeps more saturation and neutrality than Kodachrome-era looks).

Trait → setting derivation

What would make it unfaithful

• Strong grain (it's a RMS-8 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

Derived 2026-07-15 from the archived datasheet. See also the notes.