A few photographers recently revealed on social media that boxes of Kodak Ektachrome 100 35mm slide film were sent to them by Kodak for beta testing, sparking analog envy from fellow photographers also awaiting the return of this iconic film stock.
They say good things come to those who wait and it seems Kodak is bent on making us wait just a little more before we get the Kodak Ektachrome 100 slide film in our eager hands. The last time the film giant gave us any major piece of news was in June when they teased us with a bunch of new film scans. While it got us all hyped up anew, we couldn’t help but wonder just when exactly will this prized, iconic film stock be back on the market and in our cameras?
Since Kodak’s big reveal back in January 2017, the release date was bumped up from Q4 of 2017 to Q3 or Q4 of 2018. We were also told Kodak Ektachrome 100 will be available not only in the 35mm still format but also in Super 8 and 16mm spools and 400-foot rolls. But it seems that finally Kodak is making another significant step in progress. In the past couple of days, a few photographers took to social media to reveal that they’d been sent boxes of Kodak Ektachrome 100 for beta testing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbkEG0Fu0v/?taken-by=michaelturek
Kodak itself made the revelation on its Instagram account, reposting a couple of posts and tagging photographers Sandra Coan, Benj Haisch, and Michael Turek with a note thanking them for being part of their beta test team:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmB7vHIHXMx/?taken-by=kodakprofessional
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmEnpkgH-0Q/?taken-by=kodakprofessional
We were able to verify with Kodak that these are only beta rolls, which probably means there’s still quite some way to go before the Kodak Ektachrome 100 gets released. In the meantime, we remain on the edge of our seats. Photokina 2018 is happening next month; dare we look forward to the release of the Kodak Ektachrome 100 by then?
