Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

By Phil Harrison

A little while ago I tried some 35mm Cinestill 800 colour negative, which is Kodak Vision 3 500 Tungsten movie film with the Remjet anti-halation backing removed. Exposed at EI800 with an 85B filter for exteriors and processed in C41. The results were very promising, fine grain, nice colours but the halation on highlights was a problem for me. Perhaps the Kodak Vision 3 250D 35mm movie film would be equally as good? I bought some 35mm cassettes that had been loaded from a bulk roll for a trial. The cost of the cassettes was nearly half that of Kodak Portra films, my usual colour neg choice, a handy saving. The films were processed at two different UK labs, one roll was put through ECN2, the others C41, then high res scanned. All the rolls were mostly exposed at box speed for shadow detail at EI250, but I also over and underexposed some negs.  The scans from both labs had a mild red cast, which could only be removed by slightly adjusting the red curve using Photoshop. Once adjusted it was plain sailing.

Please note that movie films must go to a lab that can handle Remjet backed films, most labs will refuse, or you can easily process it yourself. Remjet is a very heavy duty anti-halation backing applied to the movie film to help with the friction caused by the film moving at high speed through a movie camera. The backing must be removed in a pre-soak bath of baking soda or ECN2 pre-soak chemical. After soaking the backing sloughs off the film into a sticky mess. Once the Remjet is off the film, normal machine processing can proceed. The C41 lab was Exposure Film Lab, the ECN2 lab was Silverpan Film Lab.

Firstly the ECN2 images.

It became apparent that the speed of EI250 was too high for the film, it does not like underexposure in ECN2. The cathedral interior and person in the train images are very grainy, yet the robot and boat, exposed at EI125 exhibit fine grain. Silbersalz35 in Germany, who are offering a new ECN2 processing service, state that the Vision 3 films should be shot at half the advertised speed. I would agree with them. The film tolerates overexposure well, it has a lower contrast and the colour palette is more muted compared to C41 processing.

Next the C41 photos.

In C41 chemistry EI250 is correct. The films also tolerates under and overexposure much better than ECN2. The underexposed images shot look no different from those at EI250. The two photos of the children were exposed at EI400, the canal and van at EI250. The C41 processed film has more contrast but with no detrimental effect and colours are natural. The grain is very fine and the film has high definition.

My choice of process is therefore C41. It allows the full EI250 speed and good tolerance for incorrect exposures, it also gave colours that I find more pleasing. That said, if ECN2 processed film is exposed carefully at EI125, the results can be very good if you like softer colours.

All images were shot on an M6 with 35mm and 50mm lenses.

Thanks, Phil

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About The Author

By Phil Harrison
Phil spent 25 years as a professional photographer after leaving Photographic College in the mid 1970’s. In his early years, he worked as a medical photographer, based in a hospital in the north of the UK and later came upon a change of direction to industrial photography and film/TV production. In the late 90’s Phil gave up professional photography after taking redundancy then found work as a Train Guard, now retired. He doesn't specialise with his photography, enjoying photographing anything that appeals.
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Comments

Leo Tam on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Ecn2 is supposed to be better for long term color stability compared to cross processing in c41
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Terry B on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Phil, C41 clearly the winner for me. The EC2N images do lack colour and for me don't look as natural as the C41 images. Love the pic of the Morris Minor van!

I've always wondered about this film. In the movie industry, isn't it used to make the positives for the cinema releases? Could its characteristics be really intended for the negative stock for the final positive and not strictly as a negative film for making paper prints? Just a thought.
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Hi Terry, this film is the negative stock used in the movie cameras on location. It has an orange base similar to the film we use in our still cameras. The sprocket holes are a slightly different shape and there are no exposure numbers on the edges of the film strip.

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Alvaro replied:

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

This is camera film, to serve as the original negatives the movie is shot on. Other films in the Vision lineup are used for such things as copying. When developed in ECN-2 the look of 250D etc is very flat, as it’s intended to be scanned and then undergo colour timing and the like, just like (some) digital video cameras have Log. SO yeah, not intended for prints!

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Andrew walmsley on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Thanks for writing this,found it very useful.
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Hi Andrew, thank you.

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Marc on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Do check out www.silbersalz35.com
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Lori Brooks on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Phil., That's some good information to know. I got two 100' rolls of 500T and 250D recently and have been trying to figure out the best speed to shoot it. I recently mixed up my own ECN-2 chemistry and Remjet remover so I can process my own. It very much sounds like you need to shoot with already knowing what chemistry you are going to use to develop and adjust accordingly, which I had not been doing.
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 03/07/2019

Hi Lori, thank you for your comments.

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Alvaro on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 04/07/2019

Weird results! One would expect ECN-2 to provide the better performance (specially since Kodak touts the exposure latitude of these films under ECN-2, the process it was designed for), though with flatter contrast and colours. I’ll conduct my own testing since I’m curious enough
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Chris Johnson on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 03/10/2020

Hi Phil,

Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been experimenting with Vision 3 250D in C41 myself, home developed. In my testing there is a strong blue cast on the images that is incredibly hard to deal with in post. Particularly Caucasian skin tones are reproduced very poorly. I notice that the C41 images in your write up don’t show the effects I’ve seen, I assume the lab fixed this for you in scan. Have you tried scanning the negatives yourself?
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 03/10/2020

Hi Chris, I used labs for the scans, I don't have a scanner. The scans from both labs (one with a Fuji the other a Hasslebled scanner) had a similar red cast whether ECN2 or C41 processed, which I easily removed with an adjustment to the red curve in post. Once removed the colours and skin tones were nice. Perhaps your blue cast is a processing problem. All the best Phil

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Chris Johnson replied:

Comment posted: 03/10/2020

Thanks Phil. I’ll have another go at scanning and let you know.

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kazuki0010 on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 31/01/2021

Hi Phill, interesting experiments! I was wondering why most of my Kodak 250D came out in greeny tone ? was it because of the lab scan or the Remjet thing ? when you mentioned the Remjet remover, did you remove the remjet layer by yourslef before sending them to labs ? kinda curious!
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 31/01/2021

The labs removed the remjet layer before processing. The lab scans had a red cast which I removed in Photoshop. Perhaps some software adjustments may get rid of the your green scans.

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Sarang on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 25/08/2021

Hi!
Can you tell why exactly C-41 has so much more high definition and sharpness than ecn-2?
Thanks!
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 25/08/2021

ECN-2 processed negatives have a lower gamma, lower contrast and color curves that compliment motion picture print film and digital editing methods. Negatives processed in C-41 chemistry are more compatible with optical RA-4 color printing and lab digital scanning with higher contrast. I didn't find any difference in definition or sharpness between the two processes. If you are using ECN2, I would suggest an EI of 125. Hope this helps.

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Juan on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 12/04/2022

Hi Phil, what times did you use? did you use the same times used for c41 chemistry / film with ECN2 film? or how did it vary?

Thanks!
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Phil Harrison replied:

Comment posted: 12/04/2022

Hi Juan, I sent my films to a lab that used both ECN2 and C41, as far as I am aware the labs used the standard time for ECN2 films and the films that had the backing removed before C41 processing used the normal time for normal C41 films. Good luck!

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Greg Miller on Kodak Vision 3 250D – C41 or ECN2 – A quick comparison – by Phil Harrison

Comment posted: 13/04/2024

I work at a lab that about 8 years ago when people were again starting to load ECN-2 movie film into photographic cassettes, set up to process ECN-2 properly in ECN-2 chemicals. What we found is that ECN-2 film in ECN-2 chemicals, looked so close to C-41 film in C-41 chemicals that we thought "What's the point of this". We decided not to offer the service because at that point our hearts weren't into it. The only film that this makes any sense with is Vision 500T because there is no tungsten balanced high iso photographic film available.

Ultimately, shooting ECN-2 film just makes a headache for everyone and it's mostly akin to a placebo effect when developed properly
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