It was during the pre-production process for my video about Efke 100 that I finally decided to review Efke 50. I was looking back at my past photos, not only the ones I shot on Efke 100, but also 50 and 25. And I quickly found that by numbers alone, 50 and 100 were my favourite two flavours, with a lot of my favourite shots being taken on Ekfe 50. Until working on this review, the last roll I had shot was almost ten years ago (2016 at the Virginia Intermont College during the MAMU VIII event on my second day). I ended up developing most of the rolls I shot during this early period, between 2010 and 2016, at home. Among my early rolls, the ones I shot at Hamilton’s Firestone plant produced some of my favourite UrbEx shots with this film stock. Efke 50 is the middle child of the Efke films, which are in turn based on the original three Adox (KB17 in the case of Efke 50) films produced by the original Adox company in the mid-twentieth century. These German wonder films were known for their latitude, sharpness, and grain structure. And while it can be difficult these days to find the film in good condition, I was able to score a few rolls to complete this review. For ease of writing, I’ll be referring to the film as Efke 50; however, you’ll find it named differently based on the format: KB (Kassette) for 135 (35mm), R (Rollfilm) for roll films (120 and 127), and PL (Planfilm) for sheet films.
Film Specs
Manufacturer: Fotokemika
Name: Efke 50
Type: Panchromatic B&W
Film Base: Acetate
Film Speed: ASA-50
Formats Available: 35mm, 120, 127, Sheets
Discontinued: 2012
Roll 01 – Adox D-76
To help showcase how sharp this film can be, I opted for a 1+1 dilution for the D-76 roll. I had also intended to add a yellow filter to the lens, but I had forgotten it at home. The negatives came out of the tank beautifully. Lots of good details and perfect density, and best of all, no damage to the emulsion. I got this roll into the scanner a couple of days later and was blown away by the images that I got from the film. There is an amazing level of detail in each image; the grain is smooth and well-structured, with excellent edge sharpness. Adding that bit of dilution to the developer helped bring that out. The contrast is good, not great, but good. It does the job well in enhancing overall sharpness. I like the latitude between the highlights and the shadows, and I don’t lose detail in either of them. The only thing I would have done differently is add that colour filter; a pale yellow would have helped add that punch that I felt was missing from these images.
Roll 02 – Kodak HC-110
For the second roll, I went weird. Instead of going with a standard B dilution, I went with my personal favourite, the unofficial Dilution H (1+63), but I also attached a Yellow-12 filter on the lens to help give that contrast a boost. After pulling the negatives out of the tank, my heart fell; they appeared a little thin. However, here’s where I was wrong: after getting things scanned in, I started to see some stunning images. Add to that some post-processing to bring out the photos and results in line with what I expect from Efke 50. The pale yellow filter does a great job of giving up a bump of contrast. These show off exactly what you can expect from Efke 50: fine grain, sharp images, and a ton of latitude, as shown by how much I could lift out the shadow detail. While this would not be my first choice for a developer combination, it does work.
Roll 03 – Rodinal
I was tempted to swap out Rodinal for FX-39 II, but then decided to embrace the classic nature and go back to Rodinal. I settled on a 1+50 dilution and used a yellow filter on the lens. The day I went out was not the best lighting wise and I ended up shooting the whole roll lugging the camera on a tripod to ensure I could shoot the roll during the time I was out. And in the end I was glad that I did stick with Rodinal (Blazinal). When I pulled the negatives out from the tank I was a little concerned, at first glance the negatives were denser than I would like. But when held up to the light the results were seen clearly. And that was further seen when I got the negatives into the scanner. The results were sharp, the grain was visible but nicely structured. The addition of the yellow filter helped especially since I was working with low-contrast light. I only think that a stronger yellow filter would have helped this combination.
Roll 04 – ZoneImaging 510-Pyro
After seeing the results I got from a roll of Efke 25 (hidden in a roll of Rollei Pan 25) and how well it responded to 510-Pyro I knew I had to take a chance with this fourth roll. I didn’t add a filter but because of the subject I did opt again to use the camera mounted on the tripod and went with macro photography using the Micro-Nikkor 60mm. And I was impressed, the images are deep, rich, and exactly what I was expecting. Contrast and tonal range are on point, there’s deep blacks, bright whites, and lots of shades between them. Probably the best results I’ve gotten from unfiltered Efke. The images are beautifully sharp without having too much visible grain. These are by far my favourite of the bunch and I think outside of the shaded conditions a yellow filter would be a needed add-on.
Final Thoughts
Like other Efke films, Efke 50 is a single coat emulsion, giving it a far higher silver content than modern emulsions. It also made it harder to handle during processing, because of that single coat emulsion and older technique you need to stick with a water stop bath and be extra careful when the film is still wet as you can easily damage the emulsion. I’m glad I was able to get my hands on Efke 50 again, it was my favourite flavour of the film stock and was one that saw the most use while it was still in production. It also was a favourite for urban exploration and I got some of my favourite shots at the old Hamilton Firestone plant on this film stock. And what makes this even sweeter is that I’ve tracked down some Efke 25 (R25 at that) so that next year I can wrap up the trilogy with a review of the slowest Efke film stock!
Further Reading
Don’t just take my word on Efke 50, you can check out the reviews by other awesome camera reviewers!
Film Shooters Collective – Efke KB50 Review (Alexis Silvera)