Kodak Pro Image 100 Film Review

Kodak Pro Image 100 is a relative newcomer to the North American market though it’s been sold in Asia and South America since 1997.

Sold in bulk boxes of five, this film is one of the most affordable 35mm colour-negative options on the market. But why is it named “Pro” and how good is it?

In this review, I’ll cover all the technical aspects of this emulsion, share plenty of samples, and explain how to make the best of Kodak Pro Image 100 — a film many photographers recognize as a viable alternative to the premium Portra series.

In this review: An affordable colour film. Made for the warm climate. Scanning and post-processing. Pro Image colours. Removing the yellow cast in Photoshop. Pastel colours with Pro Image 100. Grain structure, resolution, sharpness. Dynamic range and contrast. Best scenes and light for Pro Image. How much does Pro Image 100 cost, and where to buy it. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

I’ve been shooting this film since 2017 when it was freely available in Thailand (an ex-pat abode of mine for five years until I moved to Canada).

The location isn’t as important as the weather, however, as this film’s results depend greatly on the quality of light.

In fact, the weather had such a profound effect on the appearance of my results with Pro Image 100 that I barely recognized the film after moving to a different climate. More on that below.

An affordable colour film.

Film prices have been going up, and colour films are a rarety at some stores — no thanks to the supply chain disruptions of the 2020s. Whereas Kodak’s Pro Image 100, whenever available, remains at about $10 per roll of 36exp. in 35mm.

This makes it the only emulsion that spells “Pro” at that price. Of course, that’s just a label, but the folks at Film Photography Podcast laid out a fascinating explanation for what’s happening with this film’s branding. According to them, Pro Image 100 was designed to imitate the look of Kodak’s premium films, such as Portra 160, without necessarily spending as many resources to make it.

Indeed, you may find this film to be more grainy and less accurate in reproducing colours than Portra and Ektachrome films while lacking the contrast of Ektar. In their technical datasheet, Kodak describes Pro Image as behaving similarly to Gold 200 in print — a consumer-type film.

But Pro Image isn’t just a “budget Portra.” That is, it’s not inferior to premium films as there are things it can do that they can’t.

Let’s start with its most unique property: warm climate storage stability.

Made for the warm climate.

While the datasheet still recommends storing Pro Image films at 21℃ or lower, it notes that there is no need for a fridge for long-term storage (contrary to the advice for most other colour emulsions). I am sure a few days in 30℃/90℉ heat won’t damage it either.

In addition to its tolerance of warm temperatures — a definite advantage for Pro Image’s tropical photography markets — this film craves warm sunlight. So much that it will force certain scenes to look “sunny,” even if the light captured is cool.

The screencaps from Old Cameras’ video review of the film (below👇) demonstrate Pro Image’s tendency to render cool scenes as warm.

On his day testing this film, Ade (Old Cameras) shot his video on a Sony Alpha a6000, which I presume rendered colours precisely (PopPhoto gave it an “excellent” colour accuracy rating in 2014). That footage is on the left.

The Pro Image’s rendering of the same building shows a drastic colour shift towards yellow, making the stone appear as if it’s lit by a golden glow. Meanwhile, the deep blue sky appears teal.

Of course, these colours may change depending on the scanner and the software (and can be corrected — see more below). Still, having scanned it a few times on PrimeFilm XAs and inverted the negatives manually in Photoshop (for complete control), I’ve got some evidence showing Kodak Pro Image’s consistent tendency to tint certain shades of the image yellow.

This can be a good thing whenever applied wisely (see below for examples of pastel colour schemes with Pro Image).

Scanning and post-processing.

Pro Image 100 is relatively easy to digitize. It lays flat and features sharp grain that’s easy to focus on. If you’re happy with how the scanner software inverts the negatives — great! But as I mentioned above, there’s a chance you’ll end up with a yellow cast (I’ll explain how to remove it below).

Labs develop Pro Image 100 without issues, thanks to its legacy as a go-to emulsion from the pre-digital era. Minilabs either have a set profile for this film or are able to interpret the time-tested masking colours. This may not be the case with some new offerings, such as the colour ORWO films, Lomography Color’92, and Aerocolor IV.

I’ve also had great results with this film shot in the half-frame format, though it certainly helped to have it scanned in higher resolution.

Pro Image colours.

It just so happens that the yellow tint of Pro Image 100 film is complimentary to many skin tones (and not just the caucasian ones).

Pro Image’s yellow tint is complex; it may be visible in some photos and not at all in others. Your scanner’s automatic colour correction may erase it completely, although it may also make it worse. I’ll explain this further and introduce a way to fix colour shifts in the “scanning and post-processing” section below. But for now, let’s consider a few other important colour properties of this film:

Whenever exposed normally, Pro Image creates fairly saturated photographs. Though not as punchy as that of Ektar.

Over-exposing Pro Image may decrease saturation significantly. In the photo below, I’m over by about 1-2 stops. The details are present, whereas the colours appear to leave the scene. Thankfully, that, too, can be fixed digitally.

​✪ Note: I use this method to scan all film for my reviews. It creates consistent results that make understanding and comparing the emulsion’s colour/contrast attributes possible.

I like how Pro Image renders deep, neutral shadows. Other Kodak’s saturated colour films, such as Ektar, may render asphalt roads navy blue, whereas this film doesn’t seem to have this problem.

Skin tones look fantastic on this film. For best results, I advise erring toward slight overexposures.

Pro Image’s tendency to render yellow colour casts seems to work in its favour. Neutral shadows and peasant skin tones consistently appeared in my scans without any colour adjustments.

However, the same yellow cast likely causes this film to render indoor lighting remarkably green. This is a common issue with most colour films — and the reason for “Tungsten” ratings on some emulsions, notably CineStill 800T.

The good news is that those casts aren’t too difficult to fix digitally. My attempts to correct the green cast with Kodak Gold yielded decent results.

Still, shooting tungsten-balanced colour films may be easier and more fun. There’s no need for colour correction and better RA-4 prints (as you won’t have the same control over colour in the darkroom as you do while using software).

Now, let’s put aside the green cast and return to Pro Image’s special yellow tints:

Inverted scans of foggy weather and cool light may appear yellow with this film. I found that to be the case with normal exposures and underexposures. Overexposing these scenes may improve the look, but you can also fix this in Photoshop.

Removing the yellow cast in Photoshop.

For better results and more control over your image, I recommend re-scanning your frame as a digital negative. That is, scan it as slide film — no colour correction, no inversion, no contrast, and no sharpening.

Having done that, you can invert your frame and remove the C-41 orange mask using this simple, consistent method. The result you should get is a positive made with an absolute minimum software interference/quality loss, ready to be edited.

For the colour correction step of the process (after inverting your digital negative), use a new Color Balance adjustment layer and try the following settings:

Shadows. Cyan-Red = 0, Magenta-Green = 0, Yellow-Blue = -30.

Midtones. All zeros.

Highlights. Cyan-Red = -27, Magenta-Green = -19, Yellow-Blue = +46.

The image above illustrates the effect of these settings, though it may change depending on the light, exposure, and your method of scanning.

Of course, the exact colours your scanner will produce will likely differ from what I’ve got, so your settings may need to be altered. They may also change from frame to frame, depending on exposure and other factors. The above numbers are meant as a starting template.

Pastel colours with Pro Image 100.

Pro Image 100 is a good candidate for slight overexposure, which is typically used with higher dynamic range films, such as Portra 800, to create pastel colour palettes.

The film’s tendency to render warm tones gives it a slight edge over other emulsions when it comes to overexposure and colour manipulation which increases blue values in shadows and highlights.

I used Pro Image extensively while researching methods for building pastel-themed environments and modifying scans to give them an airy, whimsical atmosphere that’s a hallmark of Wes Anderson films and certain minimalist photographic artists.

Learn how to get pastel colours on film with this in-depth guide.

Grain structure, resolution, sharpness.

Some films reviewed on this website use the RMS granularity index, which is a number that signifies how grainy the film is. Others, like Pro Image 100, use the Print Grain Index (PGI) that relies on surveys rather than direct measurements. The image below (a cropped screenshot of the datasheet) explains how PGI works:

The three PGI numbers for Pro Image suggest that this film has noticeable grain on even the smallest print sizes (4x6”). However, I had trouble noticing any grain in my scans on small devices. The only time it became significantly apparent was with half-frame scans blown-up on a large monitor.

According to the PGI measurements, the graininess of Pro Image 100 is almost identical to that of Kodak Gold. Still, it’s neither overbearing nor particularly visible when scanned on a high-resolution device. Moreover, if you look closely, the granules appear sharply defined, which can be advantageous if your lens or scan lacks microcontrast.

Dynamic range and contrast.

Pro Image 100 is a reasonably contrasty film — until it’s over-exposed. The dip in contrast levers in highlights helps the film retain detail if exposure mistakes were made or if you’re deliberately trying to add some “airiness” to your scenes.

Kodak’s datasheet draws the film’s dynamic range curves which show about 2.3 lux-seconds of useful exposure, which translates to about 7.5 stops of dynamic range.

Compared to other films (i.g., HP5 — 12 stops, Ektar — 9 stops, Provia 100 F — 5 stops), Pro Image 100 shows a low-to-average ability to capture shadows and highlights simultaneously. But in practice, I found that Pro Image 100 responds very well to over-exposure.

I describe my over-exposure results on Pro Image as airy, with a minimal but perceivable shift in colour accuracy. Given that adding a stop or a stop-and-a-half of light exposure may also help with the yellow cast, rating this film at ISO 50 or lower may yield favourable results.

Pulling back the exposure digitally is fairly easy in Photoshop using the Curves layer or any tool of your choice. No new casts or colour shifts should manifest if you do that.

Best scenes and light for Pro Image.

Golden hour and scenes that you expect to have a warm, bright light would look best with this film. You can certainly change its look in post — which is great — but if you’re looking to avoid extra work, consider your lighting.

How much does Pro Image 100 cost, and where to buy it.

As of this writing, most stores online mark Pro Image 100 at about $50-£60 for a pack of 5. Some stores may break up the packs into singles, which may or may not come with a markup.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Kodak Pro Image 100 film purchase using this link  so that Analog.Cafe may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!