Kodak Ektapan 400 .
Ektapan 400 uses the same T-GRAIN technology as Ektapan 100 — flat crystals, fine grain, high sharpness — but at a speed where you can actually shoot handheld.
Kodak claims the grain is the finest you'll find at 400 speed. If you're shooting portraits, architecture or documentary work and you want detail in the print without slowing down to ISO 100, this is a good place to start. The contrast is medium and the tones are smooth. It's a clean film.
It's forgiving too. A stop under and the image holds together with no visible grain penalty. It pushes well if the light drops — you can keep shooting into the evening without changing rolls. The trade-off is that it rewards careful development. HP5 and Tri-X are more relaxed about how you process them.
This is the same emulsion as T-Max 400, sold under the Ektapan name by Eastman Kodak. The T-GRAIN technology was introduced in 1986 and the 400 was reformulated in 2007, bringing the sharpness up to match the 100. It's a refined film with a long history.
If you want a 400-speed black and white film where the image is clean and the grain doesn't compete with the subject, Ektapan 400 should be near the top of your list.
- + Landscape and architecture — good contrast, very fine grain
- + People — very fine grain and nice detail
- + When you need more light and don't want lots of grain
- − The very finest grain — choose Ektapan 100
- − Maximum contrast — choose Tri-X 400
- − A slightly softer look with less contrast — choose Delta 400
more from their film.
Ektapan 400 is a fine grain B&W film — the same TMY-2 emulsion as T-Max 400, the finest-grained 400-speed black and white stock available. RMS granularity of 10 puts it at the lower end of the fine band, and the TMY-2 reformulation (2007) brought resolving power to 200 lines/mm. In 35mm, grain is visible under significant enlargement but tight and well-structured thanks to the T-GRAIN emulsion. In 120, grain becomes essentially invisible at normal print sizes.
Latitude is wide: one stop of underexposure at EI 800 requires no development adjustment and produces no change in grain, with only a minor loss of shadow detail. For high-contrast scenes, one to two stops of additional exposure at normal development keeps highlights open and lifts shadow detail.
Push processing is well documented by Kodak: development times are published for EI 1600 (two-stop push) and EI 3200 (three-stop push) across multiple developers. A one-stop push to EI 800 requires no change in development time at all. Results at two stops are described as excellent; three stops as acceptable depending on scene contrast. Each stop of push increases contrast and grain, with progressive shadow-detail loss. Pulling is not formally supported — the contrast adjustment factors in the datasheet allow a one-stop development reduction with an extra stop of camera exposure, which functions as a practical one-stop pull.
Contrast at box speed is medium, sitting in the CI 0.55–0.65 range at standard development — neutral and printable across a wide range of papers and scanning workflows. Blues are recorded as slightly darker tones than with conventional panchromatic films, a T-GRAIN family characteristic that produces a more naturalistic rendition of skies.
Store unexposed rolls below 24°C in the original sealed packaging. If refrigerated, allow two to three hours to reach room temperature before opening. Load and unload in subdued light. Process exposed film promptly.