I had to get a little dramatic with an aggressively yellow blossom tree to say this out loud: I think I hate Kodak Ektar 100… specifically in 35mm. Not in a “burn it all down” way—more like a quiet, disappointing way, like when you really wanted to love something and it just doesn’t love you back. And to be fair, I checked myself before filming this: Ektar hasn’t always been a failure for me. I’ve shot rolls I genuinely love (especially for weddings), and I’ve had dare I say extraordinary results with Ektar in 120. In this video, I share the best frames from two fresh rolls of Ektar 100 shot on the same day, developed by the same lab, on my mom’s Nikon FM with a 50mm f/1.8—wide open, at box speed—so we can rule out the usual suspects. On the Oregon coast, in soft overcast light and spring color, Ektar’s “vivid” starts to feel… loud. It turns gentle moments into something assertive, and the blossoms went full highlighter ink with weird color shifts that genuinely made me mad when the scans came back. And then (because film loves to humble you), Ektar gave me one absolute one-shot-wonder frame that I’m obsessed with. My verdict: if you want crisp scans, fine grain, and bold color, Ektar can be impressive—but for my coastal, memory-soft vibe in 35mm, it’s a hard pass… with one inconvenient exception.