In still photography, Kodak's Kodacolor brand has been associated with various color negative films (i.e., films that produce negatives for making color prints on paper) since 1942. Kodak claims that Kodacolor was "the world's first true color negative film". [1] More accurately, it was the first color negative film intended for making paper prints: in 1939, Agfa had introduced a 35 mm Agfacolor negative film for use by the German motion picture industry, in which the negative was used only for making positive projection prints on 35 mm film. [2] There have been several varieties of Kodacolor negative film, including Kodacolor-X, Kodacolor VR and Kodacolor Gold.
The name "Kodacolor" was originally used for a very different lenticular color home movie system, introduced in 1928 and retired after Kodachrome film made it obsolete in 1935.
Kodacolor | |
---|---|
Speed | 25/15° |
Type | Color |
Process | proprietary, later known as C-22 |
Format | 120, 620, 116, 616, 127, 35 mm, 122 [3] |
Introduced | 1942 |
Discontinued | 1963 |
Kodacolor is a color negative film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak between 1942 [4] and 1963. It was the first color negative film that they marketed.
When introduced, Kodacolor was sold with the cost of processing the film included, but prints were ordered separately. Both the film and processing procedures were revised through the years. The speed was increased to 32/16° in the 1950s.
After Kodak lost its anti-trust case in 1954, starting in 1955 processing was no longer included in the price of Kodacolor. [5] Kodak made the processing information (by then C-22 process) and chemicals available to other film processing labs.
While Kodacolor film was normally daylight balanced, for a while starting in 1956 [6] it was balanced in-between daylight and tungsten, to allow use indoors, or with clear flash bulbs. This film used the prefix CU. This was not a great success, and the film returned to daylight balance a few years later.
Kodacolor was also available in Type A, balanced for 3400K photolamps. A suffix of A on the type number indicated Type A, such as C828A.
In 1958, Kodak made Kodacolor available in the 35 mm format. Prior to that, the only 35mm color film it offered was Kodachrome.
Kodacolor-X (CX) | |
---|---|
Speed | 64/19° (early) 80/20° (late) |
Type | Color |
Process | C-22 |
Format | 35 mm, 120, 620, 116, 616, 126, 127, 828 |
Introduced | 1963 |
Discontinued | 1974 |
Kodacolor-X is a color negative film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak between 1963 and 1974. It was introduced along with the Kodak Instamatic cameras which use 126 film.
The film was designed to be processed in the C-22 process, which is the predecessor to today's C-41 process.
Only a few specialty labs still process this film, due to the length of discontinuation. Surviving exposed (but unprocessed) Kodacolor-X and C-22 films can still yield color images, although this requires highly specialised development techniques.
Kodacolor II | |
---|---|
Speed | 80/20° (1972–75) 100/21° (1975–?) |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 110, 35 mm, 120, 620, 116, 616, 126, 127, 828 |
Introduced | 1972 |
Kodacolor II was the first of a new generation of Kodak color negative films using the C-41 process. It was designed as a major improvement to meet the needs of the small 13×17 mm negatives used in 110 film for the Kodak Pocket Instamatic cameras.
The film was initially released in 1972 in the 110 size only, so that non-Kodak processing labs would have time to set up lines using the C-41 process. The other sizes were released in 1973.
Kodacolor 400 (CG) | |
---|---|
Speed | 400/27° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 110, 35 mm, 120 |
Introduced | 1977 |
Kodacolor 400 was available by 1977. It offered a major speed increase over Kodacolor II.
Kodacolor HR | |
---|---|
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | Disc |
Introduced | 1982 |
Discontinued | 1983 |
Kodacolor HR was only available in the Disc format. It was Kodak's first color negative film to use their T-Grain technology. The T-Grain technology offers significant reduction in film grain, which is required for the very small 8×11 mm negatives used in the Kodak Disc cameras and film introduced in the same year.
It was also Kodak's first film to use an improved cyan color-coupler, that makes the cyan dye in the negative much more stable [7]
Kodacolor VR 1000 (CF) | |
---|---|
Speed | 1000/32° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm |
Introduced | 1983 |
Discontinued | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR 1000 was announced in 1982, and available in 1983. [8] This is also a T-Grain film, which makes possible such a high speed film with tolerable grain.
Kodacolor VR 100 (CP) | |
---|---|
Speed | 100/21° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120, 110 |
Introduced | 1982 |
Discontinued | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR 100 was introduced along with the 200 and 400 speeds in 1982. [9] [10] This transitioned the entire Kodacolor line of films to T-Grain technology.
The Kodacolor VR films were also Kodak's first to use developer-inhibitor-releaser, which improved edge effects for higher sharpness. [11]
Kodacolor VR 200 (CL) | |
---|---|
Speed | 200/24° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120, 620, 127, 126, Disc |
Introduced | 1982 |
Discontinued | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR 200 uses T-Grain technology. It was also available in the Disc film format (CVR).
Kodacolor VR 400 (CM) | |
---|---|
Speed | 400/27° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120 |
Introduced | 1982 |
Discontinued | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR 400 uses T-Grain technology.
Kodacolor VR-G 100 (CA) | |
---|---|
Speed | 100/21° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120 |
Introduced | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR-G 100 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 100.
Kodacolor VR-G 200 (CB) | |
---|---|
Speed | 200/24° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120, 127, 126, 110 |
Introduced | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR-G 200 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 200. It is currently sold as Kodak Gold 200.
Kodacolor VR-G 400 (CC) | |
---|---|
Speed | 400/27° |
Type | Color |
Process | C-41 |
Format | 35 mm, 120 |
Introduced | 1986 |
Kodacolor VR-G 400 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 400.
Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film. The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph. In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to X-rays and high-energy particles. Most are at least slightly sensitive to invisible ultraviolet (UV) light. Some special-purpose films are sensitive into the infrared (IR) region of the spectrum.
Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format.
The following list comprises significant milestones in the development of photography technology.
135 film, more popularly referred to as 35 mm film or 35 mm, is a format of photographic film with a film gauge of 35 mm (1.4 in) loaded into a standardized type of magazine for use in 135 film cameras.
126 film is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1963, and is associated mainly with low-end point-and-shoot cameras, particularly Kodak's own Instamatic series of cameras.
110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1972. 110 is essentially a miniaturized version of Kodak's earlier 126 film format. Each frame is 13 mm × 17 mm, with one registration hole. Cartridges with 12, 20, or 24 frames are available on-line. Production variations sometimes have allowed for an additional image.
Disc film is a discontinued still-photography film format that was aimed at the consumer market. It was introduced by Kodak in 1982.
Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years, Kodachrome was widely used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media.
The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load 126 and 110 cameras made by Kodak beginning in 1963. The Instamatic was immensely successful, introducing a generation to low-cost photography and spawning numerous imitators.
In photography, reversal film or slide film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Instead of negatives and prints, reversal film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives. Reversal film is produced in various sizes, from 35 mm to roll film to 8×10 inch sheet film.
Kodak Ektar is a professional color negative film introduced in 2008, designed for nature, outdoors, fashion, and product photography. The film offers ultra-fine grains, ultra-vivid colors, and high saturation, and is available in ISO 100 only.
Color motion picture film refers both to unexposed color photographic film in a format suitable for use in a motion picture camera, and to finished motion picture film, ready for use in a projector, which bears images in color.
Analog photography, also known as film photography, is a term usually applied to photography that uses chemical processes to capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography, which uses electronic sensors to record images to digital media. Analog electronic photography was sometimes used in the late 20th century but soon died out.
In motion pictures, Kodak's Kodacolor brand was originally associated with an early lenticular color motion picture process, first introduced in 1928 for 16mm film. The process was based on the Keller-Dorian system of color photography.
Fujicolor Superia is a Fujifilm brand of daylight balanced colour negative film introduced ca.1998 primarily aimed at the consumer market, but was also sold in a professional 'press' variant. A key feature at launch was the '4th' cyan colour layer designed to provide improved colour reproduction under fluorescent lighting. Its Kodak equivalent is the Kodacolor Gold/Ultramax line.
Tri-X is a black and white photographic film produced by the Eastman Kodak Company. Since 2013, it is distributed by Kodak Alaris which controls the Kodak Professional product line under which it is grouped. The combination of hand-held cameras and high-speed Tri-X film was transformative for photojournalism and for cinema.
In bipack color photography for motion pictures, two strips of black-and-white 35 mm film, running through the camera emulsion to emulsion, are used to record two regions of the color spectrum, for the purpose of ultimately printing the images, in complementary colors, superimposed on one strip of film. The result is a multicolored projection print that reproduces a useful but limited range of color by the subtractive color method. Bipack processes became commercially practical in the early 1910s when Kodak introduced duplitized film print stock, which facilitated making two-color prints.
Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the film. Film is typically segmented in frames, that give rise to separate photographs.