HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In still photography,
Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
'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". More accurately, it was the first color negative film intended for making paper prints: in 1939, Agfa had introduced a
35 mm 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
Agfacolor An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from café in Oslo, Norway. An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from Paris, France. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Hungary. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Zakopane in Poland. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 fr ...
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. 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 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 ...
film made it obsolete in 1935.


Varieties of Kodacolor-branded print film


Kodacolor

Kodacolor is a color negative film that was manufactured by
Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
between 1942 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. Kodak made the processing information (by then
C-22 process Introduced by Kodak in the 1956, C-22 is an obsolete process for developing color film, superseded by the C-41 process in 1972 for the launch of 110 film 110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Ko ...
) and chemicals available to other film processing labs. While Kodacolor film was normally daylight balanced, for a while starting in 1956 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 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
format. Prior to that, the only 35mm color film it offered was
Kodachrome 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 ...
.


Kodacolor-X

Kodacolor-X is a color negative film that was manufactured by
Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
between 1963 and 1974. It was introduced along with the Kodak
Instamatic : ''For the film formats associated with the ''Instamatic'' and ''Pocket Instamatic'' camera ranges, see 126 film and 110 film respectively.'' The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load 126 and 110 cameras made by Kodak beginning ...
cameras which use
126 film : ''For the unrelated roll-film format produced from 1906 to 1949, see 126 film (roll format).'' 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 ...
. The film was designed to be processed in the
C-22 process Introduced by Kodak in the 1956, C-22 is an obsolete process for developing color film, superseded by the C-41 process in 1972 for the launch of 110 film 110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Ko ...
, which is the predecessor to today's
C-41 process C-41 is a chromogenic color print film developing process introduced by Kodak in 1972, superseding the C-22 process. C-41, also known as CN-16 by Fuji, CNK-4 by Konica, and AP-70 by AGFA, is the most popular film process in use, with most photofin ...
. 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

Kodacolor II was the first of a new generation of Kodak color negative films using the
C-41 process C-41 is a chromogenic color print film developing process introduced by Kodak in 1972, superseding the C-22 process. C-41, also known as CN-16 by Fuji, CNK-4 by Konica, and AP-70 by AGFA, is the most popular film process in use, with most photofin ...
. It was designed as a major improvement to meet the needs of the small 13×17 mm negatives used in
110 film 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 , with one registration hole. Cartridges with 12, ...
for the Kodak Pocket
Instamatic : ''For the film formats associated with the ''Instamatic'' and ''Pocket Instamatic'' camera ranges, see 126 film and 110 film respectively.'' The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load 126 and 110 cameras made by Kodak beginning ...
cameras. The film was initially released in 1972 in the
110 110 may refer to: *110 (number), natural number *AD 110, a year *110 BC, a year *110 film, a cartridge-based film format used in still photography *110 (MBTA bus), Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus route *110 (song), 2019 song by Capi ...
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

Kodacolor 400 was available by 1977. It offered a major speed increase over Kodacolor II.


Kodacolor HR

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


Kodacolor VR 1000

Kodacolor VR 1000 was announced in 1982, and available in 1983. This is also a T-Grain film, which makes possible such a high speed film with tolerable grain.


Kodacolor VR 100

Kodacolor VR 100 was introduced along with the 200 and 400 speeds in 1982. 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.New York Times: New Color Films: Faster, Brighter, Sharper, July 7, 1983.


Kodacolor VR 200

Kodacolor VR 200 uses T-Grain technology. It was also available in the
Disc film Disc film is a discontinued still-photography film format that was aimed at the consumer market. It was introduced by Kodak in 1982. Technical details The film is in the form of a flat disc, and is fully housed within a plastic cartridge. Each d ...
format (CVR).


Kodacolor VR 400

Kodacolor VR 400 uses T-Grain technology.


Kodacolor VR-G 100

Kodacolor VR-G 100 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 100.


Kodacolor VR-G 200

Kodacolor VR-G 200 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 200. It is currently sold as Kodak Gold 200.


Kodacolor VR-G 400

Kodacolor VR-G 400 was later sold as Kodacolor Gold 400.


See also

*
List of photographic films This is a list of currently available photographic films in a still camera film format A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film for still images or film stock ...
*
List of discontinued photographic films All the still camera films on this page have either been discontinued, have been updated or the company making the film no longer exists. Often films will be updated and older versions discontinued without any change in the name. Films are listed ...


References


External links


History of early Kodacolor
{{Eastman Kodak Kodak photographic films