In
motion pictures
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
Kodak's Kodacolor brand was originally associated with an early
lenticular (
additive color
Additive color or additive mixing is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colo ...
)
color motion picture process, first introduced in 1928 for
16mm film
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...
.
[ Chronology of MP Films - 1889 to 1939](_blank)
kodak.com. Article retrieved 2006-12-02. The process was based on the
Keller-Dorian system of color photography.
Technical process
The process used a special
panchromatic
Panchromatic emulsion is a type of black-and-white photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light.
Description
A panchromatic emulsion renders a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, altho ...
black-and-white film stock, oriented with the
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
away from the lens.
[Garfinkel, Steve]
Forever 16: Kodak celebrates 80 years of 16 mm film
kodak.com. Article retrieved 2006-12-02. The film base was embossed along the length of the film with microscopic lenticular bands. These lenticles were precisely shaped to focus light directly onto the emulsion in parallel strips along the length of the film from three color strips in a filter placed over the lens. A record of the color content in black and white was thereby created and could be reconstituted by projecting the film through an identical filter. The three colored stripes (red, green and blue-violet) of the filter had to be precisely oriented parallel to the film length. When an exposure was made, the varying proportion of each color reflected from the subject passed through the filter and was recorded on the film beneath each of the embossed lenticular bands as areas of strips in groups of three, each strip varying in density according to the received color value. (
Dufaycolor
Dufaycolor is an early British additive colour photographic film process, introduced for motion picture use in 1932 and for still photography in 1935. It was derived from Louis Dufay's Dioptichrome plates, a glass-based product for colour still ...
used similar principles, but had the filter as part of the film itself).
Filming required the camera to be used at f/1.9 only, so that the striped filter worked correctly. The original Kodacolor film required an exposure of about a 1/30 second at f/1.9 in bright sunlight representing a film 'speed' (sensitivity) in modern terms of about 0.5 ISO. The physical movement of the film through the gate (frame-advance) requires additional time. The later Super Sensitive Kodacolor could be used "outdoors in any good photographic light, and even indoors under favourable conditions." Because an iris diaphragm might interfere with the projected area of the filter bands, when exposure control was required in very bright light, it had to be accomplished with neutral density filters, which were provided as part of the filter set.
To project the film a projector was required fitted with the Kodacolor Projection Filter, which is identical in effect to the filter fitted to the camera. The black and white lenticular image on the film is reconstituted into a natural color picture on the screen. As with most color processes involving a lenticular image, the pattern intrudes as visible lines on the projected image. Due to the fact that each color band in the filter is sharp-cutting, two-thirds of the light from the projection source is absorbed, so there is noticeable light loss.
While Kodacolor was a popular color home movie format, it had several drawbacks. It was not possible to make duplicates, special film was necessary to shoot with, and while the additive image was colorful and clear, the greater light absorption from the use of additive filters required brighter light sources to project, and was not practical to project over very long distances.
Lenticular Kodacolor was phased out after the introduction of 16 mm
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 in 1935.
See also
*
List of color film systems This is a list of color film processes known to have been created for photographing and exhibiting motion pictures in color since the first attempts were made in the late 1890s. It is limited to "natural color" processes, meaning processes in which ...
*
Color motion picture film
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.
The first color ...
*
Dufaycolor
Dufaycolor is an early British additive colour photographic film process, introduced for motion picture use in 1932 and for still photography in 1935. It was derived from Louis Dufay's Dioptichrome plates, a glass-based product for colour still ...
References
External links
Kodacolor on Timeline of Historical Film Colors.*
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8tXM5ZA48 George Eastman demonstrates Kodacolor home movies for Thomas Edison and other guests. George Eastman House
Film shot in Kodacolor: The Rosenberg Library Collection - Pageant of Pulchritude and Oleanders (1931).Texas Archive of the Moving Image
{{Eastman Kodak
Film and video technology
Kodak photographic films