Wikipedia
Kodacolor is a brand-name owned and used by Kodak. In general, it has been used for three technologically distinct purposes:
- Kodacolor Technology is the collective branding used for several proprietary inkjet printer technologies.
- Kodacolor (still photography) includes several "true" color negative (print) films produced by Kodak since 1942.
- Kodacolor (filmmaking) was an early movie system that used filters to record additive color on monochromatic lenticular film.
Category:Kodak
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". 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. 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.
In motion pictures, Kodak's Kodacolor brand was associated with an early lenticular ( additive color) color motion picture process, first introduced in 1928 for 16mm film. The process was based on the Keller-Dorian system of lenticular color photography.
The process used a special panchromatic black-and-white film stock used with the emulsion away from the lens. The film base in front of the emulsion was embossed with a mass of tiny lenses, the purpose of which was to form small images of a striped filter which was attached to the camera lens. The filter had three colored stripes (red, green and blue-violet); 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 lenses as areas of strips in groups of three, each strip varying in density according to the received color value ( Dufaycolor 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."
To project the film a projector was required fitted with the Kodacolor Projection Filter, which is similar in appearance the filter fitted to the camera. The lenticular image on the film is transformed into a natural color picture on the screen. As with most color processes involving a lenticular image the pattern intrudes, and there is noticeable light loss.
While Kodacolor was a popular color home movie format, it had several drawbacks. It could not yield multiple copies easily, special film was necessary to shoot with, and the additive image was colorful and clear, but inherently darker than subtractive processes.
Lenticular Kodacolor was phased out after the introduction of 16 mm Kodachrome film in 1935.