Page 21 - RD_March_2013.pdf

KODACOLOR
This is actually black and white film, which produces a color image when projected through a
three band color filter placed in front of the lens. The film base is embossed with vertical cylindrical
lenses across the width of the frame. The process had been know for quite some time, but it was
2
in 1928, that Kodak utilised it under their Kodacolor brand.
Left: Kodacolor
lenticular color
film & right,
enlarged
section showing
the vertical
embossed
'lenses' Below:
Close up of the
three color filter

The same three band color filter is placed in front of the camera lens in the shooting mode. The
lens breaks the image into narrow vertical strips representing the red, blue and green content of
the image. The result is recorded onto the emulsion which is on the opposite side of the film to
the lenticular lenses. The same three color filter is used for projection and the result is color movies.
It all sound good, but there were limitations. The camera lens had to be set to a fixed focal length
and full aperture, on bright bays, a neutral density filter (or filters) had to be use to control the
exposure. The projector had to be at the specified distance from the screen. Only a couple of
Kodak model cameras and projectors were suitable for this process.
Kodacolor was only ever used for home
movies, no commercial releases were
produced. Kodacolor films do occasionally
turn up in collections of home movies, and
are often mistaken for regular black and
white films. Another point with Kodacolor
films is that many were under exposed and
are therefore very dark and do not show the
effectiveness of the process very well. Many
users failed to understand the need to only
shoot in bright sunlight, as the end result of
the low sensitivity film and the color filter
made use in full sunlight mandatory. As
there is no actual color involved, color
Above: The Kodacolor adaptor kit. comprising rendition remains the same as it was 80 odd
three band color filter, neutral density filters years ago.
and projection lens